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[Entrepreneur Interview #09] Yume Oki (The Salons Japan) – Part 2

  • Interview
2025.02.17

Aiming to Improve Services to Solve Problems in the Beauty Industry While Supporting Two Founders

Last year, our company entered into a strategic capital and business alliance with The Salons Japan, Inc., which leases private salon studios for professional beauticians, and we began our journey together as partners in the Venture Ecosystem.

☆You can see the press release regarding this strategic capital and business alliance with The Salons Japan Inc. on the following page:
https://d-pops-group.co.jp/en/column/the-salons-japan/

For this article, we interviewed Yume Oki, the first employee at The Salons Japan supporting the company’s two founders. (This interview was conducted in January 2025.)

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/the-salons-japan-interview2-first-part/

◆Changes Since the Company’s Founding

Sugihara:
As the longest-serving employee, what changes have you observed from THE SALONS’ initial launch to now?

Oki:
This is something that our founders (President Shimizu and Director Kuboshima) have also mentioned, but for a while, we definitely went through a period of what you might call stagnation—a time when things just stayed the same day after day.

This was partly because we hadn’t focused on increasing our staff and were operating with a bare minimum team. Another possible reason that we were not changing anything was due to the lack of competing services emerging. Recently, the increase in team members has been a really significant transition for me.

With more people, I have the strong sense we are now able to tackle things that were previously just out of reach. They all only just joined us, so I truly hope they continue to stay in our company.

Although we had a period of stagnation, we continuously focused on solving problems as we opened each new location, as I mentioned before. We steadily fixed issues, so if something didn’t work at one location, we made sure to change it when opening the next location. We were proceeding slowly, but surely.

The timings for our recent fundraising and our increase in staff were almost simultaneous. Since then, the way we take on challenges and our mindset itself have suddenly transformed.

◆Changes After the Strategic Capital and Business Alliance

Sugihara:
D-POPS GROUP and The Salons Japan entered into a strategic capital and business alliance in June 2024. Have you felt any changes since the investment?

Oki:
Yes, of course, there was a lot of buzz at the outset of this investment. But since this was our first time to receive investment after operating solely as a private company, I felt like saying “Finally!”, and at the same time, I had a sense that everyone was placing high expectations on us.

Furthermore, although I’m still just a general employee, I do participate in board meetings as a secretary. I highly appreciate the chance to hear the opinions of those from different industries regarding aspects of our business that we, from an internal perspective, haven’t seen the need to change. Their positive evaluations of our strengths are also a big confidence boost. So, getting to participate has been a truly enriching experience.

I have also started to be involved in meetings with banks, and I genuinely feel that their assessment of us has changed. In addition, D-POPS GROUP’s President Goto has introduced some real estate companies to us, and when they showed us some of the properties, I was able to accompany them. He showed us how to see them from a different angle, which has allowed us to increase the number of our parameters we have for finding potential properties. I feel our perspective on business growth has definitely shifted as a result.

Sugihara:
Speaking of buzz, since the rest of our group’s companies are in different industries, we didn’t feel the impact directly. Was there a buzz in the beauty industry?

Oki:
Yes, after the press release was published, we received congratulations from a lot of different people, including some who are quite prominent in the beauty industry. Some were even surprised, as they hadn’t realized we had been operating purely on our own until that point.

Also, the fact that D-POPS GROUP was the company that backed us was also a bit of a sensation, and I heard that some of President Shimizu’s business leader acquaintances even asked him to introduce them to President Goto.

◆On President Shimizu and Director Kuboshima

Sugihara:
Your two founders are quite rich in personality! President Shimizu is a beauty professional, a boxer, and a licensed real estate agent, while Director Kuboshima happens to be a long-time friend of mine. What are your impressions of them?

Oki:
Their personal airs and ways of thinking are different. President Shimizu is the type who immediately sees the problems in front of him and fixes them quickly. Director Kuboshima is usually calm and has a very cool-headed perspective, always thinking about the long-term. I often feel that the reason they are so successful is precisely because they have these two different ways of thinking.

However, outside of work—for instance, when they go out for a drink—they both seem to genuinely enjoy themselves. The fact that they can clash at work but maintain a strong personal friendship seems to be the secret to their success. In meetings with them, I’ve personally heard President Shimizu say “I’ll let Director Kuboshima manage our finances,” and Director Kuboshima say “I’ll leave the beauty professional matters to President Shimizu, because he understands them best.” It’s amazing that they have that level of mutual respect and trust.

◆Team Atmosphere

Sugihara:
I hear the team has grown recently. How is the team atmosphere now?

Oki:
Since I joined in the company’s early days, I feel like one of my roles is to convey my opinion when the situation calls for it. However, I really appreciate that our newly-joined members are generally calm, soft-hearted people, who aren’t the type to jump into conflict.

But rather than being just kind and gentle, they all have a strong sense of responsibility, too. They believe that what they are doing is their personal duty, and they fully commit to it. I am so glad that we have attracted people with those qualities.

Sugihara:
Indeed, everyone seems to have a quiet and peaceful aura, but I can tell that they also have a highly professional business-sense.

Oki:
Exactly. They take total ownership of the tasks they are in charge of, so I can confidently entrust things to them. Our SNS manager, for instance, noticed a problem after having a simple, casual conversation with me, and immediately updated our social media without me having to say anything. Another member noticed my workload was heavy and told me, “I can handle this part myself, so don’t worry about it.” The strength of our team is definitely improving!

Sugihara:
The potential for expanding your company is certainly increasing. We just talked about how your two founders are highly individual, and you yourself possess many talents. I heard that along with keeping a busy work schedule, you are a Frescoball player, as well!

Oki:
Yeah, I play Frescoball. Most people might not be familiar with it, but it’s a beach sport that originated in Brazil. Despite being a ball game where players face off against each other, your opponent is not an enemy, but a partner with whom to keep a rally going, so it’s a very peaceful sport. The competition lies in accumulating points, and you’re judged subjectively on your level of cooperation and aesthetic quality, among other things.

Sugihara:
That sounds like a wonderful sport. Do your practices also take place on the beach?

Oki:
Where there’s no beach, we practice in parks or gyms. The tournaments, however, are held on the beach.

Sugihara:
There are tournaments, too??

Oki:
Yes! There are international tournaments, and this year, it will be held in Japan! Our company’s Director Kuboshima is actually the president of the Japan Frescoball Association.

Director Kuboshima is also the president and CEO of RYOGEISYA Inc., an IT culture company that does many different things. Despite doing so many different things, they aren’t scattered. Rather, they dedicate focus and delegate workers to each area of business.

◆On THE SALONS Shinjuku, Opened in January 2025

Sugihara:
Well, the Shinjuku location opened in January 2025. Have you been receiving tenant applications?

Oki:
We sure have! Out of the total 17 salon studios, 8 studios are currently filled (as of February 17, 2025). The actual viewings only started yesterday, but there were people who had already decided to move in before seeing the location.

Sugihara:
It’s surprising that so many people decided to move in before viewing the facilities themselves.

Oki:
Yes, it is. Those contracts are already confirmed, and when we started to show the studios yesterday, two or three groups already came and are considering whether to move in. There has recently been a trend of people deciding before construction is even finished, which we are very grateful for, but I think most people prefer to decide after seeing the actual location. We hope to finalize more contracts through in-person viewings, ideally by the time we start operations around February.

By the way, for the first time, two of the studios we prepared are designed for manicure services, and both of those studios are already contracted.

Sugihara:
In addition to the manicure studios you just mentioned, do beauty professionals in THE SALONS provide any other services besides hairdressing?

Oki:
Yes, we also have tenants who focus on the eyebrow and eyelash business. Of course, there are also aesthetics salons, and some salons do other beauty-related businesses like chiropractic whole-body treatments and Korean Golki massage. Since we have various types of salons on one floor, not just hair salons, I think some customers may very well look at the different shops and signs and encounter a kind of space they’ve never seen before but find interesting.

◆On THE SALONS Shinsaibashi, Opening Spring to Summer This Year

Sugihara:
After Shinjuku, the Shinsaibashi location in Osaka will be your first expansion outside the Kanto region, opening sometime this spring or summer. What is the location like, and what clientele are you targeting?

Oki:
We’ve always considered expanding to thriving major cities outside Kanto, such as Fukuoka in Kyushu, and Nagoya in Tokai or Osaka in Kansai. We are very pleased that we were able to secure such a great location in Osaka.

Shinsaibashi is an area that already has many hair salons, and we have been receiving inquiries from people in that area even before the opening announcement. I look forward to telling them about the opening we have planned and asking for them to place an official inquiry.

The location is also close to Midosuji and the luxury brand district. I've heard from people operating in the Kansai area that Shinsaibashi is a great town, so I believe it is a superb location. It faces a main street, is close to two stations, and the ability to put up a large sign on the 3rd floor was a key point. The Shinsaibashi location will also open nail units, just like Shinjuku, so we encourage inquiries.

Sugihara:
Do you have any ideas for future services you’d like to launch?

Oki:
The background behind me joining The Salons Japan was my attraction to a service that could solve the problems faced by beauty professionals in the industry. So, the core premise is to continuously create better services for problem-solving.

The most common issues are related to managing a business and opening street-level storefronts. They are professionals in the beauty industry, but they naturally lack knowledge of real estate and business management in the beginning. I personally hope we can create an actual system that allows our tenants to seek advice from us more easily.

I also hope our services can evolve so that after our tenants build up their acumen at THE SALONS and open a street-level shop on their own, they will say “I’m so glad I came from THE SALONS”, or “I was able to open a shop like this because of THE SALONS”.

Actually, when some of our former tenants have decided to leave THE SALONS to open up their own shops, they’ve run into real estate problems, so I would also like to make a support system to help them avoid such troubles.

◆“Realizing a Venture Ecosystem”

Sugihara:
D-POPS GROUP has a vision of “producing numerous growing startups that bring transformation to society”. In short, we aim to realize a Venture Ecosystem. What are your thoughts on building this Venture Ecosystem?

Oki:
Well, until these investment discussions began, I personally was unfamiliar with the term “Venture Ecosystem”, but after this conversation and reading your website, now I know about it.

As I mentioned, we are already feeling the impact of the investment, so my hope is that by actively incorporating the input we receive, we can establish a positive feedback loop.

Since we haven’t formed many connections with the other group companies yet, I also would like to see some initiatives that foster deeper relationships between The Salons Japan and everyone else in D-POPS GROUP. Even though we are a unique entity within the group, I hope there will be more chances for us to connect.

◆5-Year and 10-Year Goals

Sugihara:
Yeah, let’s work on those kinds of initiatives! Now, could you share the ideal vision for The Salons Japan—and for you personally—10 years in the future?

Oki:
I believe that THE SALONS is a good service, and I believe it is beneficial for the beauty professionals who have moved in.

Since I cannot recommend a service that I personally do not believe is good, my vision for 10 years from now is that THE SALONS’ services will have further improved and become a system that leads to solving problems within the beauty industry.

Looking 10 years out is difficult, but President Shimizu has a goal of opening 30 locations in the next 5 years, so I hope we can work together as a team to achieve that. I believe that the investments in our company have increased our strength, and we want to continue working hard to make our services even more desirable to our customers.

◆Message to Readers Visiting Our Website

Sugihara:
30 locations in 5 years. A goal like that is quite aggressive, but also excellent. Finally, could you share a message for our online readers?

Oki:
I guess most people who read this interview will be unfamiliar with THE SALONS. THE SALONS is a service that can solve the issues within the current beauty industry, which is often perceived as demanding and having poor working conditions.

Also, the beauty professionals who move in are truly good human beings, and there really isn’t much trouble in our salon studios. Our tenants are independently minded and successful in sales. As I mentioned earlier, they’re also very dedicated to learning, and I personally feel that they are all great people.

I would love for you to look up THE SALONS and visit one of our locations. Wherever you visit, you will find wonderful beauty professionals at every salon!

 

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

 

The Salons Japan

Company President and CEO: Hidetoshi Shimizu
Address: 2F Kid Ailack Building, 2-43-11 Matsubara, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo
Established: November 30, 2018
Website: https://www.thesalons.co/

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[Founder Interview #5] Masaru Sunagawa (Startup Association of Japan) – Part 1
Why an Entrepreneur Created an Organization Himself: The Startup Association’s Origin Story In this first entry of a three-part interview, we explore the backstory of serial entrepreneur Masaru Sunagawa establishing the Startup Association of Japan in 2022. We hear about how strange he felt the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s advisory committee was because it had virtually no representative from the entrepreneur side, and how that led to the establishment of an organization. We get a glimpse of their activities aimed at raising the level of the startup ecosystem, the meaning of their mission “policy making by startups, for startups”, and the difficulty of management compared to the example of a PTA. (This interview was conducted in May 2026.) Professional Background: Masaru Sunagawa, Representative Director of the Startup Association of Japan, President and CEO of Smartround Inc. After working at Mitsubishi Corporation and obtaining a MBA from Harvard, he worked as a director at a US venture capital firm. After returning to Japan, he founded LocationValue Co., Ltd., and sold it to NTT DOCOMO. After serving as the managing director for Android at Google, he founded Smartround Inc. in 2018. In 2022, he established the Startup Association of Japan and became its Representative Director. He works on developing Japan’s startup ecosystem, and was even involved in the compilation of the “Startup Development Five-year Plan”. Startup Association of Japan: https://www.startup-kyokai.org/ Smartround Inc.: https://jp.smartround.com/corporate ◆“There Were Almost No Entrepreneurs”: A Strange Advisory Committee Led to the Establishment of an Organization Sugihara: First, could you tell us the background of how you established this Startup Association four years ago in February 2022? Sunagawa: Originally, before joining Google, I was running a startup called “LocationValue”, and before that, I worked at an independent VC (venture capital) firm in the US, so I have been involved with startups in various positions. When I came back to Japan and was managing a startup, there were many times when I thought that entrepreneurship here looked strange. The current Companies Act was enacted in 2006, so when I started my company in 2005, companies at that time had to follow the old commercial code. The law itself was written in katakana and was very hard to read, and moreover, the concept of preferred stock like we have now was not established. Therefore, we had no choice but to receive investment from VC through ordinary shares, and to avoid that associated risks, buyback clauses had to be included. Although the Companies Act was enacted in 2006, it was around 2010 when preferred stock started to be used in earnest. I am one of the rare individuals who have experienced business management both from before and after that transition period. Because of my background, a person named Ishii, who was a director at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry at the time, reached out to me at some point in 2019 or 2020. Director Ishii said, “You seem to know a lot about the contents of investment contracts, so would you join our advisory committee?” However, when I went there, virtually everyone was from academia or VC, and there were almost no entrepreneurs. I thought, “Even though we are discussing startup investment contracts, why are there so few people here who are actually from a startup?” The investing side and the side receiving the investment have conflicting interests. For example, at the time of an M&A, it always becomes a talk about who takes more, so an investment contract is a very delicate thing. I told that to Director Ishii, who said to me, “I just didn’t know who to approach.” That became my inspiration to establish an organization. However, it took time from there. I had to gather partners, and I also had my own job. Even figuring out how to make a general incorporated association was a matter of trial and error, and the preparations took time. Sugihara: At that time, you had already started your own company too, right? Sunagawa: I had started Smartround Inc. in 2018, and we had just launched services in 2019. Sugihara: Even so, when you presented your awareness of the problem at the advisory committee, you were told, “Why don’t you make it?”, and it was pretty much decided for you. Did you have a “Well, somebody’s gotta do it” sort of attitude? Sunagawa: Exactly. Thankfully, since I had successfully exited my first startup, I am not in much trouble financially. And since that’s the case, it’s natural to start thinking about what I can do for the next generation. That’s my philosophy behind Smartround, too. Smartround is a service that helps to optimize operating within the rules, but if the rules themselves are not good, there is nothing we can do. So the idea is to make sure the rules are properly fixed. ◆“Policy Recommendation”: The Only Thing They’re Really Doing Sugihara: On your association’s website, if one looks at the details of what your various working groups are up to, and what external collaborations are going on, it’s clear that in a wide range of areas, you are participating in commissions and events, as well as publishing reports. What area do you focus on the most? Sunagawa: What we are focusing on is policy recommendation, and you should think of that as all we’re really doing. Everything else we do is more like an accompaniment to that. Honestly, I think policy recommendation is everything. Our mission is “to evolve Japan into the ‘world’s best environment for startups’ through providing mutual aid for startups”. And since we are aiming to create the most startup-friendly ecosystem in the world, we definitely have to change the rules. Sugihara: When you make policies that benefit startups, do you get agreement from investors? Sunagawa: Naturally, they agree. The reason is clear. When many startups are born and successful startups appear, VCs can take the upside. If the number of startups in Japan decreases and they cannot get on a growth track, the VC industry cannot hold itself up. So, our interests clearly align there. Sugihara: At the same time, even if it’s unintentional, is there also the angle that you’re trying to reduce Japanese society’s emphasis on large companies? Sunagawa: I think large companies still have a role to play. I was also at Mitsubishi Corporation, and I still love their company. There are things that only large corporations are able to do, like building infrastructure, implementing energy policies, or excavating for rare earth materials. So that is how the roles are shared. However, startups are better when it comes to driving innovation and creating seeds from scratch. For example, if you ask whether a large company can introduce totally new AI technologies in parallel at the same time and throw all their internal information into them, they absolutely cannot do it due to security reasons. On the other hand, startups can. What’s different is their agility. ◆Only Startup Executives Allowed: Strengths and “PTA-like Difficulties” Sugihara: As the founder of Smartround, you yourself are managing a startup, but I believe all of the other board members are also managing startups. What are the strengths of a support organization run by entrepreneurs? And, for that matter, what challenges or difficulties are there? Sunagawa: Both the weaknesses and the strengths come down to the fact that it is operated only by startups. We require that our regular members are also startup executives. No one else is allowed to become a regular member. Sugihara: How do you define a startup? Sunagawa: That is a difficult question. There is no clear definition anywhere in the world, so we have to evaluate each company one by one to see if it’s aiming for and actually attaining rapid growth. For example, a company that has been doing contract development for a long time but newly created its own product and grew rapidly is a startup. And a company that has just been established and does not have a product yet, but aims to go public, is also a startup. Sugihara: The fact that it is an organization led solely by startups is a feature, a strength, and also a challenge. What is that challenge? Sunagawa: You’re totally right. Because everyone has their own main business, there are differences in the time and passion they can dedicate to this activity. I often tell people to imagine it being like a school PTA (Parent-Teacher Association). Since everyone is a business executive, there is no hierarchical relationship, and decision-making is also very difficult. Everyone’s business domains are also scattered, and since they are all executives, they have solid opinions, but their ranges of interest are often different. What I do not want people to misunderstand is that we do not think we are an organization representing 25,000 startups. That is impossible, and in the first place, there is no need to represent people who have no interest at all. I think it’s more about how to adjust opinions among the people who participate because they want to improve rule-making and the overall startup ecosystem. Also, people may wonder what to do if a competitor of your company is in the organization, but even in the Federation of Economic Organizations, everyone is competing, so it is the same story. However, in our case, we concentrate only on raising the level of the overall ecosystem, so it is not about benefiting only one specific company, but we mainly make policy recommendations on things that benefit the whole. Sugihara: If it is an organization within the same industry, it is easy to face the same direction, but the Startup Association is not like that. Sunagawa: That’s right. But even though our industries are different, we can unite in the sense of making policies that allow startups to properly thrive. We do not have discussions specialized to certain industries or business types, so if we want to do that kind of thing, we take the form of doing it jointly with other related organizations, such as the Fintech Association or the Sharing Economy Association, for example. We do not take the lead ourselves; we cooperate with them in the direction they’re going. Otherwise, things just don’t go anywhere. ◆To Prevent Repeating Common Mistakes: A System of Off-the-Record Meetings Sugihara: Your association’s statement of purpose says, “Unless they are serial entrepreneurs, startup executives tend to repeat the same common mistakes as senior executives.” How do you prevent people from repeating those same mistakes? Sunagawa: There are all kinds of common mistakes, but I’m most knowledgeable in the area of financing policies. For example, if you accept a demand like “We will give you 5 million yen, so give us 50% of the company’s stock”, you won’t be able to continue fundraising after that. But if you know nothing, you would think, “They’re giving me 5 million whole yen! So that demand must be reasonable,” even though reality is different. Another mistake is that the knowledge gained by predecessors is not passed down. One difficult trait of the Startup Association is that members eventually “graduate”. 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New York City, which used to be a barren land for IT, transformed into the world’s second largest startup city after Silicon Valley, due to one entrepreneur named Kevin Ryan, who made the internet advertising company “DoubleClick” successful and launched prominent companies like MongoDB one after another. With this one great entrepreneur as the starting point, a regional system of paying it forward that circulates mentorship, angel investment, and the production of excellent human resources turned New York into a startup city. What I want to say is that as long as there is such a person, there is a possibility for change. In Japan, despite many people saying “Let’s build another Silicon Valley together”, nobody cooperates with each other, so nothing happens. I think it’s definitely important for someone to engage and shift into gear. Sugihara: The leaders of VC funds on the US side are all originally serial entrepreneurs, aren’t they? Sunagawa: That’s right. In Japan’s case, quite a lot of people who become VCs did so straight out of financial companies, and haven’t started their own businesses before. Furthermore, entrepreneurs here often stay on as president for a long time without stepping down, even after going public. I don’t mean to criticize, but that’s the reality here. On the other hand, in the US, they have a worldview like AOL founder Steve Case, for example. They start teaching and investing in others, which creates an ecosystem. ~To be continued in Part 2~ Interview conducted by D-POPS GROUP’s advisor Genta Sugihara. Next, in the second part of the interview, we discuss: ・Building up a trustworthy reputation recognized by the government ・Stock option reform: a policy proposal that turned scraps of paper into returns ・The honest thoughts of a serial entrepreneur who declared “I’ll quit in three years” on his third day at Google ・And other topics
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[Founder Interview #5] Yuki Nakashima (HR Cloud) – Part 3
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What are you doing to prevent those? Nakashima: Just as we were approaching 100 employees, we changed our management hierarchy from three levels to four levels. What I’m doing now is to hold training sessions every month to bring up our next generation of executives. I think that if the culture does not permeate well, the company mindset will eventually slow down. Therefore, I am training about 15 prospective managers on my corporate management philosophies. Sugihara: Do all the employees have opportunities to gather together? Nakashima: We have an award ceremony every month. The flow is a small award ceremony once a month, a big award ceremony once a quarter, and an even bigger award ceremony for the whole year. We hold the monthly award ceremony in this office, and then have a social gathering together afterwards. Sugihara: You reward employees with various types of jobs, right? Not just sales results? Nakashima: Yes, everyone has a chance to win an award. ◆Corporate Values of Honesty, Respect, and Challenge Sugihara: Your website lists ‘honesty’, ‘respect’, and ‘challenge’ as your corporate values. This is extremely similar to the D-POPS GROUP’s value of “Grow and learn together through sincerity, humility, and gratitude.” Please let us know your thoughts or impressions regarding this similarity. Nakashima: Since we have the vision of “creating a society that looks forward to tomorrow’s work,” we want to be a company that places our highest priority on achieving that vision. I want our employees to face their work seriously and enjoy it, and the things that are important for that are honesty, respect, and challenge. After all, if people don’t personally grow through their work, they won’t enjoy it. And in order to grow, they need honesty and humility, and they have to challenge themselves. Also, it is important from the company side to provide a place to take on challenges. Also, when it comes to respect, our company spans many areas like engineering, marketing, sales, customer success, and administration, which means horizontal collaboration is very important. So, we place great importance on giving each other proper respect. We decided on these three values with the sense that we are all working as a team. Sugihara: Listening to you speak made me feel that you are full of honesty and sincerity, and I think that value is communicated to your employees as well. Nakashima: Over the past three years, about 30 employees have joined as new graduates, and only one of them has quit. Sugihara: That is wonderful! Is there anything unique about your hiring criteria? Nakashima: I wouldn’t really call it a hiring criterion, but anyway, the biggest thing is to be teachable and open-minded. No matter how high their skills are and how well they can work, being teachable is the most important thing. ◆The Future of Humanoids Experienced at CES Sugihara: By the way, I heard that you visited CES at the beginning of the year as an observer. What global trends impressed you or caught your attention? Nakashima: Definitely the humanoids presented by Chinese companies. I felt firsthand that when AI is combined on top of robots, the world will change. There were also dog-shaped robots, and they could run amazingly fast. Since they are equipped with sensors and AI, it was too easy to picture them holding guns and being used for war. It is scary to imagine, but I figured this really is what the future might look like. In a broader sense, I could also see humanoids coming into play within the human resources industry. Many of our clients hire blue-collar workers, so in the current labor shortage, it seems like a business that proposes “What about using humanoids instead?” is not out of the question, so I plan to look more into that possibility. Sugihara: I heard you were accompanying D-POPS GROUP’s Chairman Semmoto and President Goto on that trip to CES. I also heard that you played golf with Chairman Semmoto after returning to Japan. What kind of impressions did you have through your interactions with these two veteran business managers? Nakashima: Chairman Semmoto’s words, “Anyway, do something unimaginably huge that benefits society,” really resonated inside me. Also, every time we meet, he asks, “How many years since you founded? What are your sales? How many employees?” and when I answer, he says, “No good at all, huh.” Every time that happens, I feel frustrated, but it always energizes me, too. On the other hand, there are times when he compliments me, saying, “That’s great!” and each time, I feel like working hard again. ◆The Reason for Receiving Investment from D-POPS GROUP Sugihara: For HR Cloud, which is looking to go public in the future, I guess there were many companies interested in investing. Why is it you chose to receive D-POPS GROUP’s investment, and is there anything that makes you particularly glad you received it? Nakashima: There are many. First, the reason I asked him was that President Goto had been supporting me since before I started my company. At the time of founding, my first business was a recruitment agency. President Goto asked me, “How much do you charge to find one person?” When I answered, “It is 800,000 yen,” he replied, “Well then, I’ll ask you to find us five people.” Things at that point were difficult, and money wasn’t circulating at all, so receiving 4 million yen really helped me run the business. And even now, I receive business management advice from President Goto one or two times a year. The advice I receive at those times always deeply touches my heart, and I have a huge debt of gratitude for how many times he helped me. I asked President Goto to invest in my company out of a desire to return that favor. Sugihara: So, it was an investment to return a favor, just as I hear from President Goto sometimes. Nakashima: That’s exactly what it was. I asked him because I wanted to pay him back for all he’s given me. We have not been able to go public yet, so I have not returned the favor completely, but I think I can if HR Cloud keeps growing well and goes public someday. ◆Identifying with the Venture Ecosystem: “I Want to Make Japan Stronger” Sugihara: D-POPS GROUP’s aim is “realizing a Venture Ecosystem”. Do you identify with any part of that? Nakashima: At the very basis of who I am is a desire to “make Japan stronger”. The reason is because I often heard stories about the war from my grandfather, and my grandfather’s younger brother was in a special attack unit, and I had the chance to read his diary that he kept from that time. That impression has stayed strong in my memory, so I definitely want to make Japan stronger. Because I want to make Japan stronger—and this is our thinking behind creating people who look forward to their jobs—that probably connects to this. In the end, I think startups will change Japan, so our Venture Ecosystem, which provides foundational support for these efforts, is something I totally believe in as a means of strengthening Japan. Sugihara: Chairman Semmoto often says this, too, but it is startups that have made Japan big up until now, isn’t it? It is really true that making startups strong and supporting them will certainly lead to making Japan stronger. ◆5-Year Vision: “10,000 Companies” and “Utilization of Big Data” Sugihara: Could you tell us about any new features or services you are preparing to accelerate growth further in the future? Where do you aim to be in 5 years? Nakashima: In five years, I want the number of companies using our system to exceed 10,000, and I want to develop a business that utilizes the big data we get from those 10,000 corporate clients. Because our recruitment platform is being used by 1,800 companies, a considerable amount of data is gathering, and I always get excited about developing an AI business which can put that data to even better use. I think we’re still lacking in the area of human resources necessary for us to get there, so I want to train our employees more thoroughly and create a company with an organizational culture and flexibility that are both strong. Sugihara: So then, your move to this office here in Kioicho last October was a step towards that vision, wasn’t it? Nakashima: The deciding factor for that move was our intention to increase loyalty, both inside and outside the company. Loyalty with customers, and loyalty with our own members. We hold social gatherings and user meetings here, and just last Friday, we invited a sushi chef and held a welcome party for our newly-joined employees. ◆A Message to Our Readers Sugihara: Finally, could you give a message to our readers? Nakashima: It is true for my management life as well, but I think I really could not do it by the power of one person alone. I have only been able to continue running this company until now thanks to the support of many people. We are still a small company, but we have been blessed with various close partners, so I think it is important to rely on what they have to offer, and to form more connections like those. And I think the Venture Ecosystem plays a part in that. I think it’ll be easier to grow if we can make good use of the opportunities we have there. 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/
  • Interview
2026.06.26
[Founder Interview #5] Yuki Nakashima (HR Cloud) – Part 2
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/
  • Interview
2026.06.18
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