Pete Codes · 2022-10-21

$60k/m from a job board

High Signal community AMA with Eric Turner of Japan Dev, a curated English-language job board for developers in Japan run with his wife, at ~$60k/month average (non-recurring, spiky). Free job posts with a success-based placement fee positioned against 25-35% recruiter fees; revenue-capture mechanisms (hire-report gift card, applicant interstitial, late-fee contract clause); first customer was his employer Mercari; candidates via SEO and email list; pivot from a company-review site; ~12 months to first dollar.

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10 tactics

Japan Dev · B2B · Japan developer job board

List jobs free and charge a fee only when someone gets hired

Sales converted pretty well; business at ~$60K/month

“So, I kind of made that pitch where it was almost like a no-brainer to like just be like, "Why not do it?"”

Workedpricingoutbound-sales

Pete Codes · 2022-10-21

Japan Dev · B2B · Japan developer job board

Give job seekers a ¥3,000 gift card for reporting their hire

Catches unreported hires at a 'pretty good hit rate'

“the found-a-job link where they can click that and basically let me know which company it was, you know, what position”

Workedrevenue-capture

Pete Codes · 2022-10-21

Japan Dev · B2B · Japan developer job board

Collect applicants' name and email before sending them to the company's job page

“when you actually go to apply, there is this interstitial uh model that pops up, and you do have to put in some information in order to actually continue on to the application”

Unknownrevenue-captureanalytics-attribution

Pete Codes · 2022-10-21

Japan Dev · B2B · Japan developer job board

Add a growing monthly fee to the contract for hires companies don't report

Founder believes cheating is rare; no numbers

“there's basically a a certain percentage that they have to pay every month that they have a new hire that they don't tell me about”

Unknownrevenue-capture

Pete Codes · 2022-10-21

Japan Dev · B2B · Japan developer job board

Sign your own employer first, then use its name to sign others

Next two companies came relatively easily

“Uh, I actually started with my own company that I was still working at, because I started as a side project.”

Workedoutbound-sales

Pete Codes · 2022-10-21

Japan Dev · B2B · Japan developer job board

Post jobs free and write each company's English profile and job ads

Enough to land the first few companies

“We're still going to help you build out this nice kind of company profile page, you know, in English.”

Workedoutbound-salescustomer-support

Pete Codes · 2022-10-21

Japan Dev · B2B · Japan developer job board

Grow the job-seeker side with SEO and an email newsletter

Slow: ~12 months to first revenue; traffic grew steadily over years

“the channels I ended up using were like SEO, my email list, things like that, and those all just take time”

Workedseoemail

Pete Codes · 2022-10-21

Japan Dev · B2B · Japan developer job board

List only ~100 good companies and turn down most who ask to join

Founder credits curation for making the model work; no numbers

“I get a lot of inbound uh interest from other companies, and I usually say no.”

Workedpositioning-niche

Pete Codes · 2022-10-21

Japan Dev · B2B · Japan developer job board

Pivot to a job board after visitors kept looking for an apply button

Led to the first paying clients

“people would load the site, look at it for, you know, 10 seconds or whatever, and then be confused, cuz there's no apply button”

Workedvalidationfeature-development

Pete Codes · 2022-10-21

Japan Dev · B2B · Japan developer job board

Have companies report hires within ~5 days; refund only part in month one

“so they have to tell us, basically, within like 5 days or so, when they sign the contract”

Unknownpayments-checkout

Pete Codes · 2022-10-21

Numbers mentioned

Subject	Metric	Value	Quote
Japan Dev	revenue Average over the past few months; not recurring, spiky month to month; currency implied by title	USD 60K/month approximate	“so we're at approximately like a $60,000 or so average kind of run rate at this point”
Japan Dev	time to milestone From having companies and jobs posted on the job board to first revenue	12 months approximate	“it was actually about a year, where I was basically grinding”
Japan Dev	customers Hiring companies listed at any given time; most inbound applicants rejected	100 companies approximate	“I have around 100 companies or so at any given time”
Japan Dev	cost incentive value; Amazon Japan gift card to candidates who report being hired after applying via the site	JPY 3,000per reported hire	“It's a ¥3,000 um Amazon gift card for Japan.”
Japan Dev	cost Lawyer fee to draft the Japanese placement-fee contract	USD 1,000/one-time estimate	“I want to say it was like around $1,000 or so, so not super cheap.”
benchmarkRecruiting-firm placement fee in Japan as % of a hire's starting salary	commission rate 'if not more'	25–35%per hire approximate	“often like 25, 30, 35%, if not more, of someone's starting salary”
benchmarkRecruiting fee Japanese companies pay per hire (percentage of salary), per host recalling a private conversation	commission rate	20–30%per hire approximate	“so we'll pay, you know, 20, 30% or something.”
benchmarkAmount high-end Japanese tech companies readily pay per hire to recruiters	price	USD 10K–30Kper hire approximate	“These companies will not bat an eye to dropping, you know, $10,000, $20,000, $30,000, or whatever for one applicant.”
benchmarkTypical per-post price charged by job boards	price	USD 300–500per job post approximate	“you're asking people to be pay like, you know, $300 or $500 per post or whatev- ever”