UPWARD's Kaneki登壇 as a SaaS company CEO in the Mid-Stage at an event hosted by Mizuho Securities and Azusa Audit Corporation.

~ Strengthening organizational capabilities through the penetration of vision, mission, and values ~

UPWARD, Inc. (Location: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Takanori Kaneki, URL: https://upward.jp), whose vision is to "Innovate the last one mile of the field," will be登壇at "Innovation Field 2021," a conference on open innovation through industry-government-academia collaboration sponsored by Mizuho Securities and Azusa Audit Corporation on March 11, 2021. As a mid-stage SaaS company aiming for an IPO, we will hold a panel discussion on the challenges and efforts we have made to reach our current business scale.

Today, the field sales area called "sales engagement" is attracting attention from Silicon Valley and other areas. We will share the content of Kaneki's talk on UPWARD's trajectory and efforts in pioneering this market, as well as our future vision.

- Challenges and efforts UPWARD has faced to reach a certain business scale

UPWARD provides solutions for field sales that utilize location information to manage and record customer contact data both offline and online. In 2011, we released "UPWARD," a SaaS that seamlessly integrates CRM (Salesforce) and map services, and in 2016, Kaneki became President and CEO. In the same year, we raised a total of 200 million yen from two venture capital firms.

Currently, "UPWARD" is used by approximately 300 companies, mainly large enterprises, and Kaneki spoke about the challenges and efforts to reach the current business scale at Innovation Field as follows:

Because we were creating a versatile SaaS that didn't ask about industry type, it took time to find a product solution fit for the market. In the beginning, even if customers purchased it saying, "This is a good function," they would cancel after the second year, and there were many failures. However, we have refined the product by receiving feedback from customers to that extent. Recently, due to the trend of restricting face-to-face sales due to the COVID-19 pandemic, marketing around that area was also very difficult, but we are releasing telephone functions (*), etc., and focusing on collecting customer feedback widely to upgrade the product.

(*) New function "Telephone Activity Recording" added to UPWARD AGENT
https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000022.000015260.html

For a while, we had a difficult period, and it was difficult to secure human resources who could contribute to short-term growth. What was necessary at such a "shaky" timing was to create a "group." We gathered people with good interpersonal relationships as colleagues and challenged ourselves to believe in the invisible, with excellent members. And when we reached a certain level, we need to shift from a "group" to a "team" in order to aim for a rapid increase in ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue). We are making it possible for people who have one value for one goal to take on challenges. Now, we need excellence to further refine what is gradually taking shape. Over the past year or two, we have been increasing the number of very strong colleagues. I think my mission at this stage is to create an environment where those people can work comfortably.

“As we continue to increase our members and expand our business, we feel that the permeation of these visions, missions, and values is of utmost importance. In order to capitalize on the market during the COVID-19 pandemic and achieve a more aggressive growth trajectory, we aim to transform from a 'group' to a 'team,' further maximizing performance and achieving business growth through product fit.”

What is Innovation Field 2021?

Innovation Field 2021 is a conference organized by Mizuho Securities and Azusa Audit Corporation, focusing on open innovation through industry-government-academia collaboration. The 5th Innovation Field 2021 will be held online for two days, March 11 (Thursday) and 12 (Friday), 2021.

https://innovation-field.jp/