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Bilal Kharouni could have been a professional kickboxer or a screen writer but instead he lives in Tokyo and works as co-founder of wellbeing startup ekei labs. Bilal tells us how he ended up founding a startup, what he has found out along the way, and about life in Japan in general.
I am thrilled to share my background and experiences with you. I'm Bilal, born and raised in Paris. I initially pursued a career in martial arts, training and fighting in Thailand for a year. However, after an eye injury, I shifted my focus and pursued a degree in business administration in France. This opportunity allowed me to gain valuable experience in a hyper-growth startup in the cloud industry. Witnessing firsthand the potential for a startup to achieve incredible growth with the right team and execution, I was inspired to continue pursuing my entrepreneurial goals. With this experience in mind, I then decided to move to Tokyo to continue my journey.
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Curiosity! From a young age, I have been drawn to Japan and its rich culture, thanks partly to my father's love of martial arts. I was captivated by this country so different from what we know in France. When I had the opportunity to visit Japan while living in Thailand, I jumped at the chance and came away with even more questions and a desire to learn more.
Despite arriving in Japan without knowing anyone, I secured a position as an assistant to a marketing consultant where I could work on very diverse projects in the food & beverage and fashion industries. It taught me a great deal about doing business in Japan and fueled my passion for entrepreneurship.
I was then living in London and travelling regularly to Tokyo. One of my close friends, who became my cofounder, was studying at Keio University. At his university, he learned about a molecule that could potentially reverse ageing, NMN. Even though NMN was still relatively unknown then, my cofounder had the idea of commercialising an NMN supplement in Japan at a much lower price than what was available on the market. Initially, I was sceptical, but after conducting my own research, I became fascinated by the potential of ageing science and its potential to improve the lives of people around the world.
It was the perfect career for me. When I was younger, I always hesitated between a career in the athletic field, creative field, and business ventures. I, unfortunately, realised that I wasn't a renaissance man and had to make a choice. Starting a longevity startup ticked all the boxes of what I wanted to do in life. Ageing is linked so intimately with the body and human performance, it profoundly fascinates me. Creatively, the direct-to-consumer longevity industry is still a blank page. We have the opportunity to define an industry for the next decades by creating everything from scratch. Business-wise, the longevity industry is one of the biggest opportunities of our lifetime.
So naturally, a few months after this discussion with my cofounder, I visited laboratories and factories to find out how to make this supplement happen!After a year or so, we felt the limitation of being only a supplement company and pivoted. We successfully prototyped a few longevity supplements in Japan and still have these channels open.
We empower our users to build their longevity strategy. We offer at-home biological age diagnostic kits and tailored longevity protocols through an app. At a later stage, we will add subscriptions to longevity supplements.
We correlate the lifestyle of our users with their biological age results to propose tailored lifestyle protocols for better ageing. Because the ageing clock we use is very reactive to lifestyle changes, such as a new diet or fitness routine, it's an excellent tool for measuring the impact of those lifestyle interventions on their ageing. According to the Academy of Medicine, 80% of the factors for better ageing are non-medical. They also have the advantage of being well-researched and, contrary to some promising drugs and therapies, don't need decades of R&D and back-and-forth for FDA approval. One of the limitations I mentioned about being only a supplement company was not being able to measure if it works. Unfortunately, you don't look younger in the mirror after taking a supplement. Now, our users can have feedback from their bodies, which makes a huge difference. They can find out wich lifestyle protocol work for them and which don't.
Also, if you give a supplement to a user who doesn't understand the mechanism behind it, they can't fully adopt it and will abandon it sooner or later. Our app includes a big part of gamified pedagogy so that the users can have all the keys to making their own decisions regarding their protocols or supplements. It's crucial as the ageing science field is still relatively new, and a lot of new data keeps emerging every year. We want to keep proposing the latest achievements to our users and ensure they can navigate fully conscious.
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I have heard many Japanese administrative horror stories before incorporating my company, but my experience has been smooth. There are more regulations than in other countries, but the path is clear, and the public officials are accommodating. I encourage future founders to keep in mind that there is probably more paperwork than expected but not to be discouraged by it.
I’m really happy about my whole experience in Japan so far.
We closed our fundraising a few months ago with a Japanese venture capital (VC). We're super happy with them.
They're very supportive and have a deep understanding of what we do.
Many VCs are very interested in longevity. We had a lot of traction during our fundraising, and finding partners we trusted was relatively fast.
The process took exactly three months to the day, between the moment I landed in Tokyo and we signed the agreement.
Try to attend every occasion to meet people. You never know where you will find your investor or who will introduce you to key partners.
For example, I connected with my investor after introducing myself on the French Tech Slack channel. So I guess my tip is also always to respect the Slack etiquette and to introduce yourself when joining a new server (laugh)
Learning Japanese helps a lot!
Yes, I am. I've spent a lot of time studying kanji, so I can read many of them now. Learning kanji has been a big help to me. I cannot talk that well, but I'm working on it. Reading all the documents at the Legal Bureau of Affairs or with the National Insurance has saved me a lot of time.
For future founders, absolutely. It's a polarising subject. Some say you don't need to speak Japanese, but I believe it opens many doors. It's also a great way to better understand the local culture and mentalities. It's essential to do business in Japan.
Well, I think it's a golden era for foreign entrepreneurs in the country now. Through the Shibuya Startup Support program, Shibuya City has helped ekei labs in many ways. VC, universities and corporations in Japan are inclined to work with foreign startups. There's a lot of opportunity and interest in innovation from overseas.
More particularly in the longevity industry, there's a lot of talent and terrific labs here.
I think it is really important to communicate with communities.
I think there's a lot of help and support that you can get from institutions or programs like Shibuya Startup Support. But there are a lot of other, different communities and events where you can learn about a lot of things within Japan.
There are a lot of possibilities, and you can gain a lot when you communicate with local communities.
My staple food is curry (カレー). I love discovering new curry places and can never have enough of them.
Dou-on-igi-go (同音異義語, homonym). They are tricky and give me a lot of headaches when listening to Japanese conversations. But at least it's a cool complicated word to know.
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