Beautiful Virgin Islands

Tuesday, Jun 24, 2025

Intern Builds Billion-Dollar Company Inspired by Mom’s Comment

Intern Builds Billion-Dollar Company Inspired by Mom’s Comment

Everything changed for Yuta Tsuruoka when his mother, who runs a small shop in rural Japan, made a passing comment: She wanted to set up her own online store but didn’t know how.

“That was the start of it all,” Tsuruoka, 30, said. “We were in a world where people with no internet skills and no money, like my mom, couldn’t imagine creating online businesses.”

Tsuruoka, who was an intern at a crowdfunding startup, decided to develop software to help individuals and small businesses create internet shops. He founded his own company, Base Inc., in 2012. Its shares are up more than sixfold since listing last year, even though they’ve fallen sharply from an October high. That’s pushed its market value to about $1.7 billion and made Tsuruoka a multimillionaire.

Base has been a beneficiary of a rally in small-cap technology stocks in Japan as retail investors sought to pick winners in the pandemic. Like many of the companies whose shares surged, some analysts questioned whether its valuation was sustainable.

The company’s main service allows people to create their own online shop. It also provides payment processing tools and an offering retailers can use to procure financing against their future sales. On top of that, Base runs a shopping app that it says has seven million users.

Base is “one of the most user-friendly platforms enabling businesses to go online in a matter of hours,” Oshadhi Kumarasiri, an equity analyst at LightStream Research who publishes on SmartKarma, wrote in a research note in October 2019 when he initiated coverage on the stock.

The company doesn’t charge users for creating websites, instead generating revenue from its payment tools, where it levies a fee on transactions.

Crowdfunding Internship


Tsuruoka was studying information technology in college when he started his internship at the crowdfunding startup. He recalls being fascinated by the success of companies like PayPal Holdings Inc., though he hadn’t imagined setting up a business himself.

Then, when his mom said she wanted her own online store, the idea sprang from that. He began working on the business and later quit college.

“I started Base as a hobby,” he said. “But it was well-received by everyone, so I ended up setting up a company.”

Not long after Base went public, the coronavirus pandemic sent retailers rushing to take their businesses online. The number of stores registered on Base surpassed 1.2 million as of September from about 800,000 in August 2019, the company said.

“The ones we wanted to provide our service to moved onto the internet all at once,” Tsuruoka said.

Gross merchandise value, a measure of total transaction volume, more than tripled in May for the online store business compared to a year before. While growth in the metric has since slowed, it still more than doubled in October.

“This year was clearly a special occasion for growth,” said Takahiro Kazahaya, co-head of equity research, Japan, at Credit Suisse Securities Japan Ltd., who has a neutral rating on the stock. “The growth rate will significantly decelerate, but relatively high growth will be achievable.”



The stock surged more than 12-fold from going public in October 2019 through a high in the same month the following year. It also gained some high-profile investors.

“Base has been good,” David Snoddy, who ran the Tokyo office of Julian Robertson’s Tiger Management before setting up Nezu Asia Capital Management in 2000, said of his holding in the stock. “One of the great things about the retail experience in Japan compared to New York is that there are lots of small retailers with one, maybe two, shops. You really like their selection and you agree with their taste, and you keep going back.”

Snoddy said Base is well-suited for smaller operations, which makes it different from commerce platforms that cater to larger businesses. About 72% of shops using Base are run by individuals while 26% of them are managed by two to four people, according to company data.

“When you buy goods on an online mall you remember that mall, but if you buy them from their own website, you will probably remember that brand,” Tsuruoka said. “We make sure our clients get their own branding.”

Base’s rally came amid a surge of investor interest in Japanese technology stocks and pandemic beneficiaries that drove the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers Index of startups to a 14-year high in October.

Euphoria Wanes


But the euphoria has started to wear off, with the Mothers gauge down 9.7% since that peak, while Base’s stock has fallen 48% from its high.”

Even after the decline, the company trades at 41 times book value and 102 times estimated earnings.

In a note on Nov. 18, LightStream’s Kumarasiri said the stock was still “substantially overvalued,” suggesting Base won’t be able to maintain its Covid-era growth trajectory. At the same time, he said he doesn’t see any catalysts for further share-price downside in the short term.

Tsuruoka, whose 15% stake in the company is worth about $265 million, says there will be good and bad days for the share price, but what’s more important is to expand the business.

“We’re still at the entrance of this huge market,” he said.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
“You Have 12 Hours to Flee”: Israeli Threat Campaign Targets Surviving Iranian Officials
Macron and Merz: Europe must arm itself in an unstable world
Germany and Italy Under Pressure to Repatriate $245bn of Gold from US Vaults
Airlines Evaluate Flight Cancellations Amid Escalating US-Iran Tensions
Starmer Invites Innovators to Join Government Talent Scheme
UK Economy’s Strong Opening Quarter Shows Signs of Cooling
Harrods Seeks Court Order to Secure Al Fayed Estate for Victims
BA and Singapore Airlines Cancel Dubai Flights Amid Middle East Tensions
Trump Faces Backlash from MAGA Base Over Iran Strikes
Meta Bets $14 B on Alexandr Wang to Drive AI Ambitions
WATCH: Israeli forces show the aftermath of a massive airstrike at Iran's Isfahan nuclear site
FedEx Founder Fred Smith, ‘Heart and Soul’ of the Company, Dies at 80
Chinese Factories Shift Away from U.S. Amid Trump‑Era Tariffs
Pimco Seizes Opportunity in Japan’s Dislocated Bond Market
Labubu Doll Drives Pop Mart to Status as China’s Most Valuable Toy Maker
Global Coal Demand Defies Paris Accord Goals
We have new information and breaking details to share about what is shaping up to be a historic air campaign tonight
Six Massive Bombs Dropped on Fordow; Trump: 'A Historic Moment for the U.S., Israel, and the World'
Fordow: Deeply Buried Iranian Enrichment Site in U.S.–Israel Crosshairs
United States Conducts Precision Strikes on Iran’s Nuclear Sites
US strikes Iran nuclear sites, Trump says
Pakistan to nominate Trump for Nobel Peace Prize.
BBC Demands Perplexity AI Immediately Stop Using Its Content
Telegram Founder: I Will Leave My Fortune to Over 100 of My Children
Political Turmoil Resurfaces in Belgium Amid Economic Concerns
Fed policymakers divided on timing of interest rate cuts
Trump signals imminent agreement with Harvard University
Inheritance tax referendum alarms Swiss billionaire community
Japan cancels bilateral security meeting amid US defence demands
AI skeptic Emily Bender warns that ‘the emperor has no clothes’
Israel Confirms Assassination of Quds Force Commander in Tehran
16 Billion Login Credentials Leaked in Unprecedented Cybersecurity Breach
Senate hearing on who was 'really running' Biden White House kicks off
Iranian Military Officers Reportedly Seek Contact with Reza Pahlavi, Signal Intent to Defect
FBI and Senate Investigate Allegations of Chinese Plot to Influence the 2020 Election in Biden’s Favor Using Fake U.S. Driver’s Licenses
Vietnam Emerges as Luxury Yacht Destination for Ultra‑Rich
Plans to Sell Dutch Embassy in Bangkok Face Local Opposition
China's Iranian Oil Imports Face Disruption Amid Escalating Middle East Tensions
Trump's $5 Million 'Trump Card' Visa Program Draws Nearly 70,000 Applicants
DGCA Finds No Major Safety Concerns in Air India's Boeing 787 Fleet
Airlines Reroute Flights Amid Expanding Middle East Conflict Zones
Elon Musk's xAI Seeks $9.3 Billion in Funding Amid AI Expansion
Trump Demands Iran's Unconditional Surrender Amid Escalating Conflict
Israeli Airstrike Targets Iranian State TV in Central Tehran
President Trump is leaving the G7 summit early and has ordered the National Security Council to the Situation Room
Taiwan Imposes Export Ban on Chips to Huawei and SMIC
Israel has just announced plans to strike Tehran again, and in response, Trump has urged people to evacuate
Netanyahu Signals Potential Regime Change in Iran
Juncker Criticizes EU Inaction on Trump Tariffs
EU Proposes Ban on New Russian Gas Contracts
×