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My beginning was a black MS-DOS screen.
It was the early 1990s. Before the word “Windows” was widely known, many computers in Japanese offices ran on an OS called MS-DOS. White text appeared on a black screen, and nothing would start without typing in commands. It was in such an era that I began my career as a trainee programmer at a small software company.

At the time, I was in charge of developing measurement and control systems software. This involved processing complex data used in factories and research institutions and visualizing it as graphs. Unlike today, I couldn’t look up information on the internet or ask AI for code. Days were spent grappling with C and assembly language, with thick manuals in hand. That was my first encounter with “technology.”
An Unexpected Turn: From the Development Room to Sales Sites Nationwide
However, the gears of fate began to turn in an unexpected direction. Shortly after joining the company, I was assigned to plan our in-house developed software and to handle its nationwide sales. More than the confusion of “Why am I, a programmer, in sales?”, my curiosity to see how the software I was involved with would be used in the world prevailed.

My clients were the research and development, design, production, and quality control departments of prominent major corporations. My counterparts were professionals in their fields: engineers and researchers. A young man in his early twenties presenting to the people supporting Japan’s cutting edge. The pressure was immense, but it was there that I encountered a certain “wall.”
Fighting Giants and Learning
At that time, our biggest rival was a giant American corporation, Texas Instruments (TI). Against this multinational company with overwhelming financial power and name recognition, we were a little-known Japanese venture. If we had competed solely on feature comparison charts, software created by a few people would have stood no chance.

However, as I visited sites and deeply listened to the “troubles” of researchers, I realized something. What they were looking for was not ultimate multifunctionality, but a “straightforward solution” that could smoothly connect with the measurement equipment in front of them and instantly produce the desired graphs.

Working closely with the Head of Development, I would gather feedback from the field and reflect it in the software’s UI, then head to a different major corporation the next day. How could we implement an intuitive graphical UI within the limited resources of MS-DOS? The “ability to translate technology into business” that I cultivated there became the undercurrent of my career.
What “Technology x Sales” Taught Me
My greatest asset gained during these four turbulent years was not programming skills themselves. It was the overwhelming value of “someone who understands technology, knows the pain points of the field, and translates them into a system that can be sold.”

No matter how excellent the source code, if it doesn’t solve someone’s problem and return as payment, it cannot continue as a business. Conversely, if you understand the technical content, you can offer essential proposals rather than superficial sales pitches.
Returning to the Starting Point in the AI Era
Today, I run “Sparx,” a company that develops AI agents. Over 30 years have passed, and the tools have changed from MS-DOS to the latest LLMs. However, the essence remains the same.

Instead of the idealistic notion that “anything can be done with the latest AI,” my role is to create a “system” that clarifies who is struggling with what at client companies and how AI can shoulder that burden.

The journey that began as a trainee programmer in Chapter 1 has, after many twists and turns, reached a new stage in the AI era. I continue to learn the importance of “systematization,” which lies between technology and sales, from these formative experiences of my twenties.

Founder Principles 1: Build systems, not tasks.
What Sparx offers today is not just automation tools, but the “working system” itself, enabling people to focus on more human-centric decisions.