Interview with Hiroyuki Nagamitsu, Founder & CEO at Liberius Technology

Hiroyuki-san, can you tell us about your professional background and your current role at Liberius Technology?

I spent two decades leading enterprise digital transformation at firms like PwC, KPMG, and MetLife – including $50 million initiative that completely rebuilt sales and underwriting processes from the ground up.

In 2020, right in the middle of COVID’s chaos, I watched the hospitality industry struggling with the same integration challenges I’d solved for larger enterprises – except hotels were trying to fix them with a fraction of the resources and often still using paper and spreadsheets. That’s when I founded Liberius Technology and created Hotelwee, a smart task hub that eliminates paper handling and redundant workflows.

Hiroyuki-san, your professional journey is notably diverse, spanning major enterprise transformations at Morgan Stanley, Walmart, and ORIX. What were the most critical lessons or perspectives you gained from these varied global and Japanese corporate environments that ultimately provided the foundation for your leap into entrepreneurship?

First, at KPMG and Walmart, I saw that major enterprises can invest millions in digital transformation over many years—implementing ERP or HR systems with vast resources. Meanwhile, I observed how even large corporations struggled with adoption due to complexity. This revealed a fundamental gap: digital transformation hasn’t been democratized for companies of all sizes.

Second, I learned that technology alone doesn’t solve problems—adoption does. The best systems fail without user-friendly design and stakeholder buy-in across all levels.

Third, integration is everything. Disconnected systems create operational chaos, wasting enormous time on manual workarounds.

These insights crystallized a vision: if hospitality—an underserved, traditional industry—could access a platform enabling process optimization and real-time decision-making without the usual cost and complexity barriers, their major problems could be resolved in days, not years. That’s the world I’m building with Hotelwee.

Liberius Technology Inc. participated in global programs like the Alchemist Accelerator in San Francisco and WNJ Ventures in Hong Kong. Drawing on the insights and strategic lessons gained through these experiences, what specific, unmet challenge within the hospitality industry did your team identify as the most compelling opportunity for a technology solution?

Through Alchemist Accelerator, we validated something surprising: hospitality’s innovation focus is backward.

Everyone builds for front-of-house—booking engines, guest apps, loyalty programs. But interviewing dozens of operators across the US and Japanese hotel groups, we heard the same frustration: “My PMS handles reservations fine. My problem is I don’t know if housekeeping finished room 302, if maintenance fixed the AC in 405, or why the guest in 501 is still waiting for towels.”

Hotels are operationally blind. One manager said he had to physically walk around asking staff what’s happening and how much time things take.

The key insight: hotels need operational visibility to deliver on existing promises. That’s where we found measurable ROI and a burning, unmet need.

Hotelwee focuses on back-office orchestration and task management, moving beyond the industry’s typical focus on reservations and guest engagement. Could you walk us through its core functionality and explain why you made the strategic decision to target this specific back-office domain and the critical pain points it solves?

The thesis is simple: operational efficiency enables better guest experiences.

Every guest-facing innovation requires back-office execution. Someone must track it.  Housekeeping or front-desk needs real-time room status. Yet, most hotels use WhatsApp, Excel, paper notes, and their PMS. A maintenance request gets written on paper, transferred to WhatsApp, logged in Excel, then entered into the PMS – 20 minutes passed.

Hotelwee makes tasks atomic and trackable. Guest reports a leaky faucet via QR code → maintenance get instant notification → manager sees live dashboard → guest receives completion alert. One system, zero friction.

The back-office is where hotels make or lose money. We’re building the operating system for hotel operations.

Hotelwee is described as an AI-powered platform. How does this AI component enhance back-office operations specifically?

We started with AI Concierge for guests and AI Assist for staff – answering questions and providing guidance.  For example, AI Assist guides a maintenance technician through steps to fix broken AC.
Next, by connecting with Hotelwee Analytics, AI delivers insights and recommendation from operational data. It identifies patterns humans miss:

• “Room 312’s AC has been serviced three times this month – recommend replacement.
• “Guest requests spike 2-4 PM – recommend to adjust staff schedules.”
• “Fridays see 40% more room service requests – preemptively staff up.

AI transform reactive operations into proactive decision-making.

Staffing shortages have become one of the biggest challenges in global hospitality. How does Hotelwee leverage its technology to help hotels address this, while still preserving the human touch that guests value?

Staffing shortages are a symptom of operational inefficiency. Hotel work is perceived as chaotic and low-productivity. Hotelwee addresses this three ways:

1. Make existing staff more productive: Eliminating 40% of wasted time means a team of 10 effectively becomes 14 – like hiring four people without recruitment costs. Staff handle more rooms and serve more guests without working harder.
2. Improve job satisfaction: High turnover is inevitable in hospitality, but Hotelwee reduces it by eliminating redundant manual work. Staff spend more time doing their actual job, less on coordination overhead.
3. Enable flexible staffing models: With real-time visibility, hotels can use part-time staff more effectively. Previously, part-timers struggled without access to tacit knowledge. With Hotelwee, everything is documented, visible, AI-guided. A part-timer can pick up a shift and immediately see what needs doing.
   The human touch is not lost – it is amplified.

Japan is aiming for 60 million international visitors by 2030, while UNWTO projects 2 billion global arrivals by 2040. With that scale in mind, how does Hotelwee ensure it meets the complexity and high standard of service quality expected in the coming decade, not just volume?

Operational excellence at scale requires systems. Technology enables quality to scale.

Scale through architecture: Cloud infrastructure auto-scales, and standardized workflows deploy instantly across properties—no custom implementation per hotel.

Liberius has strong roots in Japan but also engages globally via accelerators. How do the needs of the Japanese hospitality market differ from those in the U.S. or Southeast Asia, and how does Liberius balance local customization with building a scalable global product?

This is our biggest strategic challenge. Japan and US have fundamentally different expectations:

Japan:

• Expects perfection – even small errors are unacceptable
• Slower technology adoption but fierce loyalty once committed
• Labor-intensive service culture

US:

• Prioritizes speed over perfection
• Embraces technology quickly, switches easily
• Cost-conscious – ROI must be immediate

Our approaches are building core functionality with localization toggles. Language, reporting formats, workflows adapt by market, but the underlying operation platform remains consistent. This let us scale globally while respecting local requirements – we are not building separate products, we are building one intelligent system that flexes to context.

Looking beyond Hotelwee, what broader technological trends, whether AI, IoT, or automation you think will have the biggest impact on the hospitality industry in the next 5-10 years?

Three trends will converge:

1. Preventive operations through AI and IoT: IoT sensors detect monitor guest behavior, staff activity, and equipment performance. AI automatically schedules preventive maintenance when the room is unoccupied. This shifts hotels from reactive to predictive.
2. Automation handles routine, humans handle exceptions Check-in/check-out, room service orders, basic requests – all automated. Human staff focus on complex needs: dietary restrictions, accessibility accommodations, personalized recommendations.
3. Data becomes the competitive moat Hotels capturing data gain massive advantages. They know Which rooms need maintenance, which staff are more efficient, when requests peak. This intelligence drives pricing, staffing, and capital expenditure decisions.

Finally, the transition from an established corporate career to founding a startup is a significant decision. For Japanese professionals considering this change, what ultimate responsibility must one embrace to successfully navigate the inherent challenges of building something new from the ground up?

The corporate path offers security, clear progression, and social validation. The startup path offers autonomy, impact potential, and relentless uncertainty.

You must be driven by something beyond money or status—a problem you cannot ignore, a solution you believe must exist.

The ultimate responsibility is this: own every outcome. No one else will build your vision, solve your problems, or sustain your motivation through inevitable setbacks. You must embrace complete accountability—for failures, pivots, and successes alike. Be bold and gritty.