Masato Takahashi

S

Angel Investor at Independent | ex-Coupang

Independent
Tokyo, Japan · JST (UTC+9)
9+ years experience
KAIST
English, Japanese
Investing
Messaging unavailable

Overview

24 years around startups; now investing in AI applications. Previously an operator for 8 years before investing. Before that: Coupang and PropertyGuru. Most at home with venture capital and applied ML. Chess on lunch breaks.

Good reasons to reach out
  • Founders building in AI applications
  • Thoughtful intros to people in my field
  • Working sessions on product
  • Questions about AI applications
Please don't message about
  • Unpaid work or spec projects
  • Fund-of-funds solicitations

Replies on weekends

Skills
venture capitalproductapplied ML
InvestingLooking to invest
closes in 3 months

Writing $25k cheques into Series An AI applications in India

Cheque size
$25k
Stages
Seed
Sectors
AI applications
Geographies
MENA
Lead or follow
Any
Decision time
One meeting and a partner call
How I help
Intros to operators in our network

Usually the first cheque in. Former operator - I help with hiring and GTM.

Tokyo, Japanventure capitalapplied mlproduct
Open

Experience

  1. Angel Investor
    Jul 2025 - Present
    Independent · 1 yr 3 mo · Full-time · Tokyo, Japan
    • Backed 44 founders at pre-seed and seed.
    • Previously an operator for 9 years before investing.
    • Led or co-led 13 investments, 2 of them now at Series B or later.
  2. Principal Product Manager
    Dec 2023 - Jul 2025
    Coupang · 1 yr 7 mo · Full-time · Tokyo, Japan
    • Sit on 7 boards.
    • Previously an operator for 5 years before investing.
  3. Senior Product Manager
    Sep 2022 - Dec 2023
    PropertyGuru · 1 yr 3 mo · Full-time · Tokyo, Japan
    • Ran 116 customer interviews before writing the first spec.
    • Took growth activation from 19% to 52% in three quarters.
  4. Senior Product Manager
    Sep 2019 - May 2022
    Meta · 2 yr 8 mo · Full-time · Tokyo, Japan
    • Grew creator revenue from $5 million to $37 million ARR.
    • Took creator activation from 22% to 53% in three quarters.
  5. Principal Product Manager
    May 2017 - Sep 2019
    REA Group · 2 yr 4 mo · Full-time · Tokyo, Japan
    • Led or co-led 38 investments, 5 of them now at Series B or later.
    • Sit on 7 boards.

References

No references yet.

Education

  1. KAIST
    BS, Computer Science
    1997 - 2001

Details

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