Two cities. Two weeks. 16 founders. One very exciting first for HEX.

In June 2026, HEX brought its Global Internship experience to Japan for the very first time, taking a cohort of emerging founders across Osaka and Tokyo for two weeks of building, connecting and learning.

Students developed startup ideas, worked with mentors, explored Japan’s innovation ecosystem, experienced a new culture and finished by pitching their ventures at Pitch Night.

It was more than a trip overseas.

It was HEX learning in a completely new environment.

Our first Japan programme

The HEX Global Internship: Japan ran from 27 June to 11 July 2026, bringing students into an immersive experience across entrepreneurship, innovation, technology and global workplace skills.

The programme was built around learning by doing. Students developed ideas, tested assumptions, built prototypes, received feedback and worked towards a final pitch.

Across the two weeks, the cohort took part in 25+ workshops, 30+ speaker and mentor experiences, four tech tours and three events, while developing 15 startup ventures.

From Osaka to Tokyo, every part of the experience was designed to keep students moving, building and connecting.

Meet the 16 founders who took HEX to Japan

The first Japan cohort brought together 16 emerging founders across 15 ventures, each with different ideas, backgrounds and problem spaces.

• Kate Thibaud - Founder of Vera
• Dhruv Mehra - Founder of Sheltuh
• Prisha Kulkarni - Founder of Greenlit
• Cayce Beasley - Founder of Odds
• Mark Ong - Co-Founder of Rally
• Angelina Lam - Co-Founder of Rally
• Owen Crews - Founder of Queueless
• Derby Teo - Founder of Belong Here
• Jiyong Han - Founder of SweetoSwipe
• Sasha Stockham - Founder of Verge
• Ramsha Chawla - Founder of Nestly
• Eliza Zhang - Founder of Pique
• Erica Seow - Founder of Locked
• Laura Dagher - Founder of Herova
• Eva Mclean - Founder of Kove
• Marios Shiakhallis - Founder of KickAbout

From HealthTech and EdTech to sustainability, housing, community, sports and creative industries, the ideas were as diverse as the people behind them.

Different backgrounds. Different ideas. One shared experience in Japan.

Learning inside Japan’s innovation ecosystem

A big part of the experience was getting students out of the classroom and into the ecosystem.

The cohort connected with more than 30 speakers and mentors across technology, startups, design, education and business, including leaders connected to organisations such as Microsoft and Zendesk.

Students also visited innovation and education spaces including Osaka Innovation Hub and Kyoto University, giving them a closer look at the people and organisations shaping Japan’s innovation landscape.

For the founders, these weren’t just visits. They were opportunities to ask questions, challenge their thinking and bring new perspectives back into their own ventures.

That hands-on approach is central to HEX. Our programmes are designed to combine structure and support with enough space for students to experiment, take risks and learn from the experience. 

From ideas to action

The Japan programme took founders through the process of turning an idea into something tangible.

They worked through market research, validation, branding, prototyping, pitching and startup strategy, constantly testing ideas and responding to feedback.

For Jiyong Han, Founder of SweetoSwipe, one of the biggest lessons was learning to move from planning into action:

“Meaningful progress doesn’t come from spending more time planning. It comes from taking action, getting feedback, and improving quickly.”

That’s the HEX approach in a nutshell.

Think. Build. Test. Learn. Keep going.

What did the founders take away from Japan?

The strongest part of the experience wasn’t just what the founders built. It was what changed for them along the way.

For Kate Thibaud, Founder of Vera, the programme showed her that becoming a founder was more achievable than she had imagined:

“HEX has taught me two main things, that being a founder is more achievable than I ever could have imagined, and that there are so many people in this world who genuinely want to see you succeed.”

For Laura Dagher, Founder of Herova, the experience helped turn a vague interest in entrepreneurship into something she could genuinely see herself pursuing:

“I now feel more confident that this is an avenue I could genuinely pursue.”

And for Eliza Zhang, Founder of Pique, the programme gave her a clearer vision of where she fit within the startup world.

Three founders.

Three different takeaways.

More confidence. More clarity. More momentum to keep building.

Then came Pitch Night

After two weeks of workshops, mentoring, ecosystem experiences and building, everything came together at Pitch Night.

For Mark Ong, Co-Founder of Rally, the experience helped him build the confidence to pitch his ideas professionally and present in front of people without panicking.

And then there was the winner.

🏆 Prisha Kulkarni takes Judges’ Choice

Prisha Kulkarni, Founder of Greenlit, took out Judges’ Choice at Pitch Night.

Greenlit is an AI-enabled solution that systemises documents for people building a new home for the first time.

Her win was a fitting final moment for a programme built around turning problems into ideas, and ideas into something tangible.

But Pitch Night wasn’t really about one winner.

It was about seeing what the whole cohort had built.

The research. The prototypes. The feedback. The nerves. The iteration.

And finally, standing up and saying:

This is what I’ve built.

More than a trip to Japan

It’s easy to look at an international programme and focus on the destination.

Osaka. Tokyo. Kyoto.

But the destination is only part of the story.

The real value came from what happened because the cohort was there.

Students met people they wouldn’t normally meet. They experienced different ways of working. They received feedback from mentors. They worked alongside ambitious peers. They built something from scratch.

And they discovered more about what they were capable of.

That’s what makes an international HEX programme different from simply travelling overseas.

The place becomes part of the learning.

Japan was just the beginning

Two weeks goes quickly.

One minute you’re meeting your cohort in Osaka.

The next, you’re standing at Pitch Night in Tokyo looking back at everything you’ve built together.

But the best part of an experience like this isn’t necessarily what happens during those two weeks.

It’s what happens afterwards.

The idea you keep working on.

The mentor you stay in touch with.

The confidence you didn’t have before.

The question you’re now brave enough to ask.

That’s the real takeaway from the first HEX Japan programme.

Not just a trip. Not just an internship. A chance to step into something new and see what happens when you start building.

Japan was our first.

And we’re only getting started.

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