How Japan Dev grows

Site shows a 'found a job' link/banner; candidates who applied directly through the site and report which company and position hired them get a ¥3,000 Amazon Japan gift card. Eric uses the report to invoice companies for placements they didn't report.

Companies post jobs for free; Japan Dev charges a placement fee (percentage of salary) only when a hire is made through the site. Positioned against Japanese recruiters who charge 25-35%+ of starting salary ($10-30k per hire), which companies are already used to paying, while Japan Dev's fee is lower. Chosen because a founder with no sales background could close a zero-risk pitch easily, and per-post pricing is less common in Japan.

While building the job board as a side project, Eric pitched his own employer Mercari via HR people he already knew. Then used 'Mercari is on the site already' to sign the second and third companies; after a handful of well-known companies, sales got much easier. Later added testimonials with hire counts.

Pitch to Japanese companies: jobs posted free, plus Eric (native English speaker) writes their English company profile page and job descriptions, and shares them on his social media, so 'even if I'm lying, you've lost nothing'. Started with in-person office visits; switched to Zoom calls during COVID, which was more efficient.

Keeps ~100 companies listed at a time, focused on modern/international startups and foreign companies friendly to English-speaking developers; turns down most inbound companies that don't meet quality requirements. Content emphasizes company culture and work style (inspired by Key Values).

Original company discovery + reviews site: companies wouldn't engage with a reviews site, and visitors looked for ~10 seconds then got confused because there was no apply button. Added apply buttons and pivoted to a job board.

Candidate (supply) acquisition via SEO and an email list/newsletter, plus site conversion optimization once visitors were in the funnel. No specifics on content or cadence.

When a candidate clicks apply, an interstitial modal requires name, email and URL before redirecting to the company's own hiring page. Eric keeps the applicant list per company and compares applicants-per-hire against his normal averages; if a company has had hundreds of applicants and no reported hire, he investigates the list (e.g. checks LinkedIn) for unreported hires.

Companies must report a hire within ~5 days of contract signing; invoice sent then, due on the last day of the month following the join month. If the hire has an issue within ~1 month, a partial (not full) refund; simpler than recruiters' staged refund schedules (e.g. 100% in month 1, 50% after 3 months).

Had a startup-savvy lawyer (found via online reviews) draft the placement contract in Japanese for ~$1,000; Eric self-translated an English version. Contract includes an increasing monthly percentage fee for each month a new hire goes unreported. Combined with fair pricing so companies have little incentive to cheat.