About
Yasemin Karatas is a marketing and startup ecosystem professional serving as Marketing Manager at Google for Startups in Tokyo. She joined for Startups, Inc. in 2022 in its Open Innovation Strategy Group, where she was GRIC Director. Before that she spent about seven years at Japan Convention Services as Event Coordinator, Event Manager and Account Manager, including assignments with MCI Brussels and the Tokyo Convention and Visitors Bureau's Tokyo Unique Venues programme. She is an Advisory Board Member of Entrepreneurs Roundtable Tokyo and was a featured mentor at Founder Institute's Japan's Startup Ecosystem Get Together at Yokohama in April 2025. Yasemin brings an events and community-building perspective on startup marketing, open innovation, international conferences and connecting founders with corporate and global partners. The role provides direct exposure to how startup support programmes reach founders and how large events bring startups, corporates and investors together. Yasemin is particularly relevant to conversations around startup marketing, community and event strategy, open innovation partnerships and navigating Japan's startup ecosystem.