Businesses collect more data than ever, but are they turning it into something useful? That’s where the struggle begins.
Manual research is too slow, expensive, and outdated for today’s fast-moving world.
Teams spend hours digging through reports, tracking competitors’ websites in real-time, and qualifying leads—only to end up with outdated, incomplete, or biased data.
Wasted time isn’t just frustrating—it slows growth and disadvantages companies.
Takahiro Morinaga and Gagandeep Tomar saw this problem firsthand—and they weren’t about to accept it.
As former prominent tech experts with experience at Amazon, MoneyForward, and Apple, they knew research could be more competent, faster, and more reliable.
Determined to build a better solution, they founded Trissino Inc. and developed two AI agents, Steve and Astri—platforms built to do in seconds what used to take days, specifically tracking competitors’ websites and providing real-time insights.
These tools don’t just speed things up—they change how businesses find answers and make decisions.
With AI taking the lead, the future of company research isn’t about working harder—it’s about working smarter.
Why Business Research Is Broken (And How AI Can Fix It)
Big ideas don’t come from nowhere. They come from people who’ve lived the problem—and refused to accept it.
For most businesses, research means endless hours of compiling reports, tracking competitors’ websites, and analyzing markets.
Some spend fortunes on consulting firms. Others assign in-house teams to sift through massive data sets. Either way, the result is slow decision-making and outdated insights.
This isn’t just a minor headache—it’s a growth killer.
The companies that win move fast. They make decisions based on real-time intelligence, not last quarter’s trends.
Takahiro and Gagandeep saw an opportunity to eliminate these inefficiencies through AI-driven automation. That vision led to the development of Steve and Astri.
Meet the Experts Behind the AI Revolution
Behind every innovation are individuals whose expertise and vision drive progress.
Takahiro Morinaga and Gagandeep Tomar, with backgrounds in big tech and AI, combine strategic insight with technical expertise to revolutionize company research automation.
Their journey from leading tech firms to AI entrepreneurship showcases how adaptability and innovation can reshape industries.
Takahiro Morinaga: From Amazon to AI Entrepreneurship
Photo: Takahiro Morinaga | LinkedIn
At Amazon Japan, Takahiro Morinaga helped turn toy brands into runaway successes. Now, he’s using AI to solve an even more significant challenge—business research.
With a background in commerce from Waseda University and business experience in both Japan and the United States, he has a deep understanding of global markets. At Amazon, he led projects to launch North American toy brands in the Japanese market. He also managed Japanese brands; among the products he worked on, the limited-edition Demon Slayer toy achieved great success.
After Amazon, he co-founded multiple startups, including a real estate marketplace that secured nearly $1 million in funding. But recognizing the explosive potential of AI, he pivoted toward artificial intelligence and co-founded Trissino Inc. to rethink how businesses gather intelligence.
Gagandeep Tomar: AI Engineer and Product Innovator
Photo Gagandeep Tomar | LinkedIn
Gagandeep Tomar doesn’t just build AI—he builds AI that solves real business problems.
A graduate of IIT Mandi with a degree in Computer Science, Gagandeep has spent years refining AI and automation technologies. His career includes milestones at Apple, MoneyForward, and Tonichi Insatsu, where he led teams in developing AI-powered financial solutions, cloud-based business tools, and high-performance enterprise applications.
At MoneyForward, one of Japan’s fastest-growing startups, he was the youngest Deputy Divisional Manager, integrating AI into core products and leading a team of engineers to develop microservices that transformed automation and efficiency.
A multiple hackathon winner, including the Tech Buildathon 2024, Gagandeep has proven his ability to build AI-powered innovations that make a real-world impact.
Introducing Steve and Astri: The Future of Company Research
Takahiro and Gagandeep developed two AI tools for the research work most teams cannot afford to do manually.
Steve – The AI-Powered Marketing Strategist
Photo: hiresteve.ai
Steve tracks competitors’ websites and provides real-time insights, helping businesses anticipate shifts in market trends and consumer demand. With automated competitive analysis, it delivers instant comparisons of company performance against competitors, offering valuable data to support strategic decision-making.
How it Helps Businesses:
- Enterprise Companies: Gain a data-driven competitive edge without spending millions on consulting firms.
- Marketing and Sales Teams: Automate competitor tracking, customer segmentation, and market forecasting.
Astri – AI for Startup Discovery
Photo: hireastri.ai
Astri is built for investors, venture capitalists, and analysts who must discover the next big startup before the market catches on.
- AI-Powered Venture Research – Find promising startups at the pre-seed and seed stage.
- Real-Time Company Analysis – AI scans financials, team backgrounds, and market conditions to provide a startup score.
- Automated Due Diligence – Reduce time spent on screening by 80 percent with AI-powered research.
- Predictive Insights – Uncover companies poised for hypergrowth before mainstream investors catch on.
How it Helps Businesses:
- Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors: Make data-driven investment decisions faster.
- Corporate Innovation Teams: Identify strategic acquisition opportunities before competitors.
Why AI is Changing Business Research (And Why It Matters for You)
Businesses that embrace AI-driven research won’t just keep up—they’ll move faster, make smarter decisions, and pull ahead of the competition.
The real question isn’t whether AI will reshape business research. It’s whether you’ll be ready when it does.
Takahiro Morinaga and Gagandeep Tomar’s AI solutions arrive at a critical time.
Companies are overloaded with data but lack the tools to extract precise, actionable insights. AI changes that equation. Automating research doesn’t just speed up the process—it improves accuracy, eliminates blind spots, and reduces costs.
For professionals, this shift is more than just an industry trend. It’s a career-defining moment.
AI-driven research, including tools like Steve that track competitors’ websites in real-time, is rewriting the playbook for market analysts, finance teams, and sales strategists. Those who adapt—leveraging tools like Steve and Astri—won’t just stay relevant. They’ll lead.
The ability to interpret and apply AI-driven insights isn’t a nice to have—it’s becoming the edge that separates top performers from the rest.
Businesses that integrate AI into their research strategies aren’t just making better decisions.
They’re making them faster, with a level of precision that manual research can’t match.
The future is AI-powered—and it’s already here.
