The Story Behind the Founding of Locus Blue

Locus Blue was the first company I ever founded. It began with little more than a strong desire to build something of my own.

Before founding Locus Blue, I worked for a French aircraft manufacturer and for startups in the United States and Israel as an engineer and technical sales professional. Working with talented people from different cultures, values, and ways of thinking eventually led me to one simple belief:
“If they can do it, I can too.”

When I started the company, I did not have a clearly defined business plan. We had not yet chosen a market, and there was no product. What I did have was a strong desire to create something from zero that could make a meaningful difference in society.

Over the years, through continuous trial and error, we immersed ourselves deeply in the civil engineering and construction industry. We learned how our users work, what challenges they face, and what it truly takes to build products that are useful in the field. Compared with our early days, when even the industry’s terminology was unfamiliar to us, we have reached a point where we can discuss real challenges with our users as partners.

Building a business, developing products, and growing an organization have never been easy. Yet through each challenge, entrepreneurship became increasingly exciting to me, and I came to believe that building companies was something I was truly meant to do.

In 2024, Locus Blue became part of the ZENRIN Group. This opened opportunities to enter areas that would have been difficult for us to reach on our own. By combining Locus Blue’s technology and products with ZENRIN’s strengths in geospatial information and map data, new possibilities continue to emerge.

I hope Locus Blue will continue to look beyond surface-level requests and focus on the structural challenges that users themselves may not yet recognize. By staying close to the field and building products grounded in real needs, I believe Locus Blue can continue creating meaningful change in society.

Founder SATOSHI MIYATANI