Meet The Disruptors: Danna Okuyama On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
From a technology perspective, we are proud that Urban Sandbox is not only making supervision easy for parents but also letting students enjoy the freedom of using the internet.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Danna Okuyama.
Having lived on four continents throughout her life, Danna has shared unique experiences with different cultures and individuals around the world that helped shape her into the individual she is today. She created Urban Sandbox to foster that same diverse connection and learning experience for her son and his peers, with a mission for all kids from around the world to not only learn from global educators, but each other as well. Danna is a first generation Asian-American women who currently lives in New York City.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
The main inspiration that led me to start Urban Sandbox is my son. I have always wanted my son to become an open-minded individual interested in learning different cultures. I want him to have the opportunity to get to know people around the world. For me personally, when I was growing up in Argentina, there was one particular person I befriended when I was about my son’s age who I still think about from time to time — but today, the only thing I can remember is her first name. “You can be Pen pals,” my mom once said when we were moving away; it was difficult for kids to stay in touch when they were living on the opposite side of the globe to begin with, not to mention that we had to change addresses. We did stay Pen pals for a couple of months, but that was it. After I became a mother, I asked myself, “how do I get my son to connect with other students?” and “how can he stay in touch without having to worry about changing locations?” All answers were pointing to the internet. After a lot of googling, I realized that despite the fact that there are so many social media platforms available, there not only do none cater to students specifically, but no option made me feel 100% safe and comfortable for my son to use. That was when I started thinking about creating a safe platform just for kids to connect. A place where students can gather and befriend others safely so that parents do not have to be concerned. Parents already worry about so much. From peer pressure to online safety, to screentime, there is a lot of consider. I want Urban Sandbox to be the platform where students can influence each other in a positive way, learn from each other, compete to see who can write a better book and be proud of their own achievements. Starting a platform for students is definitely not easy. We need to constantly make sure content is appropriate, impactful, positive and safe. I get inspired daily from watching what my son does and what he chooses to engage with on the platform.
When it comes to naming my platform, I have an interesting story to tell. I just happened to be watching Modern Family, which is one of my favorite sitcoms. As many may know, it tells the story of a family that is comprised of people with a lot of differences. To me, it is a microcosm of how our society should be — despite our differences, everyone lives harmoniously together. Thinking about it further, a sandbox is where children at a young age socialize and gather, and Urban represents a modern city in a modern time. And so, I decided on Urban Sandbox. For kids, relationships are built in a sandbox and for adults, this relationship culminates in family. The goal of Urban Sandbox is to foster curious and healthy children who can connect with people from a multitude of backgrounds.
My son is definitely my inspiration for the concept and Modern Family helped me find my name.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
As we look forward into the future, I would say technology will become an indispensable part of student’s lives and what we consider as disruptive is that among all social media, we are trying to create a safe social space that is dedicated only for students. Social life is not only something that is important to adults, but it’s also vital to students. Students learn how to socialize with others as they grow up, and many parents fear the type of concerning content they can encounter on unregulated social media as they are engaging with others online. For students, it is important for them to communicate in a healthy way. Children can be easily influenced negatively by peers and parents can’t be around 24/7 to monitor what their children watch or who they are friends with. On Urban Sandbox, parents can keep an eye on kids’ activities even when they are not together.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting?
I made a lot of mistakes along the way and faced a lot of roadblocks, each time I learned a different lesson. While maybe not “funny,” I did encounter something very unexpected in the beginning when I was reaching out to a lot of entrepreneurs for advice. I was connected to one early on, and when I asked her what advice she could provide, she said “don’t do it.” I thought I heard it wrong until she repeated it the second and third time. She told me that there were too many obstacles, the uncertainty of the future is not proportional to the amount of time and money invested. However, this did not discourage me. I love challenges and kept thinking in my head, how would I know if I didn’t try. Turns out roadblocks are everywhere, I sometimes feel that I take one step forward and two steps back. Nevertheless, I power through because I believe in the offering I am creating. Believing and having faith are absolutely key.
Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
I do not have a mentor in this industry yet, since this is a significant change of direction in my career. I would say my ultimate mentor is my mom. She always embraced new things. I still remember vividly that right after we moved to another country, my mom didn’t even speak the language, but she decided to explore the new town in the foreign country right away. I was too afraid to go with her, so she went by herself. After anxiously waiting for her to come home, I saw her walk in with a big smile. She said she talked to people and found the local supermarket. I asked her “you don’t even speak the language, how were you even able to talk to others?” To this day, I still don’t know how my mom communicated with strangers in a foreign country on the very first day of our arrival. She taught me to be brave, embrace new environments, and be kind to others. She always said you would be rewarded in life with something wonderful if you treat others with a kind heart. These days, children misunderstand the concept of being brave, being brave doesn’t mean you need to do something dangerous just to look cool, being brave means not being afraid to do the right thing and try new things.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good?
Disruptive technology is a good thing because it indicates that our society is evolving with new innovations and technologies. However, everything has two sides. Along with disruptive technology — safety, security, and how we use the technology have always been a concern. For instance, chatGPT is a really good technology, it saves people tons of time on research and editing, but it will not be beneficial to students if students only rely on AI tools to do their papers/homework without forming opinions of their own and learning. Social media is a great disruptive technology, but is it safe for everyone? The answer is probably no. Young children can be influenced in a very negative way by watching inappropriate content. Many accidents have happened as young students blindly followed viral videos. However, social media can be helpful if students are provided with appropriate content. That’s what Urban Sandbox can bring.
Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Disruption by definition is to interrupt the normal course, which means changes. Changes can be unwelcome because most people get comfortable with their routines. This applies to businesses as well. When a business gets comfortable with their status quo, they tend to seek less innovation, which eventually may cause the business to fail. For some businesses, that’s when disrupting an industry can be negative. A simple example, when the internet first came out, the traditional newspaper industry was disrupted. If newspaper companies did not see the internet as an opportunity and start thinking creatively about digital printing, their traditional business would have been put in danger. In my opinion, disruption is not so positive for businesses that don’t see the disruption as an opportunity. How a firm perceives disruption makes all the difference.
Can you please share 5 ideas one needs to shake up their industry? If you can, please share a story or an example for each about how Urban Sandbox is disrupting the education and technology industry.
From an education perspective, 1) Urban Sandbox is a safe place for students to socialize. It is a modern-day Penpal system. 2) Urban Sandbox allows students to take control of their own learning by providing the opportunity to browse subjects they love. It’s a marketplace of lessons. 3) Students are encouraged to share their achievements or simply something that they feel proud of, be it a picture they drew or a book they wrote. It’s a showroom of student’s works. 4) Through our business model, we are proud to provide students with many exceptional resources at an affordable price — education made accessible to every kid.
From a technology perspective, we are proud that Urban Sandbox is not only making supervision easy for parents but also letting students enjoy the freedom of using the internet.
How is Urban Sandbox going to shake things up next?
We embrace new technology and are always thinking about how to improve the platform to better serve students — so stay tuned!
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
Among all the books that I’ve read, one that made a significant impact on me was “Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro, a British author who was a Nobel Prize winner in literature in 2017. For people who are not familiar with the book, it’s about cloning children growing up in a special institution away from the world just to be used in the future to prolong people’s lives. The book is fiction, but it made me feel that something like this could really happen in the distant future. I cried reading the book, and pondered after, are we humans really going to use groundbreaking technologies for something that is so cruel and tragic? Breakthrough technology happens in every industry, I strongly believe how we use each technology is crucial.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that is relevant to your work at Urban Sandbox?
See beauty in life, stay positive and never be afraid of changes. Stay positive, if I didn’t stay positive and embrace all challenges I faced, Urban Sandbox would not exist. I am constantly thinking of how to make my platform better, make positive changes so the platform can benefit all students out there. Embrace new things like my mom taught me and use them positively.
If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Spare children from all the tragedies that are currently happening in the world; embrace our differences; learn to respect and love others.
How can our readers follow Urban Sandbox online?
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/urban_sandbox/ or Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Urban-Sandbox/100090629650940/
You can also check out our website www.urban-sandbox.com.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!