DNX

Interview

• Sharpening my understanding of startup hiring, continuously from a VC’s perspective
• Driven by founders’ passion, a career in HR at a venture capital firm After graduating from Waseda University, I joined Recruit as a new graduate in 2020, where I addressed the hiring challenges of a wide range of companies—from prime-listed corporations to seed-stage startups. In 2021, I took charge of the deep tech startup space, and from 2023, as a playing manager, I was also involved in developing junior colleagues. It was while working with a particular deep tech startup that I felt a major shift taking place within me. I was moved by the founders’ dream—“We want to use this product to help people who are struggling.” Walking alongside them in their hiring process was, for me at the time, supporting the growth of their business itself. I wanted to support startups’ hiring from a position more deeply involved in the business itself. Joining DNX was a natural extension of that growing desire within me.
• Delivering company insight at VC-level resolution depth I feel that supporting hiring at DNX is a different kind of work from that of a recruiting agency. In my previous job, I saw hiring challenges put in front of me as a single sales representative serving clients. The range of solutions I could propose was limited, and it was a matter of finding the best option within the means of hiring. From a venture capital standpoint, by contrast, we start by questioning whether hiring is even necessary. Hiring is a means to realize a business strategy, and I came to think deeply about the startup’s truly necessary course of action together with the company. What’s more, when speaking with candidates, the volume of information I can hold precisely because I’m an investor becomes a major advantage. At the investment decision stage, we conducts detailed due diligence on the competitive landscape, market growth potential, and more, which gives us a very deep understanding of the company - why we invested in that company; what kind of person the founder is, and with what conviction they approach their business. Because I understand the business deeply as an investor, I can deliver honest information to candidates from both quantitative and qualitative angles. Sharing anecdotes about the founders and an investor’s analysis of the startup market is something only a venture capital hiring lead can do. At the incubation office we operate, where our portfolio startups gather, I sometimes get to see the people I introduced actually at work, or hear how things have gone since they joined. Happily, not a single person I’ve supported in joining a company has left— they each continue to take on challenges at their respective companies. Being able to stay connected with the people I’ve supported, all the way through to walking alongside them after they join, is a joy unique to HR at a venture capital firm.
• Continuing to bring science to hiring, supporting the whole journey alongside startups Japan’s working population continues to shrink year after year, and not only startups but all companies are facing an unprecedented hiring crunch. With wage levels also continuing to rise, this is an era in which the very nature of employment at companies is set to change dramatically—including the use of foreign talent and contract workers. Amid these changes, the form that hiring takes must keep being updated as well. I want to constantly re-examine whether today’s methods are the best for growing the business, hold my own perspective, and keep updating the hiring practice itself. The period over which a venture capital firm walks alongside a portfolio company is said to be ten years at the shortest. With such a long-term relationship in view, I believe that the accumulation of a deep understanding of the business leads to honest information for candidates, and in turn becomes a force that supports the growth of our portfolio companies. DNX has taught me how important it is to think alongside founders and keep searching for answers together. Within that, I want to bring science to hiring, think through hiring that connects to the growth of our portfolio companies, and keep running alongside them.