How you guys gained 2 million users? I think speed matters. So we launched the YouTube, in case of YouTube Summary, we launched YouTube Summary right after Chachibiri came out. So we launched the first one a week later or within a few days. Newsletter writers or influencers started featuring our product. Oh, because influencers are watching each other. So meaning, if a famous person feature someone's product

and others to their own blog, newsletter, social media posts. So I think that's how our product went viral at the time. Some people were impressed by the experience of our product. They share with others. It's like a word of mouth. Yeah, that's how we did. Let's get started. Thank you so much for attending our podcast today. Kazuki, how are you? I'm good. Hi, thank you for having me. Yes, actually, I already interviewed your Co-Founder, Kei,

when I was in Tokyo. And then finally, I could interview the Co-Founder, Kazuki. So Kazuki, could you please introduce yourself? What do you do in San Francisco? Hi, my name is Kazuki. I'm a Co-Founder of Grasp. So Grasp is a social curation bookmarking tool. So you can bookmark and highlight and take notes on the web. And based on the highlights and notes, we create your AI clone, a digital twin, so that you can ask your AI clone what you know about

and what you want to learn from them. And also, you can share your clone with others, like your friends, co-workers. So that's how we want to empower people, share more knowledge. Yes. Thank you. So it sounds like helping to students. Or what kind of main target do you have and do you imagine? So our core users are content creators, like writers, newsletter writers, researchers. And also, we have interesting user groups,

like lawyers and also investors at venture capitals. And also, of course, students are using it. And because those people who consume a lot of information but want to keep the important parts somewhere and also share with their team, co-workers or groups, and those people use our product often. I see. So how did you come up with this idea? If you don't mind, please share the story. Yes, so this idea came from my near-death experience.

So when I was 20, I had a subdural hematoma. The blood clot in my brain. At the time you were a student? Yes, yes, in Japan at the time. So right after I took a CT scan, doctor jumped into the room and told me, you could go into cardiac arrest, meaning at any moment. So meaning my heart, lungs could stop at any moment. So I was scared. Thankfully, I had a surgery and I'm fine now. But at the time, I was so scared

and but wanted to leave something before I pass away and die. So that I could hopefully that remaining could help others so that I could feel a sense of contribution to others, society, humanity. So then, since then, I have been thinking how I can do this while I'm, let's say, learning something, studying something. And so, yeah, that's how I got the idea of Grasp. So that when you learn something, find interesting ideas.

And people usually keep it in their private space. But why don't we share more so that others can learn from them and also get inspired by them? So, yeah. Thank you. Interesting. So, okay, so when you were 20, you had to do brain surgery. So actually, my best friend also had a kind of similar problem when she was young. And then after she finished surgery, she felt kind of like easy to forget something or it's difficult to remember something.

Like, I know your passion is like, if we come up with good idea, we don't need to keep just one to share. And also like, what can I say? Like log, record everything, right? Like good journaling or whatever favorite food or favorite movies, you know. Your co-founder, Kay, is amazing log person. So, okay. So I felt like this function is helping to people who did kind of like a big surgery as well. Because they don't want to forget

their super important memory when they are young or family, right? Yes, I totally think so. And yes. And also when we learn something, when we encounter interesting ideas or quotes, thoughts, and something spark in our mind and in our brain, right? Sometimes. But people forget. Why don't we, why can't we keep it? Keep the ideas. And the moment we came up with some ideas or something. So yeah, that's so that in the future,

because I'm, you know, same as Kay. I'm the huge, like people say it's a quantified self. Meaning I love logging everything, life log. I use Fitbit, Strava, and how we feel to keep, you know, many like logs from many aspects. So yeah, why can't we keep that sparked ideas or thoughts that moment? Yes. I love that. And I really, like I was so impressed by Kay's story. Actually already interviewed him. And then, yes, yes, yes.

Please watch. So could you please share how you guys met in San Francisco a few years ago, right? It's a beautiful story. Yeah, I hope it's a beautiful story. But yes. So I have been in San Francisco for eight, nine years now. But so I went to college and master's program too. But so before Grasp, I was working at another startup. But before that, you know, then I was working at a big tech company for the new project.

And I was here, then Kay joined later. Then that's how we met. And we worked together for a year or so at that company. Then when I started the previous company, and eventually it didn't go well. But Kay joined another startup. Then it's our friend's company. And Kay was, it's like a logging the food log. Meaning if you go eat out. And so you can take a photo and keep a log. And Kay was working at that company.

And then my previous company didn't go well. So I was kind of devastated. But the founder of that company asked me to help the company. So I joined. So Kay and I worked again. So this time I joined later. But then I thought I was ready to start this company, Grasp. So I started the company. Then so yeah, of course, you know, I asked Kay to use our product. But because I know he's the person who loves logging, you know, data.

And I know he was keeping like the books he read and the movies he watched and something like that. Then Kay was actually the number one user more than me. Because I was coding. And so I, how to say, I was using my product every day at the time. But I needed to design and write the code. So I didn't have much time to actually read something at the time. So Kay was really using it every day. So impressed. And so I asked Kay, hey, let's, why don't we work together?

Yeah. So that's how we met and how we started working on Grasp. And besides working, Kay and I and some other friends do book club every week or every other week. So because we love reading and learning from others' experience. And so we have been doing it for, I think, over two to three years now. Three, four years? I don't know. I forgot exactly. Amazing. Yeah, we've read many books from, yeah, many aspects.

So I thought it was really natural for us to work together on this idea. Because we are both of our, like, type of persons who keep logging, keep tracking of, you know, our life activities. And also reading, learning. And yeah, that's the story. Amazing. So you guys had book club for four years, correct? Yes. Wow. So four years. How many, like, kind of community members eventually did you guys? Yes, there's a funny story.

So we started with four or five people in the beginning. And then now we have three people. I don't know. It's less. But it's, you know, really condensed and, yeah, focused people. So it's a small, I mean, really private and small group. Private? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I see. Why did you decide to do just as a private? Thank you. Yeah, actually, we share what we learn, yes. So, but we just don't do, like, public streaming.

So, but we record the session. I mean, we do over Zoom. So we record a session and then upload it to YouTube. And also we sometimes share the learnings on, like, some blog, yeah, blogging services. And yes. I see. And also. Yes, yes. And also I import, you know, highlights on Kindle to Grasp. And so others can see what books I read. And yeah. Okay. So thanks to book club for four years. You could kind of, like, testing to use your, like, initial product, correct?

Yes, yes. Because we are building the product that we really want. And so we are dogfooding every time, every day. So, yeah, yes. I love that. Okay. Okay. So my understanding, the first function of Grasp was highlighting and then sharing to other people, correct? Yes. So we started with, like, a browser extension, like a Chrome extension, Safari extension, and highlighting capabilities. So you can set the text and then highlight the text and add notes and so on.

And then later, we created, like, importing functions, importing highlights from other, like, platforms, like Kindle, Pocket, Instapaper, and so on. And then, yeah. So that's, yeah. And then, so, okay. So highlighting is still the number one popular function? Or as you mentioned, like, Chrome, AI Chrome is the most popular? What do you think? Yeah. So actually, we have another product and a service. So it's a YouTube summary with GPT.

So it has, it self has, I think, over 2 million users now, I think. So that is, thankfully or ironically, that is the number one product people use for sure. And because it's free and everybody can use it. And yeah. So besides that, yeah. Highlighting is the second largest one. And the third is, like, AI Chrome people using it. Yes. Amazing. So you said 2 million users, right? So many founders, they really want to know the tips and some, like, secrets.

How you guys gain 2 million users? If you don't mind, could you please share the story? Yes. So YouTube summary has 2 million users. And our main project grasps about over, like, 700,000 users, around 1 million users. And so how we grew? So we, I think speed matters. Speed matters. Yeah. So we launched the YouTube, in case of YouTube summary, we launched YouTube summary right after Chachibiri came out. It was.

It was 2022. So we launched the first one a week later or within a few days. And then, you know, some newsletter writers or influencers started featuring our product. Oh, this guy created this and this. Because influencers are watching each other. So meaning, if a famous person feature someone's product and others, maybe copy. Similar, you know, format and list of items and products to their own blog, newsletter,

social media post. And so I think that's how we, how our product went viral at the time. So then, like, SEO works and yeah, people, you know, like, since some people were impressed by the experience of our product, they share with others. It's like a word of mouth. And yeah, that's how we grew. Amazing, Kazuki. Thank you. So thanks to, okay, first, timing. You said a few days after ChatGPT launched, you guys launched.

This is amazing. Is this intention or like, what can I, not on purpose or like, what can I say? I'm lucky. What do you think? So we, you know, we are always looking for, like, interesting product and opportunities as a founder, for sure. And as others do. And then, yeah, so we know ChatGPT is great. And we are kind of expert at browser extension, Chrome extension. So we know how to build Chrome extension and how to spread it and how to incorporate.

Or how to integrate with ChatGPT. So yeah, I think that was kind of advantage for us. And timing was great. And yeah, we were lucky for sure, yeah. Amazing. And also thanks to influencers and early adopters, they did promote. So you guys didn't pay expensive money to like, what can I say? Advertising agency. So just like zero cost for advertising. But thanks to influencers, they did amazing, impressive. So, okay, so in three or four years since you guys started the company,

do you have something difficult, challenging? So challenges? Yes, many challenges, yes. Since we are two full-time. And so sometimes, you know, we lack kind of resources. So I'm coding, designing, but sometimes I don't have enough time. Because I need to go to events and meet some people. And so yeah, that's challenging. And also acquisition is getting better. But retention is the hardest one. So there is a funnel, like acquisition, activation, retention, and deferral revenue.

This is called AARR model. So yeah, I think we figured out the acquisition part, I think, somehow. Activation is harder too. But eventually, the people need to stick with the product and the community of service, right? So in that sense, retention is the most important factor and component to grow. We have not too bad retention, but it's not great as other, let's say, like YouTube, social media, like Twitter, Facebook, maybe.

So somewhere between. So we got to improve the retention. And to do that, we need to serve a better product experience. So that's the challenge, I think. Thank you. So as a product manager slash designer, we learned the three important key elements. Like as a company grows, we have to take care of time, budget, and human resource. So you said time is kind of super important because you have to have several hands, right?

And then how about the budget? So budget, yeah, we try to keep our team small to save money. Because if we save money, we could have more chance, opportunity to try something. And so, yeah, we care about budget. And yeah. I mean, do you look in for investors? Maybe in this listener, there are many potential investors. Oh, yeah. We are not currently looking for investors now. But yeah, at some point, yes, to grow faster.

Amazing. How about human resource? For example, are you looking for like AI engineer or specialist or not really? Yeah, we are definitely looking for software engineers. For software engineers, we are looking for someone who are familiar with Next.js, React, and TypeScript. And also we have Chrome extension. So there are a few software engineers who have experience in building Chrome extension or Safari extension.

And if someone has that experience and you'd love to chat. I'm not a designer, but 99% of the design is done by me. How about salespeople? Salespeople, since we are a consumer product now, so I think we don't specifically need salesperson yet. But we are planning our B2B use case. Meaning, yeah, not many, but a certain amount of users are using our product among their teammates, organizations in their team or organizational groups.

So I think having that feature as a B2B plans, I think, yeah, that's the one thing we are thinking about. At some point. At some point, yes. Thank you. Okay, almost our last question. Two questions. So please imagine if like 80 years old Kazuki is coming to here by time machine, what he will say to you? What do you think? I have no idea, but keep working. Yeah, you will be great. I don't know if I live until 80, but yeah, I wish.

Thank you. Yeah, I assume he compliments you because you do like good work and life balance, right? Not much serious, but I love running. So I keep track of my running using Strava. So I can keep track running and also I can share with friends and also I can see how others are doing. So yeah, I run every other day. I think two days, three days. And yeah, but not serious, you know, I've never done a full marathon yet.

And yeah, I usually run 5K, 5 kilometers. Great. Thank you. Okay, last question. So tell us about your next milestone in the next one year. What do you do? Yes. So I think we want to improve our product for sure and also user experience and especially like AI Chrome, which is really interesting feature. People pay attention to it. So we'd love to improve it. And also, as I mentioned, you know, as we talked, you know, we want to start kind of

B2B use cases like a group function, organization, team function, and so on. And yes, that's what we are going to do. Amazing. Don't you do some in-person event in San Francisco? Yes. Yeah, let's do it. Okay, I can help you. Thank you. Yeah. Okay, Kazuki, thank you so much for attending our podcast. Thank you. Bye-bye. The three key takeaways from the interview with Kazuki. One, rapid execution drives growth. Glust quickly launched their YouTube summary tool just days after ChatGPT launched.

It was helping them gain 2 million users. Influencers started sharing it, which made it popular fast. They acquired a large number of users without paying advertising fees to agencies or any influencers. It's amazing. Moving quickly and using influencer support was key to their success. Two, user-centric design rooted in personal experience. Kazuki's own life experience inspired grasp design. He wanted to make a tool that lets people save and share important memories and ideas.

This makes grasp useful for many types of users, many types of people, like students and writers who want to keep and share what they learn. Three, retention is the ultimate challenge. While acquisition strategies were successful, Kazuki highlights retention as a crucial growth element. Grasp's focus on improving user experience and product stickiness, addressing this through future enhancement and community building.

With future plans to explore B2B appreciations. Thank you so much for watching our episode today. We hope today's Kazuki's episode will help your future and career. See you soon. Bye-bye.