Hiroki Takeuchi
Hiroki Takeuchi
Hiroki Takeuchi is a British Entrepreneur and CEO of GoCardless who suffered a cycling accident that left him disabled.
Biography
Early Life
Education
Hiroki is an alumni of Oxford University where he received his MMATH in
He was the Vice president of Oxford Entrepreneurs where he cofounded Varsity Pitch, which was a business ideas competition between Oxford and Cambridge's top business ideas for a 10k pounds prize fund.
He also led Idea Idol, the society's hugely successful flagship business ideas competition with 5,000 pounds as a prize pool.
Some time in 2006, during his early days as a student at the University he interned for a student startup called Boso. That same summer, he interned for JP Morgan. The following year, he did another summer internship for Auctomatic.
Career
McKinsey Co.
Photo of Hiroki Tekeuchi speaking in front of an audience.
After graduating college, he got a job as a business analyst for McKinsey Co.
His job consisted of working closely with senior management who were part of organizations spanning different industries.
He ranked high in the company and outperformed his peers.
He was in the top 20% of his cohorts.
Many of his duties included: project managing work-streams, owning client relationships, and conducting quantitative & qualitative analysis.
GoCardless
Video of Hiroki Tekeuchi rehabilitating his legs.
In 2011, Hiroki founded GoCardLess as a way to create a new, global payment network for the internet.
The aim of the company is to simplify the process of collecting direct debit payments.
The company is backed by Y Combinator, Balderton Capital, and Accel Partners.
Bike Accident
On the early Thursday morning of September 22nd, 2016, he and his brother did their before work routine of doing laps with their bicycles around Regent’s Park in Central London.
Hiroki was pushing himself physically as is customary and had a momentary loss of concentration.
When he looked up he saw a car in front of him - he does not remember the rest.
His brother was first at the scene.
By 8:30am, the pair arrived at St Mary’s hospital in nearby Paddington and were later joined by Takeuchi’s wife Rachel Swidenbank.
The doctors were more preoccupied in straightening his spine rather than getting him to walk.
Although he was hospitalized and unable to move, Hiroki continued having business meetings about GoCardLess.
He still had the drive and ambition to continue running the company.
Hiroki continues to be the CEO of the company while also doing his rehab visits and training.