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How and why I built Japan Dev

japan-dev.com

81–90 of 172 posts

Re: How and why I built Japan Dev

#81
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, because Germany already has a “LLC”, its GmbH. but if you have less than 25k you have to call yourself “UG (haftungsbeschränkt)”, which, in the end, has the same meaning, only spelled out… it’s like a warning message or something

UG also stands for unlautere Geschäfte, dishonest dealings ;)

Exactly, it's like the government decided to mark all low-/entry-level entrepreneurship as potentially fraudulent - or urge towards that 25K deposit.

In practice it becomes an invisible glass ceiling, you just work/pay your way through it when it's time, otherwise keep playing in the shallow end for as long as you want.

Win-win, surely, but patronizing nevertheless.

Re: How and why I built Japan Dev

#82
post #46
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's weird. I've heard of requirements that business need to have a certain amount in cash reserves, just to guarantee that they can pay severance packages and other guarantees, to stop the owners from declaring bankruptcy too late. But asking for that and then letting them remove it from the account is just weird.

Maybe it's a 6 month long test to prove that you can handle your finances without that bit of extra money? That said it sounds like a really stupid test.

Well yeah, its to see who has to dip into their money that is supposed to be locked in. If I was in the business of usury I wouldn't want to lend to people who couldn't keep the collateral locked up for 6 months.

Re: How and why I built Japan Dev

#85
post #34
post #6

> So we share your jobs on our site. A candidate applies. You interview them and decide to hire them. You notify us you hired them. We send you an invoice. You pay us a fee. I'm absolutely stunned that this works. > For one thing, our contract imposes a late fee for failing to notify us of a successful hire. And the fee increases every month that they don't tell us. This is a pretty good deterrent. Is it? It sounds l…

I heard a similar story from a guy who put in relation brands with professionals of the event industry. According to him, not having to put in place and enforce a strict control gave him a lot of bandwidth to work on more impactful parts of his projects. Surprisingly, he made good bucks with this approach... I guess even businesses can be more honest than expected.

Business can totally be done in a fair and ethical way, that's just not western culture. Here you get promoted for stomping on someones neck with your boot

Re: How and why I built Japan Dev

#86
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As of 2019, Tokyo was far cheaper in terms of monthly rent than some major American cities. Rent in Tokyo for a 2BR apartment: $1,903/mo Rent in NYC for a 2BR apartment: $2,909/mo Rent in San Francisco for a 2BR apartment: $3,631/mo Src: Deutsche Bank https://www.dbresearch.com/PROD/RPS_EN-PROD/PROD000000000049...

Tokyo is routinely ranked among the ~5-10 most expensive cities in the world to live in: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/world-most-expensive-citi... https://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonytellez/2022/06/29/these-...

That's only because all of those comparisons assume cars are free and not part of your living expenses. People in the USA often save money moving to Chicago and NYC because they can get rid of their cars. So yes, the rent is expensive and buying is expensive... but is it really?

The average difference in cost between buying in Chicago versus buying in the suburbs of Chicago is the price of two median cars (~$60K difference total). Over a 30 year mortgage, in the suburbs, you'd probably buy 2-3 cars per adult. If living in the city let's you go to down to 0.5 cars per adult or even 0 cars per adult, then you've broke even or saved money. Heck, even just having a reasonably priced car in the city, driving less, and having leisure use insurance on your vehicle because you don't commute via car can result in thousands per year in savings even after you pay for parking.

Re: How and why I built Japan Dev

#87
post #6

> So we share your jobs on our site. A candidate applies. You interview them and decide to hire them. You notify us you hired them. We send you an invoice. You pay us a fee. I'm absolutely stunned that this works. > For one thing, our contract imposes a late fee for failing to notify us of a successful hire. And the fee increases every month that they don't tell us. This is a pretty good deterrent. Is it? It sounds l…

I was one of the "Quick aside since I get asked this all the time."[1] Being from Spain I'm 100% a lot of the companies here would try to cheat this, but he made some good points both in the tweet answers and article; it's better to pay early and low, than being caught very late and having to pay a huge amount (don't know how much better though). If a company retires a job without paying, I'd def spend few minutes tr…

Having also run a hiring company, I was worried about companies ghosting us after making a hire. Turns out the vast majority of customers don't balk at recruiting fees.

They see it two ways:

1) Easier to pay, than review the legal recourses of not paying

2) If they sourced one good candidate from your site, they may source another. So best not to get booted from the platform for delinquency.

Re: How and why I built Japan Dev

#88

This was incredibly well-written and an enjoyable story. Congratulations on pushing through and getting traction. Something that resonated: > We had to put 5 million JPY (~$45k at the time) in our business bank account and leave it there. For... some reason. Living in Asia I've come across this bizarre government obsession with "money in the bank" when dealing with them: "You need $15k in a bank account to apply" "Ok…

Lots of countries have this in their visa requirements, intentionally to keep poor people away.

Re: How and why I built Japan Dev

#89
post #6

> So we share your jobs on our site. A candidate applies. You interview them and decide to hire them. You notify us you hired them. We send you an invoice. You pay us a fee. I'm absolutely stunned that this works. > For one thing, our contract imposes a late fee for failing to notify us of a successful hire. And the fee increases every month that they don't tell us. This is a pretty good deterrent. Is it? It sounds l…

I think maybe it works due to cultural reasons - Japanese seem quite honest.
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