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
Workedoutbound-sales
What they did
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.
What happened
Second and third companies came relatively easily; getting companies 'wasn't too bad'
In their words
Pete Codes · $60k/m from a job board“Uh, I actually started with my own company that I was still working at, because I started as a side project.”
“"Hey, Mercari is on the site already. You know, they're legit. You know them."”
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: List jobs free and charge a fee only when someone gets hiredSales converted pretty well; business at ~$60K/month
- 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: 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