There were many events this year, but time flies and 2025 has come to an end. Including this post, I have managed to publish 15 articles. Writing more than once a month isn't bad! This blog started in the New Year of 2021, so it seems I've completed exactly five years. Let's reflect!

Business

It has been a year since the M&A with Ateam last year. Our performance continues to grow steadily. Initially, we launched the sales and marketing team with a strategy of expanding not only in PLG but also in SLG through the M&A, and finally, the results are starting to show. It's hard to believe that we operated with zero sales staff before the M&A.

In terms of sales, I feel that our partner strategy has been the most effective. Since microCMS is a low-code service, some implementation is required when using it. Partner companies support that implementation. We are now approaching 100 partner companies. We have been increasing the number of partners with whom we have a win-win relationship, and I would like to expand that further.

We have also increased the number of engineers, and with the power of AI, product enhancements and feature additions are progressing at an amazing speed. The skill level of our members seems to be rising, which is very reassuring. There have been significantly fewer incidents this year, and the stability of our product is improving. The features that have been released are summarized in the article below.

Furthermore, there was a significant event at the end of October: a change in the management team. I transitioned from a Director to CEO. I had been in a leadership role until then, and I thought it might not change much, but having gone through the change, there were significant differences.

Until now, I was in the position of suggesting things like, 'Wouldn't it be better to do XYZ?' rather than making decisions; I was mainly in an advisory role. Important matters were decided at management meetings, but the final decision was essentially left to the CEO. Since becoming a CEO, I now have to make decisions on various matters. Can we spend money on XYZ? Can we change the approval flow to XYZ? Proposals are constantly coming my way. I realized that my job is to keep making those decisions. To make decisions, one needs a basis, and without sufficient knowledge, the decisions would become ambiguous. Catching up in various fields is also crucial.

That said, it has been less than two months, and I feel I've adapted significantly. Everyone around me is capable, so things are managing to run smoothly.

Family

My children are now 10 years old (4th grade) and 8 years old (2nd grade).

My eldest daughter has started studying for her middle school entrance exam and has become more serious with her dance classes, making things busier. Sending her to a cram school would take away a lot of family time, so we've decided to focus on home learning to navigate the entrance exam instead. Because of this, we have also stopped her long-term piano lessons. She's diligent and studies properly whenever she has free time. I've been teaching her math almost every day, but understanding is progressing slowly. The time commitment is becoming overwhelming, so from next year, we plan to introduce online classes to help her learn independently. I'm not sure how well that will go...

My younger son has started new classes for gymnastics. Interestingly, I did gymnastics during my middle school years, but given that gymnastics can be a dangerous sport, I'm a bit worried. I think he'll be fine while he's in elementary school. However, since the sister is working hard on her studies, it's somewhat unfortunate that the little brother has to have his playtime limited. But I guess it can't be helped. He does manage to play quite a bit regardless.

It has been a year since we started raising our male Russian Blue cat, Sora. Now, he has become an irreplaceable presence in our home. He weighs around 4.5kg and is healthy, without any major issues. Sometimes, I worry that he might eat some kind of string and cause a blockage in his intestines... Recently, he has started sleeping on my bedding at night, and although it's a bit cramped, it makes me happy.

Others

Wanting to invest time and money in enriching my life, this past year has been one of trying new things. First up is Pilates. This year I turned 38 and continue to feel the wear and tear on my body. I believe it's crucial to invest in my health, so I'm finally happy to start that. I aim to build an exercise habit and, on top of that, want to become muscular. More details are written in the article below.

Recently, my family has gotten into horse racing. Until now, I had completely no contact with horse racing, so it feels like a whole new world has opened up. I think we're enjoying it more as a form of entertainment rather than to increase our money (as you could certainly increase your money more with stocks...). Interestingly, my wife has more enthusiasm for it than I do. She watches various horse videos every day. The more we research, the deeper it gets. Unfortunately, we missed out on the Arima Kinen, but it feels like we’ve added one more fun topic to our lives. The G1 rush since autumn has ended, so we plan to take a break for a while, but there’s also a possibility that we might start dipping our toes into G3 and G2 too... The article that sparked my interest in horse racing is here.

I feel the need to keep up with the developments in AI agents, so I have also been doing some personal development privately. The first project was a shooting game called Bullet Rain. I've always had the desire to create a game, but I kept getting stuck in complex ideas. So, I decided to focus on a simple yet interesting concept and managed to get Bullet Rain to release. More details can be found in the article below.

Next, I challenged myself with iPhone apps. After numerous failures in iPhone app development, I finally managed to reach the release stage. The app is for instant English composition, and I named it “Shun Ei.” I wanted to base the app icon on kanji and created one that I really like (not AI-generated, I made it myself). You can read more details in the article below.

Conclusion

Last year, my father passed away in an accident. This year, my wife's father died of cancer. With two consecutive years of losing parents, death has started to feel much closer. It’s often said we live in an era of 100-year lifespans, yet it's still common for people to pass away in their 60s or 70s.
When I think about it, I might already have passed the halfway point in my life.

Before I knew it, I’m now 38 years old. My gray hair has increased quite a bit. In a way, my life is so fulfilling that I feel like I have nothing more to desire, but because of that, I also feel a heightened awareness of death.

I want to enjoy life. Horse racing might be one of those ways. Work is the same. If I’m not careful, I’ll find myself at 60 in the blink of an eye. That’s why I want to cherish every moment and continue to find new seeds of enjoyment.