Kaizen Culture was founded in 2023 by Mitchell Durham, Jonathan Staynor, and Nathan Blockley to address a gap in the Australian Karate community. Nathan recognised that aspiring athletes lacked awareness of potential pathways and opportunities in sports karate, and that there was limited information available to support and inspire them to embark on such competitive journeys. Drawing on their shared 25+ years of experience, Nathan approached Mitchell with the idea of creating an organisation that would empower and inspire the next generation of Australian karate athletes.

After recruiting Jonathan, the team established Kaizen Culture as a non-profit organisation committed to working collaboratively with clubs and associations in order to provide athletes with the best opportunities to achieve their potential. To come up with a name that encapsulated everything they wanted to contribute proved difficult in the early days of the venture. However, after reading the autobiography of mixed martial arts hall-of-famer George St. Pierre, Nathan loaned the book to Mitchell, where he marked out a page outlining the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen. The Kaizen philosophy, which translates to "continuous improvement", defined how St. Pierre approached training and life on his journey to become the best fighter in the world. This immediately resonated with Mitchell and aligned with how he has approached his own competitive career. He saw an opportunity to centre their mission around continuous learning and improvement to create a long-lasting culture within the Australian karate community. 

Thus, Kaizen Culture was born.