Daisuke Sato, manager of the Product Development Department, joined aiESG after working for a fast-growing IT venture company where he gained experience after obtaining his master's degree. Currently, he is mainly promoting the development of new web products to accelerate the company's growth and provide new value to the ESG market. We asked Daisuke Sato of aiESG, who is at the forefront as the head of product development for an AI startup, to share his thoughts on his career and business.

Daisuke Sato Profile:After receiving a master's degree in research on business-to-business transaction networks from Kyoto University Graduate School, he worked as an engineer in charge of product development at Medley Inc. In 2024, he joined aiESG as a manager of the product development department. He is responsible for new products.

aiESG is an AI startup established in 2022 by a group of like-minded individuals from Kyoto University, based on Kyushu University's Managi Institute, which is at the forefront of ESG research in Japan, with the aim of implementing ESG in society by utilizing cutting-edge AI technology and a solid research track record. The company's grand vision is to "create a society where happiness is linked and there is no distraction. Our goal is to change the world by using AI technology to implement ESG. 

As an undergraduate, I was passionate about venture business.

As an undergraduate, while studying economics at Osaka University, I spent much of my time at a real estate venture firm launching new businesses.The company's business model was to purchase properties that had lost most of their real estate value, such as old private homes, and to design and construct full renovations, and then sell them. I was in charge of building the business from the ground up, selling these properties to owners as private accommodations, which were still new at the time, and operating them on behalf of the owners. Homestay business is a cross between "real estate" and "tourism. There was no end to what I had to do, from selecting properties to purchase, to managing the operations of the many properties, to communicating with customers (many of whom were from overseas). We took something of low value, added value to it, and offered it to the world,For a college student from the countryside, the idea of being able to create a new business was fun. I couldn't believe that I could create and offer something to the world, when all I had been given in school all my life. Through this experience, I also discovered anew how interesting economics can be. I was able to experience firsthand the economy, which I had not been familiar with, and my intellectual curiosity was stimulated by the macro dynamism of the "economy," which is created by a group of micro entities such as companies.

From this experience, I got hooked on the fun of business and experienced setting up various businesses.I questioned the fact that financial capital had a great influence in the economy just as a student, and I tried my hand at consulting for social good (now called sustainability) businesses with the desire to do business that fosters more fundamental capital such as natural capital and cultural capital. The business people in Osaka were not that naive, and I hardly made any sales, but I still feel that the questions and ideals about the social system that I kept thinking about at that time are still at my core.

Entered Kyoto University Shishukan to explore corporate activities from a macro perspective

With such business experience, I entered the graduate school of Kyoto University (Shishukan) because I wanted to leave the perspective of practical business and enter an environment where I could think about the structure of society from a broader perspective. Graduate SchoolWhile in school, I conducted research on cultural capital, which had been my focus up to that point. Specifically, I analyzed the business-to-business trade network in Kyoto based on the hypothesis that the decline of Kyoto's traditional crafts, a representative cultural capital, is due to the fact that the network is alienated from other industries. The hypothesis is that the dynamism of the industry is a "closed network" that does not spill over to other industries. Although I liked the idea of conducting research in which hypotheses are formulated and verified, I also realized the difficulty of capturing economic activities amidst a vast amount of information (as an aside, the traditional craft industry was not marginalized; in fact, it was at the center of the research).I met Mr. Seki, CEO of aiESG, as a senior student in the graduate school at that time. We would often go out at night to Ponto-cho (Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto City) as members of the laboratory and spend the whole night talking about everything from serious research topics to trivial topics that were of no use to us at all. In the open atmosphere of Kyoto, we talked freely and openly, frankly and with a smile, regardless of seniority or juniority, and I think the atmosphere of those days has led to the culture of aiESG today.

Web product development for a medical healthcare venture

I was very undecided about the path to take after completing my degree, but I joined Medley, an IT venture in the medical healthcare field, as a software engineer. The deciding factor was that when I spoke with Mr. Hirayama, the CTO at the time, I felt that this company had "mature ideas about social issues" and "realistic strategies to achieve them. There was an excitement in my heart that I had not felt when talking with other companies. After joining the company, I was mainly involved in the development of the products "Honne for Care" and "Job Medley Academy. MEDRAY's development organization is a culture where engineers have a business perspective and are involved in the full cycle from planning to implementation. Planning new features for the service, project design/management, and coding. After release, the PDCA cycle is repeated to measure effectiveness and make improvements. I took responsibility for this series of work. I was able to experience a wide variety of work because MED-RAY is growing rapidly. For example, when MEDPATH acquired MEDPATH, it was necessary to integrate the "Goica's Care" service operated by MEDPATH into "Care no Honne". We had to organize the assets and workflow of each business, come up with an ideal model after the integration, and implement it as a concrete system while making sure that the entire business unit was on the same page. As a core member of the team, I was fully responsible for this task. I think I was able to gain a rare experience of integrating two services that already have a certain amount of sales into one without slowing down the speed of business growth.

Participation in aiESG and launch of new products

I had heard from Mr. Seki about starting up a company while I was still a student at Medley. After several years at Medley, I was looking for a completely new challenge, and the future of aiESG as described by Mr. Seki, the CEO of aiESG and a senior graduate student, was very appealing to me. Even now, I cannot forget Mr. Seki's talk about the limitations of the sustainability analysis that is currently mainstream. He said, "Although we are all praised for our environmental friendliness, there are studies that show that products with a reputation for being good for the environment actually have low human rights scores, and you cannot judge a product to be good for society by looking at only one aspect of things. I was deeply convinced by his sharp perspective and fascinated by the opportunity to create a new business with aiESG. I was also confident that I could create a better business now, based on my experience at Medley. With that in mind, I joined aiESG in April 2024 as Manager of the Product Development Department after a six-month outsourcing assignment starting in September 2023.

My mission after joining the company is to launch a new product in aiESG. Specifically, my mission was to make the supply chain ESG analysis that we had been providing through consulting available for sale as software that can be run and analyzed by companies on their own. We knew there was a market need for supply chain analysis, as we already had a lot of experience in this area through our consulting services. But of course, consulting and product design are completely different services, so we needed to start with the conceptual design. We started by creating an inception deck, created user story mapping, and implemented a prototype. Based on this, we interviewed customers and extracted their issues. What we found was that "many companies were taking ad hoc ESG responses to evaluations and regulations. We felt that there was a need for a system that could manage the ESG impact of corporate activities on an ongoing basis by managing ESG scores for the entire supply chain and comparing them to objective indicators to understand the company's strengths and weaknesses. The result is aiESG Flow, aiESG's first web product. The AI calculates ESG scores upstream in the supply chain, which until now has been difficult to visualize, and provides comprehensive supply chain analysis including social risks and nature positive indicators.

Currently, I am focusing on PMF (Product Market Fit) of "aiESG Flow" and the planning and development of new products to support regulatory compliance in the ESG area that companies will certainly need to deal with in the future. I am involved in the entire process from market research to planning and development, and I would like to develop products that "sell" while focusing on dialogue with the market.

aiESG Product Development seeks: product managers who drive the business forward and product engineers who master the technology.

Product Development TeamDue to the rapid expansion of our business, we are looking for new colleagues who can work with us to create products that will create the future of aiESG. We especially welcome specialists who can perform the following tasks

Product Manager:

• Develop and promote product vision and roadmap
• Planning/specification, UI mock-up, system requirement definition
• Planning and execution of service growth measures

Product Engineer:

• Decision-making and technology selection for technology used in products
• Overall product architecture design
• Disseminating information to improve the team's technical skills

Both positions are essential in accelerating our business. In an environment where we are required to create new business, we would be happy to have someone who has the ability to think creatively and take action to make it a reality.

We are an environment that encourages each employee to take on challenges and values bottom-up business growth. We invite you to put your skills and passion to work for us.

Interviews and employment opportunities are also available on Wantedly.
https://www.wantedly.com/companies/company_9232529/post_articles/965258