Intern builds billion-dollar company inspired by mom’s comment

Tsuruoka at Base Inc's office in Tokyo, Japan. The shares of Base, a Japanese company that helps individuals and small businesses create Internet shops, are up more than sixfold since listing last year. — Bloomberg

Everything changed for Yuta Tsuruoka when his mother, who runs a small shop in rural Japan, made a passing comment: She wanted to set up her own online store but didn’t know how.

“That was the start of it all,” Tsuruoka, 30, said. “We were in a world where people with no internet skills and no money, like my mom, couldn’t imagine creating online businesses.”