I am Keisuke Muroi, a recently appointed Director and Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Morus.
Morus is building a global business from nutrition resources where Japan has deep research strength. Currently at this point, we focus on developing, producing, and commercializing functional ingredients derived from silkworms. It’s an ambitious mission: using a Japanese-origin resource to address global health and food challenges.
I joined Morus in March 2025. I had meant to write a joining note much earlier, but things moved quickly, and this ended up becoming something closer to a note on taking on a new role.
The timing may be better now than then, though. This doesn’t feel like an achievement so much, it feels more like arriving at the starting line.
For a long time, I built my career in a fairly straightforward way: by increasing my market value. And I don’t regret it.
But at some point, I found myself losing interest in work that, honestly, someone else could probably do just as well. At the same time, I felt a certain discomfort about being well paid for that. If the company disappeared tomorrow, would I still be able to create the same value on my own?
I think I’m simply more drawn to goals that I may not be able to reach even if I devoted everything I have. More than delivering neatly in a well-structured environment, I’m drawn to places where the future might be at least a little different if I’m there.
At first, Morus felt far from me. It was a deep-tech company, heavily focused on R&D, and I couldn’t see where I fit coming from an economic background.
That changed when the company moved into a real go-to-market phase. It was no longer just about research. It was about turning research into a business — and not by launching in Japan first and exporting later, but by thinking globally from the start. That’s when I began asking myself: if I were in this, how could I drive it?
Our founder and CEO, Ryo Sato, and I have known each other since high school. He has always been serious, earnest, and unusually quick to jump from idea to action.
Half-jokingly, Sato once described me as the person whose job is to call him out. In practice, that means challenging assumptions, sharpening priorities, and helping turn momentum into something executable.
That dynamic has carried naturally into my role at Morus. Sato’s strength is speed. Mine is making sure speed does not come at the expense of clarity.
What makes Morus especially interesting is that we are not simply taking something that worked in Japan and bringing it abroad. In many ways, we are doing the opposite.
We are building from overseas first — especially in Singapore and across ASEAN — then using those lessons to expand elsewhere, including back into Japan. That means finding people from scratch, building teams, opening markets, and continuously adjusting. It is not simple, and it is rarely smooth.
But that is exactly what I like about it.
Work where the path is already defined has never motivated me much. I prefer paving the path myself, where even small wins and small failures become part of the road.
Part of that comes from spending part of my childhood in the United States. Growing up as a minority taught me how to read context, adapt quickly, and find my place in environments where my assumptions were not the default.
Another part comes from my experience as a general manager for Japan Lacrosse Men’s National Team program. Standing for the national anthem at world competitions has a way of making you think about where you come from — and what you want to represent. Somewhere along the way, my focus shifted from simply increasing my own value to asking what I wanted to stand for.
Taking on this role feels less like gaining a title and more like losing an excuse.
I can no longer stand to the side and say, “That sounds great.” My role is to help move the business forward — not by doing everything myself, but by turning the strength of a very talented team into actual results.
That is probably the part I enjoy most: putting the right pieces together, exercising followership, and helping convert individual strengths into company outcomes.
Morus is not a company where you step into a tidy system and execute a predefined playbook.
It is a company trying to build a still-unnamed industry from Japan and make it work globally.
The people who fit here are the ones who can look at ambiguity and feel energized rather than discouraged. The ones who care more about moving the business forward than protecting the boundaries of their role. The ones who bring real expertise — and know how to use it for the team’s success.
If that sounds like you, I think Morus is a pretty interesting place.
We are still at the starting line. That is exactly why this is the right moment to join.
We are hiring! Contact us to hear more about our open positions.
