Year-end continuing education

As 2025 draws to a close, I completed 12 continuing education credits through courses provided by The Vanguard Group and Quest CE to renew the investment adviser license, following California’s adoption of the Investment Adviser Representative continuing education requirement, effective May 1, 2024. Many key regulatory conce…

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An era has ended

I read the farewell letter of Warren Buffett published by Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. on November 10th. He has been my hero. His value-investing strategies have worked over decades. At the end of the Q3 FY2025, Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. reported $381.7 billion in cash and cash equivalents. Back in FY1994, its cash and cash equivalents on the…

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Equity X Investments, LLC hosted two Accredited Investor Coffee events during SF Tech Week by a16z (Andreessen Horowitz): the first in Mountain View and the second in Financial District, San Francisco. In total, 24 accredited investors joined us for high-value networking and engaging discussions. We are deeply grateful to everyone who …

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We are excited to host an exclusive, high-value networking event for accredited investors who are interested in public markets on October 7th at 3:00pm PT during SF Tech Week by a16z, Andreessen Horowitz, in the heart of Silicon Valley. This event is officially approved and listed on the SF Tech Week calendar.

You will have the chance to connect with fel…

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Annual return in CY2024 = $24,915.50/$19,702.50 - 1 = 26.5%

YTD return in CY2025 = $28,780.92/$24,915.50 -1 = 15.5%

Registration

I am pleased to announce that Equity X Investments, LLC's investment adviser registration was successfully approved in the State of California and I was also authorized as an investment adviser representative with Equity X Investments, LLC on December 6th, 2024. Furthermore, Equity X Investments, LLC entered into an investment adviser service agreement with Charles Schwab for custodial accounts.

What does this mean?

Equity X Investments, LLC is now legally authorized to manage clients’ assets in custodial accounts provided by Charles Schwab with a focus on generating returns that align with each client’s risk profile. The YTD return in CY2025 stands at 15.5%, outperforming all major market indices (i.e., DJIA, S&P 500, Nasdaq and Russell 2000). If you choose to become a client, I would be directly responsible for managing your assets as your active fund manager.

Next step

Why don’t we schedule a call or an in-person meeting to talk about your current situation, preference and risk tolerance? Please feel free to reach out to us via email at info@equityxvaluation.com for further discussion. Our main objective is to provide greater value to your assets than the cost of our fees.

About today’s cover photo

Equity X Investments, LLC hosted a private dinner event to launch this new service at Historic Adobe Building in Mountain View on December 18th, 2024.

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The information provided here is not investment, tax, or financial advice. You should consult with Equity X Investments, LLC for advice concerning your specific situation.

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As previously discussed in the past post, Why EQUITY-X®?, we have conducted backtesting on our data analytics and achieved a 28.2% return in the first quarter of 2024 by investing in growth stocks and holding onto them for a period of time.

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EQUITY-X® uses its unique data analytics generated by our patented technologies to make informed decisions, primarily to find, buy, hold and sell growth stocks. You can find our YTD return, 31.3% for 2 months, as a back testing result in the past post. While our premier data analytics help us add value to our own equity investment…

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Foundation

I was born and raised in Tsu City, Mie Prefecture, Japan: one of the top-ranked cities in terms of average amounts of financial assets including equities owned by individuals in the country. My family members used to talk about share price and capital markets every day in my childhood, which nurtured my interest in growth of assets and companies. I studied hard and entered The University of Tokyo in 2006.

In 2008, despite not knowing anyone there, I took the initiative to organize my first international trip with a group of 12 to visit Silicon Valley. After sending hundreds of emails to ask founders to share entrepreneurial stories with us, Mr. Seth Sternberg, Co-founder of Meebo, an instant messaging and social networking service provider acquired by Google in 2012, accepted my request. Meeting him left me excited and inspired to be an entrepreneur like him in the future. The shocking news hit me that Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed a bankruptcy petition when I landed at Tokyo International Airport (HND) on September 15, 2008.

In 2010, I graduated from The University of Tokyo with a bachelor's degree in Economics. Then, I started my career at Nomura Securities Co., Ltd., which just acquired Lehman Brothers' equities and investment banking business in Europe and the Middle East and Rothschild & Co (formerly, Rothschild Japan - Global Advisory Japan Co., Ltd., associate of Rothschild) in Tokyo, Japan. I served for 5 years as an investment banker responsible for financial modelling to value shares of public and private companies in mergers and acquisitions transactions. However, my desire for entrepreneurship drove me to apply for business schools.

One day, the thought of starting my own business struck me while I was writing an MBA essay which included a business plan. My essay consultant kindly introduced to me Dr. Haruki Kamiyama, Founder & Honorary Chairman at Macnica Holdings, Inc. (3132.T), which imports, exports, and distributes electronic components such as semiconductor devices and Integrated Circuits (ICs). Dr. Kamiyama said “FinTech is coming. Why not now?”. After meeting him in person, I was inspired by who he was and what he did and established EQUITY-X®, meaning a combination of equity with y=x (equation), on April 1, 2015 to develop the world’s first fully automated equity valuation software. My entrepreneurial journey started there.

Moving to London, England, United Kingdom

”Yes, I am.” I said, when The British Embassy Tokyo asked me whether I was interested in moving to London as one of the top FinTech hubs in the world. After receiving Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa from Home Office, I moved to London in 2016. After I pitched at Innovate Finance Global Summit 2017 at the Guildhall in the City of London, EQUITY-X® was selected as TOP 3 in the AI and ML category. I further won the first prize, Golden Gavel Award presented to Startup of the Year 2017, at Startup Grind Europe 2017 powered by Google as the most disruptive startup among thousands of candidates across Europe at the historic Central Westminster Hall in London. As a result, I raised approximately $1.7 million from angel investors, signed the master data agreement with S&P Global Inc. (NYSE: SPGI), switched Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa to Tier 1 Exceptional Talent Visa as an expert in the fields of equity valuation and investments and AI in FinTech and opened the next door.

Networking

My ultimate goal is to deliver cost effective products to enhance customer satisfaction, leveraging new generative technologies. I actively joined networking events, built my unique network with like-minded founders and professionals in the finance and technology sectors in Europe and developed my intuition in business.

Lockdown

Life is full of surprises. I used to chat with a British gentleman named George who was at the same apartment while working at home during the lockdown. He said “British people live in the United Kingdom. Japanese people live in Japan. Who are Americans?“. I was intrigued by the question. After long time of lockdown, I was delighted to see my team in person again at Level 39, a co-working space for FinTech firms. We released the new equity valuation software feeding daily market data and financials via APIs of S&P Global and other authentic data sources and powered by the new machine learning peer search engine. It was featured by major media (e.g., Finextra and Hedgeweek) in the finance and technology sectors in the United Kingdom. I enjoyed meeting other Tier 1 Exceptional Talent Visa holders from different parts of the world. At the time, I met an American lady named Sally from San Francisco who opened the next door for me.

New path for growth

Fortunately, I got the third patent granted on January 24, 2023. Due to the latest generative technology, EQUITY-X® was selected as one of the Top 17 AI Startups at Startup Grind Global Conference 2023 at the historic Fox Theatre in Redwood City, CA, United States on April 10 to 12, 2023. Surprisingly, the average return of our paying customers on U.S. technology stocks was 58.7% from March 15, 2023 to July 6, 2023, much higher than that of S&P 500, 13.4%, during the same period: proof that EQUITY-X®’s daily fundamental analysis data delivers significant returns!

According to Business Insider, 43% of 55- to 64-year-olds had no retirement savings at all in 2022 in the United States and, since younger boomers are less financially prepared for retirement than their elder boomer siblings, the problem is bound to get worse. Japan launched NISA, a Japanese government tax-free stock investment program for individuals, in 2014 but renewed it significantly this January to help individuals rely less on public pension funds in the aging society. The Financial Services Agency in Japan advised those living there to save 20 million yen (i.e., $130,000) for retirement. The need for better financial preparation for retirement is a part of challenges that I am passionate to address through EQUITY-X®.

Sally from San Francisco started to invest in U.S. technology stocks soon after working for a high-growth technology company as a data scientist and saved $300,000 in her 20s. She is a model case to solve this problem: retirement savings in both countries. EQUITY-X® can help individual stock investors find growth stocks, make informed decisions by themselves and achieve their financial goals (e.g., vacations, home purchases and education for kids). In fact, I received testimonials from our customers. One of them said “I have made significantly higher returns on investments than the subscription fee.”. I was glad to hear that and was convinced that EQUITY-X® was the cutting-edge technology generating daily fundamental analysis data affordably and could change how to grow financial assets owned by individuals across the world.

Our customers called me to move EQUITY-X® to Silicon Valley, considering that U.S. technology companies have grown over the years and that Silicon Valley is no doubt the largest technology hub in the world. Customer first. I listened to their call, thought about the purpose and value and decided to move to Silicon Valley!

U.S. O-1A Visa

Mr. David Sindell, Partner at SW Law Group, P.C. in New York, specialized in U.S. visas for Japanese nationals, represented me in my immigration case. It took 7 months to prepare application forms, supporting documents (700+ pages!) and 15 recommendation letters from paying customers including Sally from San Francisco, shareholders, startup founders, former supervisors and C-suite executives in the finance and technology sectors in the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom. Finally, I received the U.S. O-1A Visa as an expert in the fields of equity valuation and investments and AI in FinTech from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the U.S. Embassy and Consulates in the United Kingdom. I highly appreciate all of them and recommend Mr. Sindell and his team.

Life is an adventure to be enjoyed.

After spending 7+ years in London, I moved across the pond on October 29, 2023. My credit score was 0 in the United States. While staying at an Airbnb, the American owner suggested that I could rent one of his apartments. I was so lucky to have past track records and references from other Airbnb hosts in the San Francisco Bay Area. Thank you, Airbnb. The landlord said “Life is an adventure to be enjoyed.”. His words reminded me of the previous question from George, the British gentleman who was at the same apartment in London: who are Americans? Sally from San Francisco answered “Americans are those who believe in American dreams to be achieved through sacrifice, risk-taking and hard work, regardless of where they were born or what class they were born into.”. It sounds so cool … I would like to do my best at making the mission accomplished. My new life as an entrepreneur started in Silicon Valley: the first destination of the first international trip in my life.

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