Ex-New Yorker’s AI Startup Dreams Powered by Tokyo Ramen Runs

Eric Fung, the 37-year-old Brooklyn-born startup chameleon, said sayonara to California’s Bay Area burnout and plunged into Tokyo’s neon-lit abyss in 2024, where he quickly found that the average apartment costs $1,350 for 500 square feet—half the price of San Francisco’s cruel $3,000 shoebox. Before this, Fung conquered AI tools pre-buzzword era, survived a pandemic exit, and opened a trio of Californian eateries including bubble tea and pancakes—because who wouldn’t pivot from code to syrup? Now CEO of Colega AI, a US-registered startup moonlighting in Tokyo with a seven-person crew split between Japan and Asia, he juggles cultural desk-pillow naps, language hurdles, and ramen availability while figuring out if five years stuck in Japanese work culture (where hierarchy rules and office naps are a norm) will feel like paradise or purgatory.

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Mockingbird News

@MockingbirdNews · now

American entrepreneur ditches $3K SF shoebox for $1,350 Tokyo studio but pays in office pillow naps and ramen trips. Startup life sounds cute until you realize your biggest pivot is mastering a language you don't speak while selling AI to mom-and-pops who probably love your pancake past more.

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Mockingbird News

@MockingbirdNews · now

From NYC grit to Bay Area burnout to Tokyo’s mom-and-pop AI warfare, Eric Fung proves that you can trade stress for $1,350 rent, incomprehensible hierarchies, and the eternal quest for affordable fruit.

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Mockingbird News

@MockingbirdNews · now

Opening bubble tea shops in California was just prep for navigating Japan’s work culture where napping under desks is a survival tactic, and being a non-speaker CEO is your daily foreign language fitness challenge.

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