His parents kicked him out when he was 17 – Today he runs a tech company worth 1.3 billion euros

Tech company CEO Taihei Kobayashi was homeless for a year and a half. Today he runs a huge company in Japan. The story behind it is impressive.

Many dream of building a huge company from scratch. A Japanese man managed the feat – today he is the head of a large tech company in Vietnam and Japan.

The start of Taihei Kobayashi’s career was much more chaotic than expected, because his parents kicked him out at the age of 17. MeinMMO tells its story.

Kobayashi gave up his studies and his parents kicked him out when he was 17

Who is the person you are talking about? Taihei Kobayashi is now the CEO of Sun* (the name is pronounced “Sun Asterisk”). This is a large tech company in Japan that develops software solutions for various customers. You support start-ups in the development of new products or you help small companies to gain a foothold in an industry.

Kobayashi was born in Tokyo (Japan) in 1983. Because of his outstanding ability in mathematics, his parents sent him to Waseda Jitsugyo High School. But Kobayashi finished his studies without a degree because he wanted to continue a career as a musician with his band.

His parents took that as an opportunity to kick him out at the age of 17.

For a year and a half he lived homeless on the streets of Tokyo while playing music with his band during the day. Eventually, the manager of a music club offered him work and housing. He lived here for almost 6 years.

After his time at the music club, he made his living selling records online and eventually found a job as a software engineer at a small technology company through a bid. To do this, he had to pass a test, which he could easily cope with thanks to his mathematical skills. During this time he met his instructor Makoto Hirai.

In a conversation, the two then found that there were many programmers who were good at programming, but only a few who had a meaningful business model on offer. Together they founded Framgia Inc. in Japan in March 2013. The company was then renamed Sun* in 2019.

In July 2020, Sun* joined the Tokyo Stock Exchange for start-up companies. The shares rose sharply by September 2020, and the company’s capital reached 145 billion yen. Kobayashi owns shares in the company worth around 71 million euros.

Sometimes the boss can also ensure that everything breaks down

It is often unique individuals who ensure that entire companies and empires emerge. Some people think of Bill Gates and Microsoft. But in some cases, the story doesn’t end quite so well.

A particularly inglorious example is the story of the company “Artesian Builds.” Over the years, they had built up a reputation for offering excellent gaming PCs. But the head of the company had played a nasty joke with a streamer and it backfired. Because now the company is bankrupt and has to sell their hardware.

Many users and also the streamer should be happy that it is now ending with this company. You can read the whole story about “Artesian Builds” on MeinMMO:

PC company goes bankrupt after disastrous action on Twitch – Now they sell off hardware they actually wanted to give away