タグ: tech innovation

We have all heard the phrase “looks can be deceiving.” And if you mistook UPQ (up-Q) CEO and founder Yuko Nakazawa for a Starbucks barista you could be forgiven. The 30 year-old does look very young and very fresh. That being said, Ms. Nakazawa is clearly a person in the tech industry to keep an eye on. She has come out of the gate fast, and it looks like she is just getting started.

Originally a product planner at Casio, after leaving the company she started her own business (pancake cafe) in Tokyo’s Akihabara district. Getting back into tech, she and a pick-up team produced an interactive lunch box designed to stimulate communication called X-bento as their first product.

Apparently one thing led to another and in June 2015 Nakazawa founded UPQ. By August she had 24 products for sale. These included a low-cost sim-free smartphone (JPY 14,500), an action camera along the lines of GoPro, a 50-inch panel display, earphones, rolling luggage with built-in battery and charging ports, and an egg-shaped chair—all in just one color, cyan or aquamarine. (Nakazawa tells explained in an interview that the color was just for one year; if you want a different color you have to wait until next year.)

She uses a company called Cerevo for engineering, design and quality control, but she is the planner and visionary. Products are sourced from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea. Nakazawa claims she drives a hard bargain with suppliers and there is no reason to doubt her word.

UPQ is not yet a household word, but give them time. 2016 is only their second year in business and already they have the potential to be a game changer in the consumer electronics industry, not just in Japan, but worldwide. Surely we will hear more from Yuko Nakazawa in the near and long term future. And we may well remember that it was not Steve Jobs’ tech ability but his vision and dreams that created the Apple phenomena. So too with Yuko Nakazawa it seems.

X-Bento: http://ignition.co/185

UPQ Proudcts at BIC Camera: http://www.biccamera.com/bc/c/topics/upq/