I started TST Tokyo / TST Technology with a dream of making websites in Japan. Even though I didn’t speak Japanese, I built websites for people I knew to practice and get better.

In 2010, a friend introduced me to Lauren, the owner of PaperConnection. Her website was just a simple shopping site, but the shopping part wasn’t working for a whole year. Her developer had stopped responding and was holding her domain name hostage. The hosting company promised to help, but didn’t follow through. She was frustrated and had spent a lot of money for nothing.

I volunteered to help and tried to fix the problem, but it was too messed up to repair. So, I built her a new website, moved it to a new host, and got back her domain name. In a few weeks, everything was running smoothly, and she was making sales again.

A month later, Lauren called to thank me again and asked if I could keep helping with her website. I hadn’t planned on it, since I already had a full-time job. But as we talked, it seemed like a great idea.

That’s how I started working full time with Total Support Team Tokyo (ティー．エス．ティー トウキョウ), bringing my tech skills and passion together to support businesses.