Kyoko Ikemoto envisioned a database software product that even a novice computer user could manage without a staff of techies and hourly calls to tech support. The San Francisco native longed for a fresh setting to bring her vision to reality. So she and her all-women engineering team headed to paradise.
“We decided to develop this product in Hawaii,” Kyoko says. The women rented an office near the University of Hawaii and set about the serious business of coding. Every so often, someone would look out the window and be awestruck by what she saw.
“We saw rainbows three times a day,” Kyoko says.
Four years later, One Team Technologies has its product, myWebDB, in beta form.
“What we’re trying to get to is a product where any business user, regardless of background, can create what they want,” she says. “We want to empower anyone to be able to build what they need.”
The software is ideal for small-business owners as well as larger companies in need of customized, bundled services that will take care of everyday tasks like inventory and payroll.
Kyoko saw a hole in the marketplace for myWebDB while working long hours in New York City during the dot-com rise and bust. Companies could choose from several tools on the market for managing their business, but to implement such a system, the company would need someone with technology and design skills.
What about the clothing boutique owner? Kyoko wanted to create a product that would enable her to focus on stocking her shelves with stylish sweaters and must-have bags, not laboring over her computer all day or hiring an IT professional.
“It frees them,” she says of myWebDB. “It allows them to do what they do best.”
Kyoko likens her product to what Home Depot offer—the do-it-yourselfer. With the right guidance and tools, a homeowner might be able to update her kitchen without hiring a contractor. “We’re trying to give them the option,” she says.
Woman in a Field of Men
Growing up, Kyoko wasn’t interested in technology. While in college, she was a math major searching for direction when her friend, who worked at Sun Microsystems, introduced her to computer science. “I was hooked,” she says. “I thought it was so fun and very challenging.”
Her timing couldn’t have been better. She got into technology just as the Internet was creating a buzz.
And she found herself working mostly among men. “The women tended to be in more people-oriented jobs like technology liaison,” she says. “I was into coding.”
After a decade in the industry, she knew she wanted to work for herself. She assembled a diverse mix of women, some with IT experience, and others who were “just really smart people.”
She incorporated One Team Technologies in 2003 and took off for Hawaii. Her core team invested in the company, as did friends and family. As Kyoko and her team worked on the software, the tech industry evolved into “Web 2.0,” a new generation of Internet products created after the dot-com bust and aimed at consumers with less knowledge of technology and a thirst to do things themselves.
Again, Kyoko proved to have great timing. “We see ourselves fitting right in.”
The product Kyoko has nurtured and labored over for four years will soon debut. She says early reviews are good from businesses that have tested myWebDB in beta form. One Team Technologies, now based in Chicago with eight employees who have been with the company since the beginning, is opening an office this summer in Silicon Valley.
And Kyoko is right where she wanted to be. She’s the CEO and Chief Technologist. Her engineering team is still all women. She isn’t one to rule out talent because of gender though—a couple of her team members are men.
As a business leader, Kyoko says she has learned that there is no such thing as a mistake. “Everything we do is a great learning experience,” she says. At times, while developing the product, she got so focused on coding that she didn’t know what was happening in the outside world. She now makes sure she keeps in touch with the big picture.
She also makes time for herself, seeking balance in a life where her career is all-consuming. “I have to balance things out, otherwise the business doesn’t work.”
She leaves the computer behind sometimes and takes a hike, alone or with friends. She meditates every day to “find stillness and unplug.”
“It’s like taking a daily vacation, which rejuvenates me to take on whatever lies ahead,” she says.
Looking ahead, Kyoko is excited about growing her company and getting her product to businesses that can use the technology to drive their growth.
“As a woman, I’m learning to really go for it,” she says. “I’m learning not to hedge, because there is no bad decision.”
