Michio Fujimura
Managing Director
mfujimura@ataventures.com  Japanese
Michio is a co-founder and Managing Director of ATA Ventures. For 15 years, Michio owned and operated Vanguard Systems Consulting (VSC), a sole proprietorship established to leverage his wide IT industry experience. VSC built a strong reputation in Silicon Valley that specialized in the areas of international business development and business operations consulting (product planning, product marketing and manufacturing) for U.S. start-up companies.
VSC was an essential resource utilized by both venture capital firms and start-up teams primarily in the formation stages of start-ups. Specifically, Michio was called upon by top-tier VC firms as an expert to evaluate business plans. For example, the VC firms included Institutional Venture Partners (www.ivp.com) and Mayfield (www.mayfield.com), as well as investment banking firms, such as Alliant Partners (www.alliant.com). To assist start-up teams, Michio has been responsible for identifying more than $200M for over 20 start-up companies through a combination of equity investments, licenses and NRE.
Michio was also instrumental in defining marketing opportunities and requirements for the establishment of subsidiaries, partnerships and distributorships for American corporations in Japan. This has naturally included introducing Japanese Investors to those American companies. To assist with this process, Michio guided a team of business development experts in Japan in forming a consulting firm called Aisys Corporation, which provides marketing channels for U.S. based companies into the premier Japanese technology and product corporations.
Prior to VSC, Michio was a member of the charter team of David Systems, a pioneer in packet data networking systems. Prior to David Systems, Michio held product marketing, planning and management roles at Olivetti Corporation in the areas of networking and telecom.
Michio graduated from Chuo University in Tokyo, Japan in 1967 with a Bachelor's degree in law.
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