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[Founder Interview #5] Yuki Nakashima (HR Cloud) – Part 2

  • Interview
2026.06.18

Reducing HR Workload by 80%:
Solving the Three Major Recruiting Problems of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

In Part 1, we heard why President Nakashima decided to become an entrepreneur, and the details of his journey to starting a company at age 27. In Part 2, we bring you the inside story behind the creation and surprising features of our main service, “Mr. All-in-One Recruiting Manager”, which innovates recruitment through DX (digital transformation). We also learn about the growth strategy that turned the COVID-19 pandemic into a tailwind for HR Cloud, and being at the forefront of AI utilization.

◆Creating a Service to Solve the Three Major Recruiting Problems of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Sugihara:
You have a mission to become a platform provider in the human resources industry. Specifically, what kind of products do you offer, and for what kind of customers?

Nakashima:
At this point, we’re providing an AI recruiting agent service for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that want to hire five or more new graduates.

SMEs have three main issues when it comes to recruitment: they cannot attract enough applicants, prospective candidates decline their offers, and they do not have enough dedicated staff.

When I was working in sales at Rakuten and Gakujo, every time I talked with owners and HR managers of various SMEs, they all shared these same problems. There were almost no services in the world that could solve these problems directly. Therefore, we started with a recruitment agency business first, and that led to where we are today.

Sugihara:
So, in addition to recruitment agency services, you were also providing a service where robots and AI automate recruiting tasks.

◆Mr. All-in-One Recruiting Manager — A System that Reduces HR Work by 80%

Sugihara:
Could you tell us again about your main service, Mr. All-in-One Recruiting Manager?

Nakashima:
In most companies, HR staff manage recruitment using Excel or spreadsheets. They attract applicants using various platforms like Mynavi, Rikunabi, OfferBox, and other recruitment agencies, as I’m sure you know.

They copy the gathered applicant information into an Excel spreadsheet, where they manage thousands of people; checking whether an invitation to an information session was sent, whether someone attended it, collecting questionnaires, sending invitations for the first selection phase…it takes a lot of effort and is very complicated.

To make matters worse, they have to send emails or make phone calls to each person individually. After an interview evaluation, they have to ask the interviewer how it went, which creates back-and-forth communication. Recently, many interviews are held online, so once the interview schedule is confirmed, they have to issue and send an online URL...they have to do things like this for thousands of people.

Sugihara:
True, when you list it like that, it seems like a lot. How do you automate it?

Nakashima:
First, our system can be managed on the cloud, and it has strong automation features. Once applicant information is added to the interface, Mr. All-in-One Recruiting Manager automatically registers each applicant. Once registered, applicants are automatically invited to the information session.

Furthermore, applicants receive that invitation on the LINE messaging app, so they can make a reservation by just tapping the LINE message. When they make a reservation, they receive detailed information about the session, and an online URL is also automatically issued. After the information session ends, the participants receive a questionnaire.

On that questionnaire, if students press the button that indicates they want to proceed to the next selection phase, then the next selection invitation is also sent to their LINE. Students complete their reservation for the next selection phase on LINE, and the online URL is sent automatically. It is a system where everything runs without the HR staff doing anything.

In fact, this service reduces HR work by 80%. For example, we interviewed one of our clients, BOLD INC., and they recruit 300 new graduates a year with only a single HR staff member.
☆Customer Success Story: BOLD INC.
https://www.career-cloud.asia/lp/interview/bold (webpage in Japanese only)

You could say that if they recruit 300 people, they must have around 1,000 applicants. That kind of scale would normally be impossible for one HR person. We also use this same service for our own mid-career hiring, and we hire 20 people a year with zero dedicated HR staff.

However, there are some things that only HR personnel can do. Interviews and casual meetings are tasks that require a human touch. We built Mr. All-in-One Recruiting Manager with the hope that as it manages all of the other aspects through automatic processes, HR staff can focus on the tasks that only people can do.

The above image depicts the various processes Mr. All-in-One Recruiting Manager takes care of automatically, from building an applicant pool and managing candidates to tracking the status of selection and follow-ups.

◆Why the Name “Mr. All-in-One Recruiting Manager”

Sugihara:
Speaking of which, you gave this service a great name! Mr. All-in-One Recruiting Manager emphasizes the “Mr. Manager” part, and your commercials also give off a highly-approachable impression. What kind of intention is behind this?

Nakashima:
Thanks! Large companies can use a cool name with foreign loan words, spend a lot of money on advertising, and then the general public will eventually catch onto the name…but we can’t possibly spend that much money.

Therefore, I thought it was important that people can understand what the service does just by hearing it once, and that way, it can get popular organically. When people hear “Mr. All-in-One Recruiting Manager”, they can grasp that it’s an all-inclusive, recruitment management system. When the HR staff of various companies are talking with each other and they ask, “What system are you using?” Our clients can immediately answer, “We use Mr. Manager.” If our service’s name had a bunch of loan words, they might say, “Ahh, what was it called, again…?”
(Translation note: this service’s original Japanese name is 採用一括かんりくん.)

Sugihara:
That’s a good point, now that you mention it. Was this your idea, President Nakashima?

Nakashima:
I have a close surfing buddy who is a senior business owner, and he does a lot for me. I often ask him questions about business management. When I was launching this service, I asked him, “What would be a good name for this service?” He responded, “How about something like, ‘Mr. All-in-One Recruiting Manager’?”

He also gave me some valuable advice about my company’s name. It was originally “Roots”, but he advised me, “With a name like that, people won’t get what your company does, so why don’t you change it to something like ‘HR Cloud’?”

Sugihara:
I think you’re surrounded by wonderful senior business owners like that precisely because you have such a teachable personality. The fact that you immediately adopted his naming suggestions proves it beyond a doubt.

◆The COVID-19 Pandemic as a Turning Point — A Crucial Decision that Caught the Tailwind

Sugihara:
The number of active accounts for Mr. All-in-One Recruiting Manager has surpassed 1,800 companies. Were there any pivotal moments in reaching this point?

Nakashima:
First of all, the COVID era was a big one. Up until the pandemic, our service had only grown to about 100 companies. We were not putting much strength into sales, and at that time, we were still focusing on our recruitment agency business, so it pretty much stayed at around 100 companies.

Then in 2020, when COVID-19 started spreading, companies reduced their hiring at first, but after that, they realized they still needed to hire, so hiring started to move again. The number of companies doing remote hiring began to increase because of the pandemic. When that happened, they realized they needed to manage recruitment on the cloud to do remote hiring. They started looking for a recruitment management system, and suddenly Mr. All-in-One Recruiting Manager started to get more and more inquiries.

At that time, we saw our chance, so we hired a well-known actor to do commercials for us. That’s basically how it went, but there is also a background story.

Actually, while doing the recruitment agency business, we had also been investing in our Mr. Manager system for a long time, so we were 200 million yen in debt. Then, just as we were in such a critical situation, COVID-19 came, and our sales from the recruitment agency business were cut in half. Things looked pretty bad.

At that time, we were able to get a 200 million yen loan through the government’s safety net program. Then, inquiries for Mr. All-in-One Recruiting Manager started to increase, and I thought, “You know what, let’s bet big on this!”, and we put all of the borrowed 200 million yen towards advertising. For me, it was the biggest gamble of my life.

In one year, the number of corporate buyers increased by about 300 all at once, and from there, it has now become 1,800 companies. We also placed advertisements on NewsPicks, and we’re running commercials again. In the past few months, companies are adopting this service at double the pace compared to last year.

◆The Forefront of AI Utilization — Recruiting DX Utilizing ChatGPT and Claude

Sugihara:
Since last year, you’ve been releasing multiple AI features. “AI Scout” for discovering potential candidates and “Attract AI” for following up with candidates. Is this part of a clear strategy?

Nakashima:
Oh, yes. It’s about eliminating HR tasks and turning them into hiring results. When we thought about what is necessary to solve the three main problems I mentioned earlier, we realized we must automate HR tasks, which are simply too numerous, using AI and robots.

Also, regarding the problem of candidates declining offers, in the first place, HR staff should share proper feedback from interviews along with a warm, caring invitation to the next selection phase. However, most HR staff are too busy, so they cannot easily do it. AI replaces that. We developed this service by focusing on reducing HR work and raising applicants’ interest levels.

Sugihara:
Were you thinking about this before GenAI was really booming?

Nakashima:
In terms of RPA (Robotic Process Automation), our system was already one step ahead of other companies. We had many robot functions for automation. However, we had not started on AI at all.

Technically, Mr. All-in-One Recruiting Manager sends data to Claude (Anthropic) or ChatGPT in prompt form, and displays the results. The core of this service is that we design those prompts ourselves, and we have the know-how to automatically generate warm messages specialized to lower the rate at which candidates reject offers.

~To be continued in Part 3~

Interview conducted by D-POPS GROUP’s advisor Genta Sugihara.

HR Cloud Co., Ltd.

Representative: President and CEO Yuki Nakashima
Address: 7F Kioicho Park Bldg., 3-6 Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo
Established: April 2014
Website: https://hr-cloud.co.jp/

Finally, in the third part of the interview, we discuss:

・Crisis and growth opportunities from creating organizational structure
・Experiencing the future at CES
・Relationship with D-POPS GROUP
・Similarities with a Venture Ecosystem
・And other topics
Be sure to check it out here:
https://d-pops-group.co.jp/en/column/hrcloud-part3/

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[Entrepreneur Interview #18] Fuminori Akamatsu (opzt) – Part 2
Life-Changing Experiences and a Valued Organizational Structure: opzt’s Future in Developing Trust In this final installment of a two-part interview, we asked President Akamatsu about his experiences as a musician, what made him decide to be an entrepreneur, his dedication to organization building, the entertainment business he launched after a serious illness, the background of the M&A with D-POPS GROUP, his resonance with realizing a Venture Ecosystem, his vision for five years from now, and a message for our readers. (This interview was conducted in August 2026.) This is the latter part of the interview. To read the first part, click the link below.https://d-pops-group.co.jp/en/column/opzt-interview-first-part/ ◆Applying Experiences from His Band Member Days to Business Management Sugihara:Let’s step away from the business topics for a bit and talk more about you. I’ve heard you used to be a musician. Is that true? Akamatsu:Yes, it is true. I played the bass when I was younger and lived in a world completely different from corporate management. However, in a band, if only one person is skilled, the team doesn’t come together. I think there are actually quite a few similarities with managing a company. Everyone has their own personality and abilities. But in the sense of trying to build a single stage on which to perform, I feel corporate management is much the same. Sugihara:So you cultivated a sense of teamwork and balance over a long period in the field of music. Has your experience as a musician back then helped you in your role as CEO? Akamatsu:I suppose so, though it’s hard to say for sure. The sense of reading the audience’s reactions during a live performance and grasping what they want might be something I still utilize today. Sugihara:That makes sense. You definitely can’t do business with major corporations if you can’t read the room. ◆Creating a Company to Be Proud Of: The Background of opzt’s Founding Sugihara:You touched on this briefly earlier, but could you tell us again: what was the catalyst for starting opzt, and how do you feel now looking back on the 13 years since founding it? Akamatsu:My original motivation for starting a business wasn’t a grand plan to build a massive corporation. Rather, it was a somewhat modest ambition to run a business I alone was responsible for, and create a company that my employees and I could truly be proud of and satisfied with. I didn’t have some sort of grand vision. About 20 years ago, the HR industry was full of extremely exploitative, so-called “black companies”. While working in that environment, part of me felt a desire bubbling up to build a company that would value workers more and could respond more quickly and flexibly to clients. That was how I decided to start up opzt in 2013. Looking back over these 13 years, more than the company’s sales or scale, my strongest feeling is that we’ve somehow made it this far thanks to the connections and relationships we’ve built with people. Sugihara:It’s wonderful that your journey began not with a grand corporate scheme—which doesn’t always go well for entrepreneurs without a concrete plan—but from a genuine desire to provide everyone with an ideal workplace due to your personal experience. In my case, I joined my previous systems company intending to be an engineer, but as it turned out, it used to be a dispatch business back then. My boss would only show his face about once every six months, and I was constantly working at a client’s factory. In those days, we were just seen as unit prices. Even if I was highly evaluated on-site, it was never reflected in my salary at all. That was the era, wasn’t it? In the end, I quit three years later, ha ha. Akamatsu:That’s exactly how it was. In those times, dispatch staff weren’t allowed to take paid leave, and if we were short on people, we were told to go recruit strangers on the street. We were judged solely on numbers and told to push for more overtime. It really was an unreasonable era. Sugihara:Speaking of that, I get the impression that employees who joined around the time of your founding have stayed with you for a long time. Is there anything you prioritize or keep in mind regarding your people in terms of organization building and company management? Akamatsu:Honestly, I simply have nothing but gratitude towards them. I am truly thankful that many employees have stayed for so long. What I value is not looking at employees merely from the perspective of job titles or numbers. Everyone has things they are good at and things they struggle with; some excel at sales, while others are great at administration. Rather than forcing everyone into the same mold, I consciously try to create roles where each person can thrive. Also, rather than having only the founding members make decisions, I want to properly provide opportunities to newer employees and nurture the next generation of leaders and managers. While we’re intentionally preserving those values, at the same time we are trying to transition into an organization that operates according to systems rather than relying on specific individuals. ◆A Philosophy of Helping to Raise Up Executives Instead of Micromanaging Individual Branches Sugihara:I often meet with the team members of opzt’s Tokyo branch based in Shibuya Hikarie. Even when you aren’t there, they work incredibly earnestly and harmoniously. They maintain a bright, positive atmosphere, mixing seriousness with jokes as they manage their tasks. With offices scattered across Nagoya, Shikoku, and Kyushu, as you mentioned earlier, how do your staff and employees work so independently and reliably? Akamatsu:Well, the key is actually to not micromanage each branch. The clients and recruitment markets are completely different depending on the region, and we’ve learned in the past that simply forcing them to use the patterns that are successful at our headquarters doesn’t work. And I think a major reason the Tokyo team can operate autonomously is that the local members think for themselves, make decisions, and commit to the results. It feels less like managing a branch and more like helping branch managers to grow. Sugihara:That’s impressive. Everyone truly acts with a mindset like they’re also an executive, and seem driven to boost Tokyo’s performance. ◆Lessons from a Serious Illness: The Background Behind the Birth of the Entertainment Business “SELEBRO” Sugihara:On a different note, I understand you run an entertainment-related business separate from opzt, called “SELEBRO”. You launched this company after opzt, correct? Akamatsu:Yes, that’s right. Currently, through SELEBRO, we operate live music venues and nightclubs, manage artists, and do event planning for music festivals, etc. As for our business model, we are also heavily involved in entertainment tech, a blending of entertainment and technology. It’s separate from opzt, and while its headquarters is also in Osaka, they aren’t here in this building. My love for music and entertainment was one of my original reasons for founding it, but the biggest factor was being hospitalized for a condition called cerebral artery dissection. It happened around June or July of 2019, about six months after we joined D-POPS GROUP in December 2018. It was completely sudden; when I went to the hospital, I was told to be admitted immediately. It was a truly desperate situation, and I spent a month in a state where every day could have been my last. That experience profoundly changed my outlook on life by 180 degrees. Before that, I assumed I still had a long future ahead and I would live until I was 80 or 90. That baseless assumption was turned upside down. I had vaguely thought it would be nice to try my hand at the music business at some point in my long life, but after going through that hospitalization, I realized that rather than thinking I’ll just do it someday, it was better for me to be intentional about doing it so I wouldn’t die with regrets. When I put on that mindset, old connections of mine from the music world started getting back in contact with me, fantastic venues opened up, and opportunities like that kept coming to me. I figured now I had to do it. So I spoke properly with President Goto, telling him, “This is what I want to do.” He told me as long as I continued to run opzt properly, he was fine with it, making it clear he didn’t want me to do either half-heartedly. By the way, I recovered from my medical condition. Eventually, my body was able to heal without surgery, and I’m in good health now. I feel like I’m getting a second chance at life. I no longer postpone what I want to do until “someday”, because you never know when you’re going to die. ◆Respecting Our Company’s Individuality: Why We Chose D-POPS GROUP Sugihara:Thank you for telling us so much about your personal life. You really went through a difficult experience. Now, you joined D-POPS GROUP in 2018 through an M&A. Could you tell us about that process and why you chose D-POPS GROUP out of the many offers you likely received? Akamatsu:At the time, my company was in its fifth year and approaching a scale of about 1 billion yen. As we grew to a certain size, I started to realize that to proceed to the next phase, we needed management resources and expertise that we couldn’t get on our own. That was the starting point. Since we were growing steadily, we were receiving offers from various companies. The reason I chose D-POPS GROUP was that I was drawn to your CEO’s personality and your philosophies. You didn’t want to simply acquire a company; you wanted to grow together while firmly preserving my identity as a manager and my company’s individuality. I have many peers who have gone through M&As, and I’ve seen numerous cases where the management policy changes after joining a group, or the founding manager leaves the business. In contrast, D-POPS GROUP continues to let me run the company, allowing opzt to grow while respecting our culture and strengths. I really appreciate how they gently watch over us. I really decided not based on terms or conditions, but based on who would be managing the company alongside me and whether my employees could continue working positively after joining D-POPS GROUP. Sugihara:Just as you hoped back then, your 1-billion-yen company has kept growing over these past six years. Have you learned a lot from President Goto and D-POPS GROUP’s management study sessions while keeping your own structure intact? Akamatsu:Yes. Every day, I get to learn more about various aspects, I’m still receiving mentorship, and I feel like I am studying on a daily basis. ◆More and More Managers Emerging from the Group: Resonating with the Venture Ecosystem Sugihara:That’s wonderful. Finally, D-POPS GROUP has the slogan of “realizing a Venture Ecosystem”. Please tell us what aspects of this goal resonate with you, and if you’re doing anything to help build this Ecosystem. Akamatsu:I resonate with a lot of aspects, but most of all, with the philosophy that it’s not just about one company succeeding, but about new managers and new businesses emerging one after another from within the group. As a founding manager myself, my goal isn’t solely to make my company bigger. I want to create a cyclical environment where the next business leaders and managers emerge from among our employees, and they in turn create new companies and businesses. Even within opzt, we give each branch authority and discretion, having them run the branches with the mindset of managing a small company. I believe that circulating the talent, funds, and trust generated by those operations into the next business connects directly to realizing a Venture Ecosystem, so I also agree with that idea. Sugihara:It sounds like you are creating an ecosystem within opzt itself, too. Akamatsu:Yes. The scale is still small, but I think they share common elements. ◆Five Years from Now: A Company Supporting Corporate Growth with People and Technology Sugihara:Please tell us what opzt will look like in five years, or any specific goals you have. Akamatsu:In five years, as I mentioned earlier, I want us to be a company that doesn’t just dispatch talent, but supports corporate growth by combining people and technology. Our staffing business remains a major foundation, so while we will firmly maintain that, I want to increase our focus on AI, data, and the data center sectors, transforming into a highly specialized and profitable business structure. Beyond that, I want us to be a company where employees and staff can properly grow, where clients need us for a long time, and where we generate appropriate profits to invest in new businesses. ◆A Message to Our Readers Sugihara:Lastly, could you share a few words with our readers? Anything is fine. Akamatsu:opzt itself is still an immature company, and I believe technology, including AI, will continue to change at an incredible speed. However, as a company, we want to challenge ourselves with new things without being bound by past successes. If anyone looking for a job happens to read this article, I hope you won’t limit your potential based solely on your current experience. Even if you lack experience now, you can build a new career by learning and taking on challenges. To any corporations reading this, we want to be a partner who can think alongside you, not just in introducing talent, but also in organization building, operational improvement, and taking on new business ventures. If you have even the slightest interest, please feel free to reach out to us. Sugihara:Wonderful. Thank you very much! Interview conducted by D-POPS GROUP’s advisor Genta Sugihara. opzt, Inc. Company President and CEO: Fuminori AkamatsuAddress: 5F Nomura Real Estate Building, 4-2-12 Honmachi, Chuo Ward, OsakaEstablished: September 10, 2013Website: https://opzt.net/
  • Group Companies
  • Interview
2026.09.03
[Entrepreneur Interview #18] Fuminori Akamatsu (opzt) – Part 1
Building Trust with Major Corporations and Creating a Staffing Business that Develops Human Resources In this first installment of a two-part interview, we asked Fuminori Akamatsu, opzt, Inc.’s founder and CEO, about their business operations, how they build trust with major corporations, their expansion into the technology sector, human resource development, and their approach to the generative AI era. (This interview was conducted in August 2026.) ◆Introducing a Nationwide Business with 5 Locations, Centered on HR and Technology Sugihara: Currently, 26 group companies belong to D-POPS GROUP. Today, we are interviewing Mr. Fuminori Akamatsu, president of opzt, Inc., which joined the group in 2018. Thank you for your time! First of all, although it is posted on your website (available in Japanese only), could you give us an overview of your business in your own words? Akamatsu: Our core operations are centered around two main pillars: our HR business, which includes staffing, recruitment, and outsourcing; and our tech business, which handles the IT technology sector. Since our founding, we have provided HR services primarily for the telecommunications industry, focusing on administrative roles, call centers, and sales and promotional support. We currently operate out of five locations—Osaka, Tokyo, Nagoya, Shikoku, and Fukuoka—with many team members working throughout Japan. Recently, we have been focusing not only on conventional HR services but also on the IT technology sector, rolling out highly specialized HR services for roles such as AI specialists, data scientists, and infrastructure engineers. Currently, we mainly provide System Engineering Services (SES) and operate on an outsourcing and contracting basis, but in the future, we hope to develop and release our own in-house products. Sugihara: By the way, could you tell us the origin of your company name? Akamatsu: It originally came from the desire for our company to be our clients’ first choice. However, the word “choice” itself implies picking from a variety of options, whereas “opt” carries the nuance of proactively selecting something, so we embedded our desire to become that kind of company into the name. Since there was already a famous company called Opt, we wanted to avoid using the same spelling. We added ‘z’, the last letter of the alphabet, to make a new word which we gave the meaning of “the ultimate, best company”. Sugihara: So you drew inspiration from English and coined a new word to make your company’s name. About how many employees do you have in terms of the scale of your staffing? Akamatsu: Including both our headquarters staff as well as all of our dispatch employees, there are currently about 550 people registered with our company. ◆Building Trust from Year Two: Forging Bonds with NTT Sugihara: You have a very large pool of talent. How do you go about connecting with the clients where you dispatch your employees? I’ve heard before that you have many clients related to NTT. How did you manage to get your company involved with such a massive corporation? Akamatsu: A major factor is that when I was working as a corporate employee, I was given a lot of responsibility within NTT Group. Even though I was really just a young kid at the time, various key figures took me under their wing, allowing me to build not only business relationships but also deep interpersonal trust. Later, when I decided to start my own business, an NTT executive who had been a great mentor to me said, “If you’re going independent, I want to support you,” and offered to help me as an advisor. While that’s not the only reason, when I launched my business, former colleagues and other excellent individuals within NTT helped me out in various capacities. Because many of these individuals had long-standing trust, networks, and lots of personal connections with major companies like NTT, leveraging those connections to establish business deals became our starting point. And then, truly miraculously, we were able to sign a contract with NTT at the very early stage of our second year in business. Given that we didn’t have a Teikoku Databank rating at the time and weren’t yet the kind of company that they would typically even look at, I think our dealing with NTT was quite the exception. Sugihara: I believe your clients include other major corporations besides NTT. Many startups struggle to establish working relationships, so how did you and your management team pave the way for that? Akamatsu: We were truly fortunate to do business with a massive company like NTT in our second year, as it allowed us to learn through trial and error the difficulties of working with large corporations (things like information management, compliance, and talent quality). Because we were able to build a certain level of trust with NTT and establish an organizational framework for engaging with major companies, we were able to apply that to other large corporations, which helped us to get up and running relatively quickly. As has been the case for a while, rather than sales strategies that simply win contracts, we value strategies that focus on how long we can sustain those contracts. I believe our ongoing transactions with major companies like NTT and Docomo are the result of gradually building things up, one step at a time. Sugihara: What do you specifically pay attention to in order to maintain business with major corporations, or what do you think is the reason you enjoy such favor with your mentors? Akamatsu: I truly believe it’s the accumulation of consistently keeping small promises. It’s about trust—ensuring that the quality of our talent, compliance, and information management are solid, as I mentioned earlier. When a problem occurs on-site, we don’t hide it; we report it immediately and communicate how we will improve as a company. The larger the company, the more they scrutinize these aspects. So, we immediately and thoroughly address each issue. Our employees also strictly adhere to this principle, and I think the accumulation of all these efforts is what makes us stand out. We started from nothing, and while our initial entry point may have been personal connections, I don’t believe business relationships last this long purely on personal ties. It’s all about the cumulative effort. ◆From Routine Tasks to Highly Specialized Fields: Differentiating Their Business in the Era of AI Sugihara: I have the impression that your services have pivoted over these past 13 years. In particular, you recently started a tech-related staffing business. How are you differentiating yourselves in that area? Akamatsu: We didn’t originally set out with a conscious decision to pivot. Rather, as we kept our eyes on the HR market, we realized that routine and standardized tasks would inevitably become automated by AI. At the same time, we saw market movement showing an increased demand for talent capable of utilizing AI, such as data scientists and professionals in the AI and data fields. Our company realized about three or four years ago that if we just continued our traditional HR services, we would definitely be weeded out, so we knew we had to focus on high-growth sectors. However, we felt there was no point in doing the same thing as conventional SES companies. Therefore, we are specifically focusing on areas that directly tie into a company’s competitiveness moving forward, such as AI and data engineers, data scientists, and talent within the infrastructure field who can support data centers. Additionally, rather than only hiring individuals who already possess high skills, we are running a parallel initiative where we hire high-potential individuals with no prior experience, educate them, and develop them into specialized professionals while they gain practical experience. I believe combining the know-how we’ve cultivated in the staffing industry with specialized expertise in the technology sector is our unique point of differentiation that other companies don’t have. Sugihara: Your focus on the data center field, as you just mentioned, is definitely the right move. I’ve seen news from the US where, despite an increase in IT engineer layoffs, the demand for electricians is surging, to the point where even certified public accountants are quitting to become electricians or plumbers. I simply thought it was about having a tangible trade, but it turns out these jobs are related to data center construction. I hear there is a severe labor shortage, and while Japanese manufacturers are profiting from semiconductors and servers, there's also an ultimate demand for the people who actually install them. Akamatsu: That’s exactly right. In Osaka, in particular, data centers are rapidly increasing as backups for ones running in Tokyo. They are currently being built at a rapid pace with the idea that even if Tokyo falls, data can be protected in Osaka. Because these facilities require 24-hour monitoring and are often located in remote areas, telecommunications carriers are constantly struggling with labor shortages. We decided we wanted to tackle this head-on and are putting significant effort into it. I may use AI quite a bit myself, but people really are starting to use AI more and more. ◆Hiring Strategies and Educational Programs to Become Clients’ First Choice Sugihara: Now, I’d like to ask about acquiring the talent you actually dispatch to the clients receiving these services. I’ve heard of companies even within our own group that are struggling with recruitment. With costs rising and a shrinking talent pool to begin with, how is opzt tackling this? Akamatsu: Not to say it’s going perfectly well for us either, but we make a point not to rely on just one recruitment method. Our defining characteristic is that we use a mix of multiple recruitment channels—job boards, recruitment agencies, referrals, social media, and hiring events—depending on the job role and region. More important than that is becoming a company that applicants actively choose. Today’s job seekers look closely not only at the salary and job description, but also at what kind of experiences they will gain after joining, how it will lead to their future career, and how the company will treat them. Because of this, we make sure not to just say the good things, but to honestly explain everything: the job content, workplace environment, and expected roles. We place more emphasis on ensuring that the people who join us can thrive and work with us for a long time, rather than just focusing on the sheer number of hires. Sugihara: That’s wonderful. You mentioned that when people join opzt, you don’t necessarily just hire those who already possess high skills, but you also have programs to educate your employees. Could you elaborate on that? Can someone with no background in technology really become the kind of talent dispatched to that sector? Akamatsu: As part of our fundamental training, in addition to basic education on business etiquette, information security, and compliance, we conduct training tailored to each assignment. Especially in the tech sector, we don’t just have them learn online; we prioritize getting them to a point where they can use what they’ve learned in actual practice. We do this by creating assignments for them to present, supporting their acquisition of certifications, and pairing this with follow-up support from senior engineers. Furthermore, we believe that the ability to report, communicate, ask for help, and to understand a client’s intent is just as crucial as technical skill. So, we adjust our programs for each individual to cover these areas as well. Our goal is to develop talent that makes clients say, “I want to request this person for the job again.” ◆The Era of AI Agents: Stormy Seas or Smooth Sailing? Sugihara: Now, for this kind of staffing business—especially within the tech talent sector you’re focusing on—generative AI, and more recently, agentic AI, is a point of concern. Do you view this trend as a tough situation, or an opportunity? What countermeasures or approaches are you taking? Akamatsu: I think it’s definitely a storm and a critical situation, but more than that, I consider it a massive opportunity. As I mentioned earlier, standardized and routine tasks are increasingly being replaced by AI, and I can already feel that replacement happening in reality. However, if we just continue with the same kind of HR services we’ve offered up to now, I believe our company will undoubtedly disappear. On the other hand, I can feel a steady, upward trend in the demand for talent who can utilize data, talent who can implement AI into businesses, and talent with the level of communication and interpersonal skills that AI cannot replace. In that sense, if opzt itself can change and ride this wave, I believe we could be catching a very massive wave indeed. At our company, we are trying to develop talent capable of using AI even in non-engineering roles like administration, management, and recruitment, beyond just AI specialists and data scientists. By educating people to be on the side that uses AI rather than being used by it, I hope to create a differentiation strategy not found elsewhere. ◆Three New Initiatives for Further Growth Sugihara: Thank you. Are there any specific new initiatives you are currently working on for the further growth of your business? Akamatsu: There are three main things. First, as we discussed earlier, we are prioritizing the growth of our AI and data business, as well as the infrastructure sector surrounding data centers. Second, instead of dispatching individuals one by one, we are steadily increasing contracts with higher added value through outsourcing, where we provide support as a team. Third, even within our existing HR services, we are utilizing AI to enhance productivity in tasks such as recruitment, interviews, and staff follow-ups. Sugihara: Are there clients who need an entire team to be dispatched? Akamatsu: There actually are. Right now, engineers with those specific skills are either no longer available, or their rates have become expensive. So, we are seeing an increase in cases where we form and dispatch a team combining experienced professionals with the young talent we are training. As they grow, we add the next wave of new staff to the team, creating a cycle of continuous on-site training. Sugihara: I see, the younger members gain experience working alongside their mentors on the same job and in the same field with the same client, building their skills to eventually become leaders themselves. Akamatsu: Right. Our clients are also unable to train such talent themselves, so there is a strong demand to outsource the whole process to us. While this system can make things difficult sometimes, it allows our company to bring in inexperienced individuals, so we have recently been proposing to send whole teams to client companies quite often. Sugihara: Indeed, while sending someone individually helps that specific person build skills and experience, it raises the question of whether know-how is accumulating within the company itself. Usually, that person would have to come back and act as an instructor for internal training. But that training time doesn’t translate to revenue right away. Instead of making them just play the role of a teacher, they are essentially providing on-the-job training for younger members while both are getting paid by the client, and they themselves learn something through that, as well. Akamatsu: Exactly. So we are rapidly expanding this method right now. Interview conducted by D-POPS GROUP’s advisor Genta Sugihara. opzt, Inc. Company President and CEO: Fuminori Akamatsu Address: 5F Nomura Real Estate Building, 4-2-12 Honmachi, Chuo Ward, Osaka Established: September 10, 2013 Website: https://opzt.net/ In the second part of the interview, we discuss: ・President Akamatsu’s experience as a musician and how he applies it to business management ・The catalyst for founding opzt, its 13-year trajectory, and organization building ・“SELEBRO”, the entertainment business he launched after a serious illness ・The story of joining D-POPS GROUP and his resonance with realizing a Venture Ecosystem ・opzt’s 5-year vision and a message for the readers ・And other topics Be sure to check it out here: https://d-pops-group.co.jp/en/column/opzt-interview-latter-part/
  • Group Companies
  • Interview
2026.08.31
[Founder Interview #7] Naoto Tomita (Adora Inc.) – Part 3
The Three Values of Sunny, System, Solid: Building a Company to Solve Societal Issues with a Global Team In Part 3, the final installment of this three-part interview series, we take a close look at the people and culture of Adora Inc. Why did the development team, led by the CTO, Mr. Saurabh—whom President Tomita met in India—choose to join an unknown startup? We also cover the bonds President Tomita formed with the friends he met during his study abroad in Estonia, and their three corporate values of “Sunny, System, and Solid.” (Note: This interview was conducted in June 2026.) ◆Office in Kinshicho: A Choice Driven by Human Connection Sugihara: We are conducting this interview in a room in an apartment building in Kinshicho. It feels very cozy, complete with flowers. I understand you moved here this spring, but why did you choose this location? Tomita: There are a few reasons. Naturally, accessibility for all team members played a role. But on a personal level, I felt Kinshicho was a better fit than a high-profile area. Kinshicho is thriving enough to have five Starbucks locations, yet it maintains a remarkably down-to-earth atmosphere. Personally, I enjoy drinking alcohol together with the team—in moderation, of course—to deepen our bonds and boost our collective drive to push forward. So Kinshicho’s nearby izakaya pubs and convenient access made it the ideal spot. ◆Building a Team in Their Mid-Twenties Who Will Change the Future Sugihara: Your team has gradually expanded over the past six months. Could you share your current team structure, to the extent that you can disclose? Tomita: We remain a small company with around ten regular employees, and our core members are rather engineering-centered, but we’ve also welcomed new employees to handle HR, business development, UX, and public policy. Back-office members have also joined, and our functional roles are taking shape. It’s a young team, with an average age of around 26 to 27. We also have a lot of university student interns, so including them makes the overall average even younger. Sugihara: It’s really a team built to change the future. Starting with co-founder and CTO Saurabh, with whom I’ve had the chance to get a drink together, your development team consists of Indian engineers. Is their technical capability seriously on another level? And why did they choose to join a Japanese startup? Tomita: Individual capabilities matter far more than nationality, of course, but all our team members from India possess outstanding technical skills, paired with exceptional commitment and passion. They have a strong sense of ownership and a drive to build great products. Sugihara: They must be wonderful individuals to be not only highly skilled, but also diligent and passionate as well. Tomita: Indeed. I believe Saurabh’s character is the reason for that. Because he is a great person, great people naturally gather around him. Sugihara: Why did Saurabh and the Indian engineering team join Adora back when it was an unknown startup, long before your partnership with au? Tomita: Saurabh and I met at a cafe in India. Back in my student days, I worked a part-time job serving coffee and tea at that shop, and he was a regular customer. Our relationship started purely as friends. Through that connection, Saurabh brought together his colleagues and younger students from his university. Sugihara: So, it all started after you met at a cafe in India! Was it easy for Saurabh to join the company? Tomita: Initially, he kept his other job, but he was committed full-time to our company in the very early stages. Because he trusted me enough to bet on us, I constantly feel the responsibility to work hard and live up to that trust. He is someone who deeply values believing in people. ◆Making Udon Together in a College Dorm in Estonia Sugihara: Among your team members across various roles, some are friends you met during your time studying abroad in Estonia. What are they like? Tomita: Indeed, I met both our current UI/UX head and our HR head back in Estonia! At our dorm, we even made udon together while talking about how much we missed Japan, ha ha. Not only with them, but with all of the people in our company, there are countless moments when I genuinely enjoy working together and that I want to do my best for them, and I personally treasure that feeling. There are many things I cannot do alone, so I am deeply grateful that we complement each other as a team. I want to continue building on the foundation of what can only be accomplished together as a collective unit. ◆Formulating Three Core Values: “Sunny, System, and Solid” Sugihara: I understand that together with those teammates, you recently formulated your mission and values. Could you introduce them to us today? Tomita: Not too long ago, we began trying out three values as our guiding slogans, and then officially put them into practice starting this fiscal year. All three begin with the letter “S” to keep them memorable: “Sunny, System, and Solid”. “Sunny” means acting in a way that makes others feel that working with us is enjoyable and makes them want to support our journey. “System” is inspired by Toyota’s philosophy: “Don’t blame people; improve the system, instead”. When an issue arises, if the people involved start to blame each other, the individuals who are accused of fault will feel rejected. But when you make the mechanism—rather than the person—the target of discussion, it opens the door to constructive dialogue on how to improve. Because our business carries societal responsibility, we need an environment where mistakes can be identified openly while maintaining psychological safety. “Solid” means doing things right and executing steadily to completion. Being a startup is no excuse for shortcuts. Partnering with established corporations and local governments means that delivering on our promises is the most vital source of our reputation. Sugihara: That is excellent. For a security service partnering with established corporations, adopting “Solid” as a core value makes complete sense. ◆Intentionally Postponing the Corporate Website Sugihara: By the way, while Adora has a dedicated service website for Kodomamo, you don’t have a standard corporate website yet. Given the importance of having a place to show off your philosophy and company culture, was postponing it an intentional choice? Tomita: Since our early days, our mindset was that if we had the time to do something like build a corporate website, we should use that time to better please our app users instead. We operated with the mindset of fixing bugs before bothering to make a website. However, moving forward, we recognize the need for a corporate site that serves as a welcoming front door to recruit new teammates and scale our operations. While we might have seemed like a mysterious entity until now, ha ha, we plan to publish a website soon. (Note: Adora’s corporate website is now live at https://corporate.kodomamo.com/en) Sugihara: So, you were prioritizing product development above all else. There are definitely some startups with flashy corporate sites that lack underlying substance, ha ha, so I agree that focusing on delivering real value was entirely the right decision. ◆Goals for 2026–2027 Sugihara: What are your primary goals and major milestones for this year heading into next year? Tomita: Domestically, we want to further strengthen our sales through mobile carrier retail shops. Having reached approximately 300,000 users, we aim to grow that number to 500,000 and beyond. Internationally, we plan to determine our product-market fit in Taiwan to establish a repeatable success playbook, and then use it to drive expansion into countries such as Indonesia and the UK. We want the numbers for our domestic and international results to raise expectations both inside and outside the company. Furthermore, we aim to engage a broader network of stakeholders. Including collaborations with government ministries, our goal for this year is to demonstrate expansion that creates large-scale social implementation and impact. At the same time, establishing our culture and executing our values in a “Solid” manner remains crucial. We plan to expand our workforce thoughtfully while building a strong, healthy organization. ◆Realizing a Venture Ecosystem Sugihara: Finally, D-POPS GROUP’s aim is to realize a “Venture Ecosystem”. What aspects of that vision resonate with you? Tomita: I resonate with it strongly in all areas. No single individual or company can solve complex social issues or generate massive social impact alone. Just as a company cannot be built by one person, addressing societal challenges requires collaboration from various stakeholders beyond individual corporate boundaries. It takes more than just the startup itself—they need investors to back their vision, major corporations to partner with them to bring that vision to society, governments to support causes that benefit the public, and universities to collaborate with them on joint research. I believe we can only solve significant societal challenges by involving all of these stakeholders together. From our founding, Adora Inc. initiated joint development with the Aichi Prefectural Police and partnered with universities, making sure that our company was working not only for ourselves but for our surroundings, as well. Moving forward, we aim to build the ecosystem necessary for safe communication environments for children and families, protecting people from crime. I think our efforts will serve as a good example within the broader Venture Ecosystem. Sugihara: D-POPS GROUP aims to build a platform where diverse partners build an ecosystem together that generates shared value. Tomita: Exactly. It’s the principle that creating value for the ecosystem ultimately returns benefits to everyone involved. I wholeheartedly agree with that idea. ◆A Message to Readers Sugihara: Finally, do you have a message for our readers? Tomita: We’re strongly committed to deeply impacting society. We would be delighted to work together with anyone who shares that vision, whether they be a team member, a shareholder, or whatever relationship we have. D-POPS GROUP is a wonderful shareholder, and I highly recommend them, ha ha! And Kinshicho is a fantastic town, so please come visit us! Interview conducted by D-POPS GROUP’s advisor Genta Sugihara. Adora Inc. Company President and CEO: Naoto Tomita Address: Setagaya Ward, Tokyo Established: July 2023 Kodomamo App Website: https://www.adora-app.com/ Please check out Part 1 and Part 2 of this interview if you have not already!
  • Interview
2026.07.27
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