Taking on Overseas Crowdfunding [Extra Edition]: 20 years of searching for great things for others. The story of realizing it's my turn to create.

I am writing articles on note about my journey taking on overseas crowdfunding and supporting overseas companies in the Japanese market via Fiverr.

Please let me write this [Extra Edition] as a way to organize where I currently stand.

I would be honored if you could stay with me until the end.

For 20 years, I was a "chooser."

For someone's shop, for someone's brand, I would search for, select, and connect great things. That was my job.

In the job of a buyer, my name does not appear in public.
Even if a product sells, it is not because "Maiko Tsutsumi chose it."
I was fine with that.

I thought that was what the job was.

After becoming a freelancer, I started supporting overseas clients.

The content of the work is similar. Searching for and connecting great Japanese things for someone else.

But something was different.

The time I received my first tip on Fiverr

The time a client said "thank you" to me

Simply put, I was glad I did it.

That feeling changed something.

I want to make people happy.

I want to deliver Japanese products to people overseas and make them happy.

Perhaps I have been thinking that way for 20 years.

But that was the first time it was clearly put into words.

If that's the case, I want to deliver it under my own brand.

Not waiting for someone else's order.

Not working within someone else's budget.

I want to bring what I believe is 'the one' to the world, under my own name.

My 20 years of experience were not a burden.

They were all fuel to get me here.

Deciding on a brand name

When I thought about a brand name, I initially considered a single kanji character.

But now, if you walk through the city, there are many brands with a single kanji character.

What I want to do is not sell 'Japaneseness'.

I want to give shape to my philosophy.

Japan has materials and culture that the world does not yet know.

Things that are so common to Japanese eyes that we don't realize their value.

I'm not just exporting good Japanese materials as they are.

I want to rediscover them, recreate them as products,

and deliver them in a form that gently fits into lives somewhere in the world.

REFOUND.

RE + FOUND. To find again.

"Ordinary to Japanese eyes. Unseen value to the rest of the world."

This has become the meaning of my brand.

It feels very right to me.

And as I move forward to create products with REFOUND,

to ensure I don't end up making compromised products,

I have included this as a reminder to myself.

Don't just sell products. Deliver the context along with them.

I have embedded this concept into the brand name.

The reason I am attempting to take on Kickstarter is because of this brand.

Why is a freelancer with zero capital trying to do overseas crowdfunding?

It is probably because,I can already clearly see the faces of the people I want to make happy.

The 20 years I spent choosing things for others have become the strength to create for myself.