Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on October 2010

Where are you from?
I’m half American and half Japanese. I’m originally from Washington DC but I lived most of my life abroad in Europe and the Middle East. I went back to the US for university, and after graduation I came to Tokyo to work in investment banking. Thanks to the state of the industry at the time, my entire team was laid off within a year. Instead of immediately hunting for a new job, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to work on an idea I had brewing for a fun business. I’ve been busy collaborating with my brother in New York and business partner in DC on making our product the best it can be while spreading the word and networking here in Tokyo. Before I knew it, a year passed and we just launched the site a couple of weeks ago!

Tell us about ABCLoop.
ABCLoop is a new social networking site that was created to help connect the English-speaking community in Tokyo with Japanese people that want to learn English, network with professionals and find events where they can interact and mingle with English speakers.

How did the idea come about?
When I was studying in Kyoto a few years ago, I taught English during my free time. It was great to earn a little cash on the side and meet new people, but trying to find students on the matching websites that I was using was always a painful process. It dawned on me that it could be possible to improve the experience for both teachers and students by incorporating a social networking aspect. I felt that students were looking for an opportunity to not only learn English but network with English-speaking professionals.

What’s your recipe for a perfect day in Tokyo?
Tokyo is an awesome place to live, but every once in awhile you want to get away from all those tall buildings for the day. When the weather’s good there’s nothing better than grabbing your friends and having a barbecue at a park with a bit more space to relax and throw around a football! Last time we went to Shiokaze Park in Odaiba, and it was perfect.

For more info, see http://abcloop.com or search
for the ABCLoop page on Facebook. Twitter: @billymartyn and @ABCLoopTokyo.