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The “endless quest” attained in exchange for freedom

In my early twenties, I blazed through the MS-DOS era as a planner and salesperson for measurement and control software. I relished the thrill of translating technology into business for major corporations. In my late twenties, I made a significant decision: to “go independent.”

Advertising production and agency work became my new field. The moment I shed the organizational banner, vast freedom and an equal measure of anxiety stretched out before me. From a high-level debate environment with engineers from major corporations just yesterday, I was suddenly thrust into a reality where I had to generate sales single-handedly, akin to a “jack of all trades.”

It was then that I came to realize a crucial truth. A generic proposal of “we’ll make something good” is almost powerless in fierce competition. A small, newly independent individual has no chance of winning against established, giant advertising agencies by confronting them head-on. What I needed was to find and deeply penetrate a “market distortion” that others overlooked or didn’t dare to touch.

The Pachinko Industry: The mechanism of “excitement” captured in a single flyer

After much trial and error, I arrived at the massive market of the pachinko industry.
At that time, newspaper insert flyers were still the primary means of attracting customers. Flyers in the pachinko industry, in particular, required unique visuals and intense appeal. Thousands, tens of thousands of users would decide which establishment to visit based on a morning flyer. This demanded instantaneous visual impact and an extremely meticulous composition to convey information accurately.

I didn’t become a production company that simply produced “cool designs.” I engaged in dialogue with hall managers and executives, thoroughly listening to their concerns and how they wanted to differentiate themselves from competitors.
“How do we convey the fervor of a new store opening?” “How do we exploit the gap when neighboring competitors aren’t distributing flyers?” “What new machine information is easy for older users to understand?”
As I delved into the specific needs of the industry, I discovered unique rules and priorities invisible to general advertising production. I deciphered each of these and packaged them into “a format that sells in this industry.”

From “Individual Skill” to “Product” in Creativity

When I first went independent, I believed I was selling my own production skills. However, as I gained experience specializing in the industry, I realized the essence lay elsewhere. What I was selling wasn’t my “effort,” but a “system” to solve the industry’s challenges.
Once a winning pattern for industry specialization was established, it became a reproducible “product.”
“For pachinko industry customer acquisition, you can trust Sayon without fail.”
Creating such a state was the only way for a small individual to survive.
By abandoning universality and deliberately diving deep into a narrow domain, I conversely eliminated competitors and increased direct requests from customers. This is precisely the “niche strategy” in product development and became one of the key principles of my subsequent career.
“I can do anything” is, in the end, equivalent to confessing “I’m not good at anything.” Creating “this is exactly what I wanted” for someone specific. To achieve that, to fully understand the inner workings of an industry. I learned the importance of this through direct experience in the turbulent waves of my early days of independence.

A New Challenge Revealed Beyond “Specialization”

By going independent and diving deep into the “specific domain” of the pachinko industry, I obtained a winning formula in business. However, it also marked the beginning of a new adventure.
Generating sales through industry specialization was the correct survival strategy. But I also gradually began to feel the risks of over-reliance on one industry and the limitations of a “labor-intensive” business model like creative production.
Identifying market distortions and systematizing them. This challenge evolved beyond the medium of advertising flyers to the next stage.

Founder Principles 3: Distribution matters as much as product.
The perspective of “delivering to the right target through the right channels,” learned from this industry-specific experience, remains at the core of my decision-making, both in my later ventures with stock material businesses and in my current AI agent development.