This is Hamamoto from TIMEWELL.
Pharmacists occupy an essential role in healthcare. But the question worth asking is whether that role has to stay within its traditional boundaries. Masanori Someya decided it didn't. Motivated by a desire to create new value and expand what pharmacists can accomplish, he proposed and launched an online Kampo pharmacy business as an internal venture — targeting women's health challenges that often go unaddressed. This interview explores his thinking, the challenges he faced, and what he's building toward next.
Why He Focused on Women's Health
Can you start with a brief introduction?
I'm Masanori Someya, from Cohort 8 of the Shido entrepreneurship program. At the time I applied, I was working at Kirin Holdings as an intrapreneur — someone who launches new businesses from inside the company. I had proposed a business called the Online Kampo Pharmacy: a consultation service for women dealing with health issues specific to their gender. I was developing that internally while going through Shido to sharpen the idea.
That internal project has since wound down, so I'm now continuing the work as an individual initiative.
Why did you pursue the online Kampo pharmacy specifically?
Kirin has an internal competition called the Kirin Business Challenge, and I wanted to enter something. But the direction came from listening directly to my wife and female colleagues.
I'd noticed that my wife's mood and physical condition changed significantly across the month. I started wondering whether there was something that could help — and when I looked into it, I realized this wasn't just her experience. It was a problem that a large number of women were dealing with quietly. Since I'm a pharmacist, I thought there might be something meaningful I could contribute.
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The Business: What It Was and What Got in the Way
What did the online Kampo pharmacy actually do?
The simplest description is: the Amazon Prime of Kampo. We wanted to make traditional Chinese medicine accessible for women's health — but Kampo has a real usability problem. There are too many options, most people don't know where to start, and the idea of going to a specialty Kampo pharmacy in person feels intimidating or even suspicious to many people.
So we built a service where users could consult easily online, receive personalized recommendations, and complete their purchase — all through LINE on their smartphone.
Running it under the Kirin brand helped enormously. "This is a Kirin initiative" made the whole thing feel more approachable. That was a real advantage during the proof-of-concept phase.
What didn't work, and what are you doing differently going forward?
Two main things.
First, I was still developing as an intrapreneur. Running a new venture inside a large organization requires experience, and I didn't have much of it. Working mostly alone, I can look back now and see many places where I could have been more resourceful.
Second, there's the healthcare system problem. If a doctor prescribes Kampo medicine, patients pay only 30% of the cost through national health insurance. But if they buy it at a pharmacy out of pocket, they pay 100%. That price gap was significant — and building enough added value to overcome it was difficult.
Going forward, I want to take a different approach. Instead of aiming for large-scale growth inside a big company, I want to start with something more grounded — a smaller, more sustainable business. I'm currently studying for certifications in Kampo counseling and building up the knowledge base systematically.
What He Learned from Shido
Has what you learned at Shido carried forward into your work?
I probably applied about 10–20% of what I learned directly. The POC design process and design thinking principles showed up in real decisions. But not everything translated immediately.
What stayed with me most was the mindset. Shido has a strong "stop theorizing and act" ethos. That core principle — customer-first thinking, starting small and testing quickly — applies not just to new ventures but to regular work inside existing companies.
In my current role, when someone suggests bringing in a consultant, I sometimes push back: "What if we tried something small ourselves first?" That instinct came from Shido.
Did your perspective shift personally?
Significantly. When you're working inside a large organization, you tend to look inward — internal dynamics, internal politics, internal approval processes. Getting outside through Shido, and talking with people from completely different contexts — peers, mentors, instructors — made me see that the conventional wisdom inside the company wasn't always correct. In environments like Silicon Valley, the answer is usually just to try things. That realization was important.
Why Shido
What would you tell someone thinking about applying?
The most valuable thing I got from Shido was the people. The Shido alumni community is approaching 1,000 people — individuals who share a genuine commitment to changing things and building something new. That kind of energy is rare.
I come away from alumni meetups genuinely recharged. And there's something motivating about being surrounded by people who are serious about what they're doing.
I'm originally from Gunma Prefecture, and I haven't yet met any other Shido members from there — so if you're out there, I'd love to connect.
Final advice for people considering applying?
Seek out entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs in your own network. Talk to them directly. People who have built businesses from zero — who have failed, figured things out, and kept going — have a credibility in their experience that nothing else matches.
That direct contact with real builders was what drove me to apply to Shido and commit to the intrapreneur path. Start with the people around you, and see what you find.
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