Eight years ago I was interning at LINE Corporation.
There was an older woman who sold banana cue outside our office building every afternoon. I used to buy from her almost every day. One time she noticed my ID and asked, “Ms, you work for LINE?”
I nodded.
She pulled out this old Android phone with a cracked screen and said, “Can you help me sign up? My neighbor said if I’m on GoFood more people will order. My son tried but we don’t understand the forms.”
So there we were, sitting on tiny plastic stools by the sidewalk, uploading photos of her banana cue, setting prices, explaining delivery radius while motorcycles zoomed past us.
Two months later she stopped me again.
Not to ask for help, but to show me her phone.
“Look,” she said, smiling. “I get orders even when it rains now.”