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
Workedpricingoutbound-salespositioning-niche
What they did
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.
What happened
'Pretty good conversion rate' on sales; business at ~$60k/month
In their words
Pete Codes · $60k/m from a job board“So, I kind of made that pitch where it was almost like a no-brainer to like just be like, "Why not do it?"”
“so they are used to paying that like, you know, um u- upon-successful-hire type of fee”
Related topics
Get tactics like this every Monday
New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from this episode
- Japan Dev: Give job seekers a ¥3,000 gift card for reporting their hireCatches unreported hires at a 'pretty good hit rate'
- Japan Dev: Collect applicants' name and email before sending them to the company's job page
- Japan Dev: Add a growing monthly fee to the contract for hires companies don't reportFounder believes cheating is rare; no numbers
- Japan Dev: Sign your own employer first, then use its name to sign othersNext two companies came relatively easily
- Japan Dev: Post jobs free and write each company's English profile and job adsEnough to land the first few companies
- Japan Dev: Grow the job-seeker side with SEO and an email newsletterSlow: ~12 months to first revenue; traffic grew steadily over years
- Japan Dev: List only ~100 good companies and turn down most who ask to joinFounder credits curation for making the model work; no numbers
- Japan Dev: Pivot to a job board after visitors kept looking for an apply buttonLed to the first paying clients
- Japan Dev: Have companies report hires within ~5 days; refund only part in month one