Moon Originals

At Moon, one of our key values is “Set Our Own Course.” What better way to demonstrate this value than to take all the learnings and inspiration we have gathered over these last 3 years and come up with our own ideas to incubate and launch? This is where “Moon Originals” come in.

One example of an early Moon Original idea came from our need to connect directly with the global workforce of Mitsui & Co. to develop new ideas and collaborate with others. SMAP is a digital platform that was designed and built by Moon. Like many of our projects, SMAP is continuing to evolve based on the needs of our community and Moon!

We are still experimenting with the process but we are also working on a batch of Moon Originals from an All-Moon Studio Challenge! Everyone at Moon (in both Tokyo and Palo Alto) will be asked to submit potential ideas under a given theme that we all care deeply about. After the submission deadline closes, we will shortlist the number of ideas and ask everyone to sign up for an idea they would like to work on and build. Everyone at Moon will then come together over the course of 2.5 days in a “Make-a-Thon” event, where the goal will be to build a prototype of the idea they selected. At the end of the event, each team will present what they created and pitch their idea to everyone at Moon. Every audience member will become a “judge” and choose which of the ideas presented they would like to bring into Moon as a Moon Original Venture.

Our first Moon Original Challenge will be centered around “Wellness,” a strategic focus area for Mitsui & Co. and the 2.5 day “Make-a-Thon” event was scheduled for mid-July.