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Episode Summary
Welcome to the tenth episode of our new series Japan Scalers. In this series, we will only interview guests who have surpassed 100 million yen in revenue annually.
In this tenth episode, we are joined by Erika Iwai and Allen Wong, co-founders of Sollective, which is a Japan based corporation that is re-inventing freelance in Japan by changing the views of companies towards freelancers.
Join us as Erika and Allen explains the stages of their business progression that led them to be recognized as one of Japan’s best 100 startups in 2023 by the Toyo Keizai magazine.
This podcast episode is perfect for:
- Foreign business owners who generate more than 10 million yen revenue yearly
- Foreign startup founders who want to enter or grow in the Japanese market
- Country managers who want to grow their business in Japan
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Links from Guest Appearance
Show Notes
0:00 Introduction
3:35 About Sollective
4:44 How Does Sollective Help Freelancers?
6:04 What is “High-Level Talent”
10:35 What is Sollective’s Competitive Advantage for Getting Into the Industry?
12:35 The Stages They Have Developed as a Company and How Many Users They Have
Now
14:06 Stage 1: The Beginning
16:38 What Is the difference between an HR Generalist and an HR BP?
19:59 Does Sollective find that to be a Huge Advantage in Developing the
Product?
21:29 How Did Sollective Gain their Initial Users?
28:26 Tips on How to Progress from the Starting Stage in the Japanese Market
31:56 Business Models Changes in the Earlier Stages
35:43 How Sollective Adapted their Personalities and Business Style in the
Beginning
38:27 Stage 2: The Investment
39:43 How the Managed the Challenge of handling and balancing Companies and
Freelancers in a Two-Way Marketplace
44:44 Stage 3
48:41 How Work Contracts and the Qualified Invoice System Impacted their
Business
54:19 Tips on How to Progress to Round 2 from Round 1
59:37 About the Trust between Them and Their Clients and Final Thoughts
