Chika Ezure developed the “Okaeri Shorts” and started her own business as a university student.
Relaxation wear with shorts functionality that overturns the conventional image of women’s underwear”Welcome Home Shorts”The creator of the product is Chika Ezure, a university student who started her own business. The Okaeri Shorts have been selling out every time they arrive, and have attracted a lot of attention in the media and on social media.
In fact, in 2024, Ezure-san will acquire the business from the company he founded through M&A, and will resume his student career while continuing to serve as CEO. This will enable him to embark on a new challenge.”Social M&A®︎”and limiting returns to shareholders, such as dividends on surplus funds, in order to pursue social impact.”Non-profit Corporation”is.
We spoke to her about her struggles with self-confidence, her struggles with the FemTech industry, and new forms of business.
Student entrepreneurship is booming, but no one has taught me how to end it
“I want to start a business for society!” More and more students are starting their own businesses with such a strong will. In fact, according to the results of a survey released by the Japan Finance Corporation,People in their 20s planning to start a business have a strong desire to contribute to society, with about 70% wanting to start a “social business”He replied, “Yes.”
A social business is a business that aims to solve social problems while generating its own business revenue. I myself am a student entrepreneur who aspired to solve gender issues and launched a social business in 2021 when I was a second-year university student. After running it for three years, I put an end to the business through M&A in March of this year.
It is said that continuing to run a company is difficult enough, but with the recent increase in bankruptcies among small and medium-sized enterprises, the situation is even more difficult for social businesses, which have a smaller operational scale.
However,”Students should just try starting a business because it’s free even if they fail!”We can also hear adults saying things like, “I want to start a business, but I don’t want to be a student.” The student entrepreneurship clubs and programs that support student entrepreneurship that are springing up one after another at universities have made the challenge of starting a business for students more casual.
I think it was the environment where I was given opportunities by so many adults and programs that gave me the choice to start a business while I was still a student. In those programs, senior entrepreneurs taught me what is necessary in various situations, such as when starting a company, when creating an organization, and when closing the books.
However, there is one thing that I was never told before starting my own business.”When the company ends”That’s what I mean.
They teach you how to start a business, but they rarely teach you how to finish it.I would like to talk about the option of “giving up on a business.”I think so.
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Although his business was on track, he was suddenly diagnosed with a medical condition that left him bedridden.
I started my own business in the field of femcare when I was 20 years old.
She sold “Okaeri” shorts, a type of loungewear for women that does not require wearing shorts. The product addressed the issue of women’s intimate areas, which had not been discussed much until now, and she launched the business with the desire to create a moment when women could be liberated both mentally and physically from gender bias.
I won the business contest called Tokyo Startup Gateway 2020.Tokyo’s startup support fund that does not require repaymentand,720,000 yen in crowdfunding supportUsing this capital, they began selling “Welcome Home” shorts on an e-commerce site.
Although the average age of the team was 20 years old, sales gradually increased.Steady progress with profits from the first yearAnd he started a business.
Although there were some difficulties, we were encouraged again and again by the feedback from people who used the “Okaeri” Shorts, and were able to continue the business.
In 2022, the business began to show signs of success and we were about to make the decision to expand in order to deliver our products to more people.
The doctor told me, “For a while, don’t move and just stay in bed.”
The lymph nodes in my neck and liver were swollen and there was no cure. I was dizzy from the fever, but I managed to complete my financial statements and my final university report. Even after the symptoms subsided, I felt like I was losing consciousness no matter how hard I tried, probably because my physical strength had decreased.
In this condition, it would be difficult for me to continue my business responsibly while graduating from university. So I made the difficult decision to temporarily suspend production and focus on recovering from my illness.
Complex advertising and pseudoscience…who is Femtech for?
As I took a break from the business I had been working on and focused on my own body, I spent my days in self-reflection, comparing my life’s mission of “eliminating the gender gap” with the “Okaeri” Shorts business.
Among them”Is the FemTech market really benefiting women?”A big question remained in my mind.
At the core of Femtech is its focus on the female body, which has not received much attention until now.Advertisements that incite complexesorPseudoscientific productsis also increasing.
Feminism gave words to this discomfort.the studyAnd so, I became drawn to the path of confronting problems academically.
Although I had decided that I wanted to study at graduate school, I had the responsibility of starting a business. On the other hand, it was difficult for me to balance my business and research with my body. Thus, I began to realistically consider the option of “closing the company.”
High hurdles await social businesses
It was in the summer of 2023, when I casually confessed these dilemmas that a friend suggested to me, “Why don’t you sell your business?”
Around the same time, we began receiving many inquiries from customers asking, “When are you going to restock the ‘Okaeri’ shorts?”
M&A emerged as a way to end a business that would resolve the contradiction between having people waiting for the product he created, but wanting to move on to a new stage himself.
However, when we actually started taking steps toward M&A, the hurdles proved to be higher than we had imagined.
“It’s almost worthless” or “Considering the cost of negotiating with them, it’s better to just settle.”
No matter which intermediary company I asked or which senior entrepreneurs I asked, the answer was the same.
“Let’s start a business and do something good for society!”However,What you see at the exit is the financial statementsJustSocial skills were hardly valued at allThe business that I created”There is no value in leaving this legacy to society,” he was told.It seemed like I was about to give up.
What is “Social M&A®” that solved the discomfort?
What filled the big gap between the entrance and the exit wasSocial M&A®︎Social M&A® is a form of M&A that not only maximizes the economic value of the M&A, but also emphasizes increasing the social and cultural value of the business through the M&A, and the social impact that founders who sell their businesses can achieve in the future.
This concept was proposed by Naohiro Nuda, CEO of M&A intermediary GOZEN, and is a registered trademark.
In taking on the challenge of M&A,The inconsistency of “evaluating and selling a business based solely on its economic value” when the business was intended to be both socially and economically viableI felt something was off about this, but the idea of Social M&A®︎ recognized the consistency between the entry point and the exit point.
And I,The first priority is to “preserve the products we create for society”We decided to aim for matching and negotiations from the perspective of Social M&A®.
Mr. Nuda mentioned above supported our deal,Six months of negotiationsFinally, the company that sells “Okaeri” shortsFrom Essay: Selling the Business OnlyThe M&A was completed. In March 2024, the “Okaeri” shorts that I had cherished were taken out of my hands (the transferee and transfer amount are not disclosed).
And in April 2024, I will enter graduate school,”What technologies and businesses are truly beneficial for women?”We are now embarking on a new challenge to answer this question.
Through Social M&A®, I was able to balance leaving something positive for society and pursuing a career that was true to me.
Becoming a “non-profit corporation” that aims to contribute to society by limiting shareholder profits
Furthermore, through Social M&A®︎,Using the funds remaining after the sale, I would like to take on a business with a more public-spirited approachThis motivated me to start Essay Co., Ltd.Non-profit CorporationIt was then reborn as a non-profit company called Pillow Co., Ltd.
The company name includes”I want to create a society where women can sleep comfortably.”This is the message we are putting into our design.
What is a non-profit corporation?Restrictions on “surplus dividends” and “distribution of residual assets” to shareholdersBy doing so,Increase the amount and efficiency of financial resources directed towards solving social issues, rather than returns to capitalists.It is a corporate form that pursues sustainable social impact.
According to our research, people who are considering starting a nonprofit joint-stock companyAbout 2%This is a challenging option with few precedents in Japan. Social M&A® has given me the opportunity to take a new step not only as an individual, but also as a corporation.
There is no risk in starting a business as a student. In other words, the possibilities are endless. Therefore, the option of taking starting a business as a stepping stone to the next step is naturally right in front of you. But even so, have you been caught up in the idea of what it means to be successful in starting a business?
Once you step into the entrepreneurial community, you are likely to be told that the royal road to “success” is to continue and grow your business, and you may be afraid to stray from that path.It becomes like this.
However, starting a business is only one way to solve social problems.Starting a business and then taking on the next challenge to realize your mission could be considered a successful form of entrepreneurship.
Now that more students and young people are starting businesses,How to end a company in a healthy wayI would like to talk about…
Source: BusinessInsider
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