Before Dragons’ Den within the UK turned a worldwide hit and America’s Shark Tank turned startup pitches into mainstream leisure, there was Man no Tora (Tiger of Money or Money Tigers). Launched in Japan in 2001 by Nippon TV and Sony Pictures Television, this groundbreaking present launched the format of entrepreneurs pitching their enterprise concepts to a panel of angel traders.
Little did anybody know that Money Tigers would spark a worldwide development, influencing how high-growth entrepreneurship is perceived and celebrated around the globe. In February 2024, the unique backers introduced that the fiftieth model of the franchise would launch in Bangladesh. And the twenty second season of Dragons’ Den premiers on the BBC on January 2.
Money Tigers wasn’t nearly creating riveting tv. Its emergence was rooted in a broader societal and governmental push to remodel Japan’s financial tradition. Against the backdrop of a historically risk-averse society and an financial system dominated by giant firms, Money Tigers aimed to normalise and even glamorise entrepreneurship.
It was accompanied by a wider set of presidency initiatives to foster innovation, enhance entrepreneurial exercise, and place Japan as a worldwide chief in know-how and startups. The present was a part of the rise of what my colleague Ramon Pacheco Pardo and I name “startup capitalism”, an age wherein startups have performed a central position within the competitiveness of market economies.
In the late Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s, Japan was at an financial crossroads. The burst of the asset bubble within the early Nineteen Nineties had led to extended financial stagnation often known as the “Lost Decade”.
Policymakers recognised the necessity to diversify the financial system, create jobs, and promote innovation. Startups, with their potential for agility and creativity, in addition to their means to create jobs for gifted younger individuals, turned a focus of this shift. Startups additionally provided a capability to infuse revolutionary concepts and expertise into Japanese firms as they competed in international markets.
Policy initiatives together with tax incentives for startup investments, a change to rules that allowed “pension fund portability”, and an introduction of American-style worker stock choices, have been a part of an effort to allow entrepreneurship.
But a tradition that discouraged risk-taking and a regulatory surroundings that punished job motion couldn’t be modified in a single day. SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son was turning into synonymous with this new breed of brash, dangerous enterprise. And, whereas a hero to some, Masa (as he’s now globally identified) was controversial. He was a challenger to Japan’s financial tradition and the best way enterprise was performed.
So, how may public coverage encourage a brand new era of risk-takers prepared to embrace the uncertainties of beginning a enterprise? And how may beginning a enterprise be one thing {that a} prime Japanese graduate may inform their dad and mom about with out being ostracised?
Enter Money Tigers. A daring experiment, the present aimed to carry entrepreneurship into dwelling rooms – and the conversations of household and buddies – throughout Japan.
Its format was easy however highly effective: aspiring entrepreneurs introduced their enterprise concepts to a panel of rich angel traders, or “tigers”, who had the facility to fund these concepts in trade for fairness. The drama of negotiation, the stress of rejection, and the triumph of securing an funding made for compelling viewing.
The genius of Money Tigers lay in its means to humanise the entrepreneurial journey. Viewers noticed abnormal individuals take daring steps to show their goals into actuality. The tigers, seated on the opposite aspect of a desk, represented a mixture of skepticism, curiosity and mentorship. Their probing questions and candid suggestions not solely added drama but in addition educated the viewers about what makes a enterprise viable.
For many Japanese viewers, Money Tigers was their first publicity to the idea of pitching for funding. Terms like “equity”, “valuation” and “return on investment” entered mainstream dialog. Building a enterprise with bold progress plans, maybe as soon as frowned upon as being too targeted on being profitable, was portrayed in a extra endearing manner.
By showcasing each the successes and failures of entrepreneurs, the present started to chip away on the stigma surrounding failure and across the bold founder. Entrepreneurs who walked away empty-handed have been usually praised for his or her braveness, a message that resonated particularly with youthful generations.
The present complemented coverage initiatives. Between 1997 and 2001, the Japanese authorities launched a litany of coverage initiatives, together with tax incentives for angel traders and the institution of the startup-friendly stock exchanges. Where these authorities insurance policies created the infrastructure for startups to thrive, Money Tigers tackled the stickier cultural setting.
While nonetheless modest relative to the scale of the Japanese financial system, revolutionary entrepreneurship has change into extra frequent in Japan. The nation now has a number of startups value over US$1 billion (unicorns) and a few of the world’s best-known enterprise capital companies have established outposts in Japan.
Money Tigers lasted only some seasons in Japan (it stopped working in 2003), however its affect was profound. The format was tailored within the UK as Dragons’ Den in 2005 and later within the US as Shark Tank in 2009. According to Nippon TV and Sony, as of February 2024, “almost US$1 billion (Pound 790,000) in investments has been agreed in Dens and Tanks across the globe since the format launched”.
The early 2000s was a interval of purposive authorities efforts to make sure that Japan’s technological improvements didn’t succumb to the “Galapagos Syndrome”. There was a way that Japan was creating state-of-the-art applied sciences, however international client markets weren’t essentially selecting up the improvements.
Ironically, in the identical interval that Japan was pushing to normalise entrepreneurship and fairness funding by way of an endearing TV programme for its Japanese viewers, it was inventing an export that might be an enormous hit overseas with out widespread consciousness that it was Japanese. Audiences within the UK and US assumed that Dragons’ Den and Shark Tank have been pure merchandise of their entrepreneur-rich ecosystems.
But somewhat than the Sharks and Dragons being a pure product of their markets, they have been an adaptation of a state-encouraged, purposeful effort to drive cultural change in Japan.