I’ve got a special bonus episode for you today.
Last month, I moderated a panel discussion at Coral Capital’s “Bilingual’s and Gaijin in Startups” event.’
Our panel focused on what foreigners should expect when working at Japanese startups and what Japanese startups should start doing to better support their international employees.
It was a great conversation with four amazing people from four of Japan’s most interesting startups.
- Tetsuya Sawanobori of Connected Robotics
- Jordan Fisher of Zehitomo
- Takanori Sato of Shippio
- Tatsuo Kinoshita of Mercari
This is a bonus episode, so the recording is straight off the board. There is no editing, no transcription, and no witty summary at the end alluding to the larger significance of the discussion.
But a lot of good ideas were shared on stage, so I really wanted to share it with you.
If you’ve ever thought about working for a Japanese startup, I think you’ll really enjoy this.
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I also went, although I couldn’t stay long. It was a great event and inspiring to see others scaling their startups & how they are hiring.
Tim, do you know, how many Japanese startups are giving stock options to their employees ?
I saw data showing international startups pay better than Japanese startups. I guess international startups & founders follow SV in the strategy that to recruit & to retain the best developers, they must pay them very well or give them stock options.
I don’t doubt the quality of international developers but it seems from job postings in events or online that they aren’t being paid much compared to other cities in Asia or US. So short or long term isn’t a great strategy to Tokyo startup ecosystem to compete for the best talent when offers aren’t the best.
Hi Ken,
Thanks for listening. I don’t have any numbers on stock option grants, but more and more of the startups I talk to are giving stock options. A number of CEOs have told me that they believe they have to do so in order to attract top-class employees. Things have changed a lot of the past few years, and if I had to guess, I would say the majority of new startups seem to be granted options.
However, both salaries and option grants are lower in Tokyo than they are in San Francisco. However, the true cost of living in Tokyo is much lower than it is in San Francisco, so the lifestyle gap is not as large as it seems from just looking at the numbers.
Tim