Square is a financial technology company that provides payment processing solutions, point-of-sale systems, and business software that help merchants accept payments and manage operations. The company has become a major player in digital payments by making card acceptance simple for small businesses and expanding into banking, software, and consumer finance services.
Founded: 2009
Founders: Jack Dorsy, Jim McKelvey
Headquarters: San Francisco, California, United States
Industry: Financial Technology (Payments, Fintech)
Notable Info: Square is part of Block, Inc., which also owns products such as Cash App, and the company helped popularize small mobile card readers that allow businesses to accept credit card payments via smartphones.
Japan Launch & Go-to-Market
Ahead of its IPO, Square partnered with us to support its entry into Japan, the company’s first international market. Working closely with Square’s global and local leadership, we helped build the foundational go-to-market team and recruit the company’s first leadership hires to support the launch and long-term growth of its payments platform in Japan.
Challenges
Low Brand Awareness in Japan – Square was well known in the U.S. but relatively unknown in Japan, making it more difficult to attract top talent before launch.
Limited Global Fintech Talent: Japan had a small pool of candidates with both international experience and fintech expertise.
Dominant Legacy Payment Providers: The market was controlled by established local payment companies, creating a challenging entry environment
Outcomes
Full GTM Team Established: Ten key hires were made across sales, partnerships, operations, and customer experience to launch Square in Japan.
Exclusive Recruitment Partnership Secured – The successful project led to the firm being selected as Square’s exclusive recruitment partner in Japan.
Foundation for Long-Term Growth – The leadership hires helped support Square’s expansion in Japan and later recruitment of a Japan General Manager.
The Challenge
Square was gaining significant traction in the United States but remained relatively unknown in Japan, creating additional complexity when attracting top-tier leadership talent. At the same time, Japan’s emerging innovation ecosystem meant there was a limited pool of professionals with experience in high-growth global technology companies.
Compounding this challenge, the payments industry in Japan was dominated by large domestic players offering legacy solutions. Square needed leaders capable of navigating this competitive landscape while introducing a new digital payments model to the market. Identifying candidates with both strong local execution ability and global business fluency was therefore critical to the success of the launch.
The Approach
To address the limited talent pool, we conducted a comprehensive talent mapping exercise across adjacent industries including fintech, digital marketplaces, global technology companies, and multinational organizations. This approach expanded the candidate universe to include professionals with transferable expertise and international experience relevant to Square’s ambitions.
Working closely with Square’s leadership team, we helped define key functional roles and build the go-to-market structure required for launch. Our work extended beyond traditional search, encompassing employer branding, candidate engagement, market advisory, and full-cycle recruitment support. We managed interview processes, nurtured passive candidate interest, and even hosted Square’s visiting leadership team to facilitate deeper engagement with potential hires.
This collaborative and hands-on approach ensured that Square entered the Japanese market with a well-aligned and scalable team.
The Outcome
Following the successful build-out of Square’s initial team, we were appointed as the company’s exclusive recruitment partner for Japan. Over the course of the engagement, we delivered ten critical hires across Sales, Partnerships, Customer Experience, Risk and Compliance Operations, and Administration—forming the core team responsible for launching and scaling Square’s operations locally.
In 2013, we were re-engaged to lead the search for Square’s Japan General Manager, a pivotal leadership role during the company’s next phase of expansion. Since then, Square has gone public and significantly expanded its presence in Japan, supporting thousands of merchants and employing hundreds of people.
From the first hire to long-term market growth, we are proud to have contributed to Square’s successful entry and continued development in Japan.