A Grad Student Sells His Programming School When Taking a Job — a Third Exit Beyond Closing or Keeping
Asulab, a programming school for elementary and junior-high students (2 locations) founded by Tokyo University of Science grad student Koretsu Takai with his study-abroad savings, was transferred via Batonz to EARTH WORKS, an operator of one-on-one tutoring schools, when Takai took a job at a major IT company. About 20 companies inquired. 'M&A is not cutting and running — it is a rational strategy.'
This is a translation of the Japanese original. The Japanese version and cited primary sources are authoritative for all figures.
The Business’s Journey
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Business | Programming school for elementary and junior-high students (strengths: an original repetition-based curriculum and high retention) |
| Locations | Kanamachi school (April 2023), Shin-Koiwa school (July 2024) |
| Founder | Koretsu Takai (founded the school in his first year of graduate school at Tokyo University of Science; startup costs came from savings for studying abroad, and instructors were university friends) |
| Buyer | EARTH WORKS Co., Ltd. (a Chiba-based operator of one-on-one tutoring schools, expecting synergies between tutoring and programming) |
| Process | Listing on Batonz drew inquiries from about 20 companies. A handover period of roughly 3 months was set and completed before his first day at the new job |
| Price | Undisclosed |
What Happened
The transfer was not driven by failure. The business was growing, but Takai felt that “as a manager, I would eventually hit my limits” and chose the path of learning new-business development inside a large organization (a job offer from a major IT company). Rather than closing the school and abandoning students and instructors, he made his exit by entrusting it to education-business professionals.
What This Case Teaches
For student founders, the career pivot of “taking a job” can be handled through a transfer, not a shutdown. A classroom business with enrolled students causes real harm to its users if it closes. Succession is rational for society too, and Takai’s own words sum it up: “M&A is not ‘cutting and running’ — it is a ‘rational strategy’ for growing the business.”
Even a brick-and-mortar classroom can draw inquiries from 20 companies — that market exists. Beyond the buying and selling of online businesses, this shows that Japan’s small-M&A market for classrooms and physical locations is functioning. For the buyer (a tutoring-school operator), it is a form of procurement that skips course development and student acquisition in one move.
An operating company in an adjacent industry turned out to be the most natural buyer. For a tutoring company, a programming school is a pure product-line extension. The same structure seen in the test-prep giant that bought Sarah Michelle NP holds up at classroom scale in Japan.
Further Reading
Sources
This article summarizes and analyzes the public sources above. Please refer to the primary sources for details.