# Rob Pereyda

**Building the future of anime IP & commerce** — San Jose, CA, United States

> I reached out to Crunchyroll in March 2008 after reading about their Series A from Venrock. Five days later, I was employee #9 on a plane to Japan with the founders. In under eight months, we closed the first 60 deals as I architected the SVOD model that became the foundation of global anime streaming — and of the company Sony acquired for $1.2B. Since Crunchyroll, I've held leadership roles at Bandai Namco Tokyo HQ and VIZ Media, splitting over a decade between the U.S. and Japan. I also started my own consultancy, Henshin, to bring anime-specific consulting to the space. More recently, I was Head of Anime, Editorial & Publishing at Netflix, where we grew anime viewing by over 50% in 2020. Now, my team and I are building Henshin AI, a new venture turning anime characters into storefronts. Consider this: what if we could get 10% of North American anime fans to monetize like Japan? That would be nearly $2 BILLION per year in new revenue. We're starting with anime, building off my 21-year career as well as a massive anime consulting deal flow. Next up will be sports, movies, K-pop and more. Henshin AI is raising its pre-seed round. Reach out if you want to talk anime, AI, or what's next in the space. Make anime bigger or go down trying.

## Links

- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/rpereyda

## Experience

### CCO, Gamebeast (2024-12 – 2026-05)
San Francisco Bay Area · -Owned Japan market development, building a pipeline with Dentsu and major Japanese IP holders for Roblox, Discord, and TikTok brand integrations. -Led all revenue, partnerships, and GTM strategy for a Roblox analytics and advertising marketplace serving 100M+ monthly active users.

### Co-Founder & CEO, Henshin AI (2024-04 – present)
Anime characters are the new storefront and Henshin AI is the commerce layer: our character concierges turn fandom into direct revenue. The Problem Engaged anime fans in Japan monetize at roughly 3.3x the rate of fans in the US — not from loving anime more, but because Japan built the infrastructure to take fans' money. Everywhere else, fandom has a last-mile problem, and billions in demand leaks to bootlegs every year. The Solution Character concierges close that last mile. The characters fans identify with become the guides, curating from licensed catalogs, recommending like the best shop clerk in Akihabara, and selling — inside a conversation, at the exact moment of intent. Fans get frictionless access to official goods. IP holders and brands get a direct revenue channel and the fan data they've never had. Why Us Henshin, my licensing practice since 2014, gives us live deal flow with Tokyo's publishers and producers. We can do what platforms can't: access IP, keep licensors happy, and do the "nemawashi" needed to make deals happen. We're starting with anime, where I hold the relationships; the same infrastructure extends to sports, movies, K-pop, and every fandom with the same last-mile problem. Pre-seed (angel), running a select number of pilots with early design partners. If you own IP or an engaged audience: rob@henshin.ai

### COO, 555 Comic (2022-09 – 2023-12)
San Francisco Bay Area · -Grew flagship virtual character @crc_luna to 3M+ followers — the world's largest anime TikTok account — including 40% growth in six months. -Got 555's original IP featured on TV TOKYO in Japan.

### Head of Anime, Editorial & Publishing, Netflix (2020-04 – 2022-06)
Tokyo, Japan · -Led Netflix's anime growth flywheel, driving 50%+ annual viewership increase in 2020 across the global content slate and winning regional buy-in for anime worldwide. -Launched Netflix Anime YouTube and grew it to 1M subscribers (now 2.6M) across six audio and nine subtitle languages with zero ad spend. -Led creative marketing campaigns for Sailor Moon and The Witcher anime films, achieving #1 and #2 category performance. -Launched Netflix's first VTuber; partnered with data science on anime-specific product features

### VP, Business Development, VIZ Media (2016-05 – 2020-01)
San Francisco Bay Area · -Executive produced Seis Manos — VIZ Media's first original anime and first Netflix Original Series — sourcing IP, studio, and talent, leading guild contracts, and bringing the title to market. -Built VIZ's gaming portfolio from zero, closing ownership or strategic participation in five game titles. -Developed new content acquisition pipelines across Japan and the US, closing Castlevania home video and Homestuck publishing & merchandise.

### North American CEO & Global CSO, Viewster (2015-06 – 2016-05)
-Launched OMAKASE, a hybrid video/merchandise subscription, achieving 100% growth each billing cycle.

### Founder, Henshin (2014-08 – present)
San Francisco Bay Area · Anime-dedicated boutique consultancy focused on licensing, production, and M&A, built on over two decades in the industry. -North American licensing agent for manga giant Kodansha, closing numerous deals for IPs such as Attack on Titan. -M&A and acquisitions advisory for anime, manga, and game companies — including advising Tapas leading up to its $510M acquisition by Kakao. -Brokered deals across categories: Displate's entry into anime (Dragon Ball Z, Demon Slayer, and more), N LITE's MFINDA serialization in Kodansha publications, Slushii's Webtoon Original, and more.

### Corporate Advisor & Content Acquisition Consultant, Viewster (2014-04 – 2015-05)

### VP, Business Development, Network Strategy Office, BANDAI NAMCO Games Inc. (2011-02 – 2014-03)
Within 23 wards, Tokyo, Japan · -Co-authored Bandai Namco's midterm digital strategy, contributing to a 16.9% Content Business SBU revenue increase to JPY 264B in FY12. -Founded classic IP incubator, overseeing release of 20+ transmedia titles across webcomics, animation, and new games. -Led implementation of Bandai Namco ID — the company's first shared identity system — across multiple business units and titles.

### VP of Licensing & Corporate Officer (執行役員), Crunchyroll (2009-05 – 2011-01)
Tokyo, Japan | San Francisco, California · -Employee #9. Created the revenue-share SVOD subscription model — now over 21M subscribers — and closed the first 60 anime simulcast deals, beginning with Naruto Shippuden. -Established the content acquisition pipeline and royalty reporting system that became the industry template. -Sourced $750K strategic investments each from TV TOKYO and Bitway; co-founded Tokyo office as Corporate Officer. -Built the licensing foundation of the business that Sony acquired for $1.2 billion.

### Senior Director of Business Development, Crunchyroll (2008-03 – 2009-04)

### Licensing Specialist, Capcom (2005-09 – 2007-11)
Greater Los Angeles Area · Japan liaison for all creative approvals; business development lead on publishing and music licensing deals.

## Education

### B.A. in Chemistry, Santa Clara University (2000-01 – 2003-01)

## Projects

### “Save the Cat! Goes Anime” Story Analysis Series
Executive Producer / creator of a story analysis series breaking down anime into story beats as told by famous AniTubers ("Anime YouTubers"). Released 3 episodes.

### Netflix Hack Day Winter 2022
Hackathon team lead, working on business plan, script, narration, video editing, blender modeling, and other items.

### Netflix Anime x Israel Adesanya “Baki Hanma” Collaboration
Leader of a cross-platform collaboration between Netflix and the iconic mixed martial artist including Stylebender's very first anime voice acting role in Baki Hanma.

### “The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf” Creative Marketing Campaign
Creative marketing lead on the campaign for the anime film, rolling into the franchise team.

### “Sailor Moon Eternal” Film Creative Marketing Campaign
Creative marketing lead on the campaign for the anime film.

### “Netflix x Anime Trending” Talk Show
Executive producer / creator of a talk show combining fan polling from Anime Trending with the biggest AniTubers ("Anime YouTubers") around. Released 6 episodes.

### “Born to Fight” Stan Bush Music Video
Executive Producer for the Netflix Anime music video.

### “Seis Manos” Netflix Original Series
Executive Producer for the Netflix Original Series. Released 8 episodes.

### “OMAKASE” Subscription Service
Founder/creator of the anime lifestyle subscription combining merchandise, video, music, and comics.

### Bandai Namco’s “ShiftyLook” IP Incubator
Founder/creator/producer (i.e. internal entrepreneur) of the ShiftyLook project which took classic IP sitting on the shelf and used the internet to bring them to a new audience. Released 25 titles across webcomics, animation, and new games.

### “Bravoman” Animated Series
Showrunner for reimagined animated take on the classic Namco arcade character.

### “Namco High” Video Game
Lead Producer for Namco mashup game with guest appearances by some of Homestuck's finest.

### “Wonder Momo: Typhoon Booster” Video Game
Producer for sequel to classic Namco arcade game.

### “Wonder Momo” Anime
Producer for the anime continuation of the classic Namco video game.

### “Mappy” Animated Series
Producer for the mashup animated show reimagining the classic video game.

## Skills

Business Development, Strategic Partnerships, Go-to-Market Strategy, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Content Strategy, Digital Transformation, Digital Strategy, Consumer Insights, Start-ups, Entrepreneurship, Product Development, Product Management, Consumer Internet, Social Networking, Monetization, Digital Distribution, Content Acquisitions, Licensing, Brand Licensing, Creative Marketing, Japanese, Anime, Growth, Innovation, Strategy, Producing, Product Marketing, Brand Development, Brand Management, Marketing Campaign Management, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Influencer Marketing, Community Management, Public Relations, Entertainment, Digital Media, Animation, Video Games, Mobile Games

## Credentials

- **Rob Pereyda: 11 Startup Founders I've Met Who Are Shaking Up the Anime Industry** (issued 2024-06)

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Source: https://saywise.com/rpereyda (last modified 2026-07-15T12:59:34.826Z)