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Growth Academy

Grow your startup with the best of Google.

two people working at white board

About the program

Growth Academy is a seven-week program for promising growth-stage startups in Japan. Through 1:1 mentoring sessions, workshops, and networking with selected Google advisors and industry experts, we're here to help founders take their companies to the next level with the best of Google.

Key benefits

  • Innovation culture and OKR setting

    Startups work one-on-one with Google mentors to optimize organizational strategies and set tangible goals (OKRs).

  • Branding

    Google brand experts host workshops and mentoring sessions designed to help startups improve brand and product storytelling to attract target audiences.

  • UI/UX

    Google UI/UX experts advise each startup on how to improve and optimize their customer user experience.

  • Media planning

    Experienced Google mentors share media planning best practices and tips on how to reach your target audience effectively and efficiently, as well as how to measure performance.

  • Founders lab

    Founders can hone their leadership skills in specialized workshops and coaching sessions.

Entry criteria

    • Ambitious startups from all industries with the potential for rapid growth and impact
    • Startups with launched product(s) and demonstrated traction
    • C-level commitment to actively participate, learn, and collaborate (including tailored programs for CEOs and CMOs)
    • Japanese-speaking teams with a Google account (please note that fluency in English is not required for this program)

Program timeline

(Subject to change)

  • Week 1

    Innovation culture and OKR setting

  • Week 2–3

    Branding

  • Week 4–5

    UI/UX

  • Week 6

    Media planning

  • Week 7

    Founders lab

The sessions on how to create a brand message and UI/UX really helped us grow our business. Using what we learned in the program and advice from the Google mentors, we incorporated emotional elements into our brand messaging and revamped our website and app. With these changes, we increased Nosh's monthly conversions by 300% and improve the conversion rate by 20% compared to our pre-program rates.

Yuji Takayama

CMO Nosh, Inc.

Nosh CMO

The leadership training gave me the opportunity to receive anonymous feedback from employees for the first time. In rethinking the image of a leader I thought I embodied and because of the candid feedback I received from employees, I became more open-minded about my leadership direction. Moreover, based on the learning from the OKR sessions and mentoring in the program, we worked to clarify goals at the organizational, team, and individual levels and institutionalized our evaluation system. We have started the full-scale implementation of OKRs within the company and are working to create an organization where each individual can be highly motivated and feel a sense of accomplishment.

Takeshi Aida

CEO of RevComm Inc.

group of people smiling

Our biggest takeaway from the program was how to create a brand story. Through sessions and one-on-ones, we built and organized the value prop and message that we want to convey to Seibi users. By creating a stronger brand story, we were able to communicate Seibii's value to investors and VCs during the funding process, and we closed 800 million JPY in funding.

Yu Sagawa,

CEO of Seibii Inc.

group of people smiling, Growth Academy, Campus Tokyo, Google for Startups