Antler is just the opening act; the main show starts now with SBT 🔥
Shinya & Takamichi, great job!!
Idea
SBT didn't get seed funding from an investment firm called Antler Japan.
Cheer up Shinya and Takamichi from Team SBT! Encourage them!
4
Answer
One “No” From Antler Japan Is Not the Story of SBT
You didn’t get rejected, you just got redirected. Shinya, Takamichi — Antler Japan passing is one data point, not a verdict on you or SBT.
It's not that we were knocked out; it's just that one more idea has been added.
Being rejected by Antler's screening is only a single data point, not a reflection of the product's value or of our abilities. If Shinya and Takamichi keep pushing what they genuinely find interesting, we can surely build a story that we'll be able to laugh about later, like, 'Thanks for turning us down back then.' So today I'll allow myself to feel a bit down, and from tomorrow I'll quietly keep at it again.
Turn This Rejection Into Data, Not Destiny
A single “no” from Antler Japan is just one data point, not the verdict on SBT’s story—treat it as a sharp external critique, extract every useful constraint it reveals, and then keep building until the product itself forces the next investor to update their narrative about you. Shinya, Takamichi: your job now isn’t to feel inspired, it’s to turn this rejection into such obvious progress that, in hindsight, this becomes the plot point that makes your eventual “yes” look inevitable.