Corporate accounting is not usually the first thing the comes to mind when you think of disruptive technology, and for the most part, that’s a good thing. Daisuke Sasaki of Freee, however, is changing the way accounting is done in Japan from the bottom up.

Bringing change to a conservative industry, however, is not easy. The fact is that in the accounting industry almost all users and stakeholders would rather muddle though with a painful system they know than try something new. Daisuke’s solution, of course, was to expand the market by growing the user-base. To go after new customers who have never used any of the existing accounting software products, and would be horrified by them if they tried.

Daisuke also took the radical (for Japan) step of relying almost entirely on inbound sales, focusing on marketing and social media to generate demand and often simply refusing requests for sales calls. That strategy is paying off. Freee’s user base is booming and the incumbents are now scrambling to catch up.

We also talk a lot about how Japanese industries are particularly susceptible to stagnation and technological dead ends, and what might be a huge change coming in the way Japanese companies run their HR department.

It’s a great interview and I think you’ll enjoy it.

Show Notes for Startups

Why innovation in accounting stalled
How to introduce disruptive technology to an industry that does not want to be disrupted
How to run an inbound sales strategy for B2B  SaaS in Japan
How moving away from Windows helped attract initial users
Bootstrapping a startup vs taking the money that's available
Why Japanese software companies have trouble innovating
The biggest challenge of moving into enterprise markets
When you should ignore your customers
Why Japanese HR got lazy and how to fix it.
Why lifetime employment needs to end in Japan

Links from the Founder

Freee Home Page
Daisuke's Blog
Follow Daisuke on twitter @DiceSasaki
Friend him on Facebook

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Transcript from Japan
Welcome to Disrupting Japan. Straight talk for Japan's most successful Entrepreneurs.

I am Tim Romero and thanks for joining me. Today, we sit down with Daisuke Sasaki of Freee. One of the most innovative Accounting Start-ups in Japan.

Now, innovative and Accounting are two words you usually don't hear in the same sentence. When you do it is usually not a good thing. Freee is different. Free is disrupting a market that is ripe for disruption. That we spend a good amount of time discussing why it took so long to do it.

It is a fascinating story about how regulation, industry ties and the customers themselves all can conspire to lock and industry into a steady state. Even when everyone knows the situation is bad and needs to change. Of course, we also talk about the secret to breaking through that deadlock.

Now, Daisuke also hints that the disruption for HR might be next. I will let him tell you all about that. Let's get right to the interview.

[INTERVIEW]

Tim: Okay, I am sitting here with Daisuke Sasaki of Freee. Which is an Accounting Service aimed at SMEs, Small Medium Businesses. I guess it is sort of similar to Fresh Books in America. You can explain it much better than I can. Why don't you tell us about Freee.

Daisuke: Yeah, basically our product is Online Accounting Software that can automate your Bookkeeping or Accounting tasks. Then basically our product will ultimately sync with your bank account and credit card accounts. We import the bank statement or credit card statements from your bank account. We ultimately categorize them.

All we have to do is just click to verify.