CRANE CONSULTATION HOUSE — Since 2004
Not how to grow sales — why the business holds together at all.
Yukichi Ito is a business architect and angel investor in Japan. For over twenty years he has designed the structure and revenue models of companies, founded and exited a business, and now invests in and advises founders across civic tech, real estate, food-AI, and education — while building an open standard for AI transformation.
I am a consultant and investor who designs the structure of businesses. My approach draws on neurophysiology and the psychology of perception — I work out what a founder can and cannot yet see, and redesign the business so it can be seen, explained, and strengthened.
For more than twenty years I have worked on one question: why does a business hold together? Not the sales numbers, but the structure by which a company functions in society. Most owners can say what they do; few can state why it works as a structure. My job is to make that structure visible.
I founded a company from zero, grew it over five years, and sold it in 2025. What keeps me working is not making a successful business bigger — it is launching, correctly, the businesses of talented people the world hasn't noticed yet.
"I function at my best when I design a business model for someone else who is genuinely stuck."
— Yukichi Ito
In 2026 I organized this work under one roof: CRANE CONSULTATION HOUSE (伊藤雄吉相談所) — consulting, angel investment, and an open framework for AI-era decision-making. I work between Yokohama, Tokyo, Miura, and Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Consulting, investing, and an open AI framework — all rest on the same skill: reading the structure of a business and redesigning it.
01
Hands-on business and revenue-model design for owner-operators. I rarely talk about sales tactics; I make clear why a business works and redesign it to be stronger. ¥50,000/hour, capped at 60 hours a month — the scarcity keeps the engagements deep. I take work only when a slot is open, and I never pitch.
02
I back founders across civic tech, real estate, food-AI, education, and the arts — as investor, advisor, and board member. I judge by talent and whether a person can face someone else's problem seriously, not by résumé. I have backed projects by people the world hadn't noticed yet, including university students.
03
Not tool adoption — a strategy-level redesign of how a business runs in the AI era. I maintain the open-source SOVREN Framework and run weekly AX classrooms where owners who have never written code build AI-operable systems from their own business context.
A selection of companies I am currently involved with as investor, advisor, or board member — each doing real work in its field.
Digital consensus-building / participatory democracy
CEO: Hiroyuki Kurimoto Forbes JAPAN 30 UNDER 30 (2023)A company answering "how do citizens take part in politics?" with technology — social infrastructure, not just an IT product.
Real estate × vacant-home regeneration
Co-founder & board memberRegenerating Japan's vacant houses, one at a time. I am involved from the deep end of business design as co-founder and board member.
Food × AI & media
Board memberCrossing "food" — a human fundamental — with AI and media. I am involved from revenue-model design as a board member.
Legal education × the arts
Led by Soichiro Yamazaki, author of Kodomo RoppoLed by the author of the bestselling Kodomo Roppo ("Children's Law"). I advise on business design.
Education / life-career design
CEO: Kotomi Kobayashi Cabinet Office Challenge Award (2019)Led by an award-winning specialist in education and career design, whose vision closely overlaps with my own SOVREN thinking.
As AI becomes infrastructure, generic answers become free. What keeps its value is the context only you hold — your judgment, your relationships, your field observations. SOVREN Framework is a free, open-source method for keeping that context in a form AI can actually operate on.
I authored it and tested every part on real businesses first. It is deliberately open: anyone, anywhere, may adopt and teach it. We prove it weekly in live classrooms in Yokohama and publish a report after every session — the method is tested in the field, not just written down.
"Owning your own answer matters more than knowing the correct one."
— SOVREN Framework
For consulting, investment conversations, or the SOVREN Framework — a message is welcome. A DM on X or Instagram is easiest; just tell me who you are and what you are working on.
I read every message myself. No pitch decks needed — "who you are and what you're stuck on" is enough. I take a particular interest in Sri Lanka's tech scene and am glad to connect there.
Based in
Yokohama · Tokyo · Miura · Colombo
