---
title: 'Director of Sales, Startale Japan at Startale Group'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/director-of-sales-startale-japan-startale-group-japan-zfxrwz1v28ek'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-12'
---

# Director of Sales, Startale Japan at Startale Group

- **Company:** Startale Group
- **Location:** Japan
- **Posted:** 2026-07-08
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-12
- **Apply:** https://startale.com/career/5307643008?gh_jid=5307643008

## Job description

## About Us

In partnership with Sony and SBI — two of Japan's largest companies — we are building the infrastructure to bring the world's assets on-chain: Strium, a next-generation DeFi L1 powered by a fully on-chain orderbook exchange, and Startale App, a consumer super-app. Distributed across Tokyo, New York, and Singapore; English-operating; built to a world-class standard.

Position Overview

- Establish institutional sales strategy of Startale products in Japan
- Identify new business opportunities for Startale in Japan
- Execute commercial agreements with Japanese financial institutions and enterprises for Startale Onchain Finance Kit
- Formulate strategic partnerships with leading Japanese financial institutions and enterprises for adoption and expansion of Startale’s product suites

What the First Months Demand

- Fully understand product suites, including but not limited to Startale App, Startale App SDK, JPYSC, Soneium, Strium, and Startale Onchain Finance Kit
- Identify target clients, market opportunities, and sales strategies/requirements
- Reach out to target clients to start building relationships and discover demands
- Establish partnerships with external service providers that can accelerate the development, delivery and adoption of Startale products and services
- Deliver “the first commercial agreement” for Startale Onchain Finance Kit

## Why This Role Matters

Onchain finance is no longer a thesis — it is becoming market infrastructure. Led by the United States, stablecoins, tokenized assets, and onchain capital markets are expanding into a global movement, and Japan is emerging as one of the most important frontiers of this shift.

Startale stands at the center of it. With a proven track record in Japan and a product suite already trusted by leading enterprises and institutions, we hold a decisive first-mover position in one of the world's largest financial markets. The opportunities ahead of us are enormous — and they will be won on the frontline.

This role is that frontline. You will drive sales with Japan's most ambitious enterprises and financial players, translate customer needs directly into our product roadmap, and turn market leadership into revenue. You won't just sell what we've built — you will shape what we build next, and own the growth that follows.

## Team and Stakeholders

- Reports to CBO of Startale Group.
- Daily collaboration with Japan and global sales/BD team, product team, developer relations and marketing team.

## Requirements

- 8+ years of professional experience in traditional finance (preferably sales & trading) and/or management consulting, and/or enterprise B2B sales, business development, or strategic partnerships
- Proven ability to originate and close new business, rather than primarily managing existing accounts
- Demonstrated success managing long enterprise sales cycles involving multiple stakeholders
- Experience selling complex technology or infrastructure solutions into large enterprises
- Track record of building trusted relationships with senior business and technology stakeholders, including executive decision-makers — and of influencing decisions through consultative engagement rather than price or product features alone
- Native in Japanese, and conversational in English
- Strong network with top financial institutions in Japan
- Genuine interest in blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies; working experience at a blockchain infrastructure company is a plus
- Comfortable working in an early-stage, fast-moving environment with significant autonomy
- Exceptional work ethic and a winning mindset

Location, Engagement, Compensation

Tokyo · Independent contractor.

Compensation aligned with our Global Salary Standard plus equity. Benefits: unlimited time off, stock options, annual workations (recent: Seoul, Tokyo, Croatia, Turkey, Belgium, Singapore), premium tooling from machine to AI agents.

## Why Join Us

- The scale of the bet. We're aiming at a global, category-defining outcome only a handful of startups ever reach — Nasdaq/NYSE scale — building onchain financial infrastructure with Sony and SBI behind us.
- An early stage without the fragility. A $63M Series A and tier-1 Japanese partners — yet ~70 people, pre-PMF, early enough that what you build shapes the company. Plus early equity in a company chasing an outcome this size.
- Open culture, real Winning Mindset. Information is shared in the open; we don't run on politics or inter-team turf wars. People here are betting their careers on winning — and act like it.

## About Startale Group

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Startale Group is a global Web3 infrastructure developer building the next civilization by bringing the world onchain through the development of Soneium, Astar Network, and developer tools.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A)
- **Headquarters**: Singapore, Singapore
- **Founded**: 2019
- **Founders**: Sota Watanabe

## Core Business
- **Primary Industry**: Blockchain infrastructure and Web3 development
- **Target Customers**: B2B (enterprises, developers, and Web3 projects) and B2C (end-users of onchain applications)
- **Mission Statement**: "Build the next civilization by bringing the world onchain" — making blockchain technology a transparent, borderless, and programmable foundation for everyday life.

## Products & Services
- **Soneium**: A next-generation Ethereum layer-2 blockchain, co-developed through Sony Block Solutions Labs (a joint venture with Sony Group Corporation). Designed to bridge Web3 and traditional internet services (Web2) for billions of users.
- **Astar Network**: Japan’s largest public blockchain, serving as a gateway for projects across enterprises, entertainment, and gaming. Leverages a multi-layered tech stack (zkEVM, EVM, WASM) powered by Polygon and Polkadot.
- **Startale Cloud Services**: Infrastructure and developer tools (RPC interfaces, account abstraction tooling) that let developers ship faster on Soneium and Astar.
- **Startale App**: An all-in-one gateway to the Soneium ecosystem, uniting blockchain-native applications in a single intuitive experience.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metrics**:
  - **Annual Revenue**: ~$1.0M (per LinkedIn)
  - **Total Funding**: $70.0M across 5 rounds
  - **Funding Rounds**: Includes a $50M Series A (March 2026), a $13M Series A (January 2026), a $3.5M Series A (February 2024), and earlier rounds led by SBI Group.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Sony Group Corporation (joint venture for Soneium), Hakuhodo (joint venture for Hakuhodo Key3), SBI Group.
- **Growth Signals**: 49 employees (+20.4% YoY); operates across 19 countries; Soneium mainnet launched in January 2026 and is described as one of the most rapidly expanding L2 ecosystems; CEO moved from Singapore to the U.S. to drive global product expansion.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Unique Joint Ventures**: Co-develops Soneium with Sony Group Corporation and operates a joint venture with Hakuhodo, giving Startale unparalleled access to Japanese enterprise and entertainment ecosystems.
- **Japan Beachhead**: Astar Network is Japan’s largest public blockchain, providing a strong home-market position with government and corporate relationships.
- **Full-Stack Web3**: Unlike many L2-only teams, Startale builds at every layer — protocol (Soneium, Astar), infrastructure (Cloud Services), and consumer apps (Startale App) — similar to Tesla’s integrated strategy.
- **Top-Tier Talent Pool**: Team members come from Binance, Polygon, Crypto.com, Google, Microsoft, and Y Combinator, with a culture described as "sharp, fast, and globally competitive" [startale.com](https://startale.com/en/blog/Startale-Group-going-global-interview).

## Strategic Focus
- **Product-Led Growth**: Shifting from a business-development-heavy approach to a product-first strategy, with a focus on wallets, payments, and stablecoin products.
- **Global Expansion**: CEO Sota Watanabe has moved to the U.S. to lead the charge, aiming to win in the American market as a path to global leadership.
- **Entertainment + Finance**: Combining Japan’s strength in entertainment with blockchain’s financial infrastructure, designing experiences where users interact onchain without realizing it.
- **Long-Term Consolidation**: Betting that blockchain will consolidate into just a few global platforms (like iOS/Android), and positioning Soneium and Astar as core infrastructure.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Startale invests heavily in culture, describing it as a key differentiator — products can be copied, culture cannot. They hold yearly all-members "workations" (past events in Croatia, Japan, Korea, Turkey, Belgium) and team offsites (sports festivals, etc.) to build bonds across a remote, multinational team [startale.com](https://startale.com/en/career).
- **Remote-First & Flexible**: "Full-Flex" policy — no fixed hours or locations. Fully remote team. Output comes first [startale.com](https://startale.com/en/career).
- **Global Compensation**: Salaries benchmarked against global market levels for global talent, with compensation packages competitive with U.S. startups like Coinbase [startale.com](https://startale.com/en/blog/Startale-Group-going-global-interview).
- **Perks**: Unlimited PTO, stock options, and powerful tooling (from machine to AI agents).
- **Engineering Culture**: Team is 80% international, with members from 20+ countries. Discussions are described as "sharp, fast, and very global in perspective." The company values three things: Growth Mindset, Integrity, and Open & Transparency [startale.com](https://startale.com/en/career).
- **Current Openings**: 8 active roles including Senior Rust Backend Engineer, Senior Rust Blockchain Engineer, Senior Frontend Engineer, Senior Product Manager (Trading), Security Engineer, and Senior QA Engineer (Trading) — all remote [startale.com](https://startale.com/en/career).

## Sources
1. [startale.com - Career Page](https://startale.com/en/career)
2. [linkedin.com - Startale Group](https://sg.linkedin.com/company/startale)
3. [startale.com - Mission Page](https://startale.com/mission)
4. [startale.com - Interview with CEO, COO, and Product Lead](https://startale.com/en/blog/Startale-Group-going-global-interview)
5. [builtin.com - Startale Careers, Perks + Culture](http://www.builtin.com/company/startale)

## Other roles at Startale Group

- [シニアテクニカルプロジェクトマネージャー｜規制対応オンチェーン金融基盤](https://feeny.ai/job/startale-group-japan-nc8wc1phfe00) — Japan
- [事業開発／プロジェクトマネージャー（オンチェーン金融）](https://feeny.ai/job/startale-group-japan-0v0ebd60673r) — Japan
- [People & Culture Associate（採用・広報・カルチャー）｜採用を軸に、Startale の「人とカルチャー」を支える](https://feeny.ai/job/people-culture-associate-startale-startale-group-japan-hg7dmz5p2y8z) — Japan
- [シニアバックエンドエンジニア（TypeScript）｜デジタルアセットのスーパーアプリ「Startale App」](https://feeny.ai/job/typescript-startale-app-startale-group-japan-bn2we0ejemfa) — Japan
- [プロダクトアソシエイト（PdM 候補）｜完全オンチェーン取引所「Strium」／デジタルアセットのスーパーアプリ「Startale App」](https://feeny.ai/job/pdm-strium-startale-app-startale-group-japan-h533z7bd8gym) — Japan
- [Growth Marketing Manager (Japan/Asia)｜Startale App のプロダクトグロースを牽引](https://feeny.ai/job/growth-marketing-manager-japan-asia-startale-app-startale-group-japan-bctyrrdz2k3x) — Japan
- [シニアソフトウェアエンジニア（品質エンジニアリング・SDET）｜完全オンチェーン取引所「Strium」／デジタルアセットのスーパーアプリ「Startale App」](https://feeny.ai/job/sdet-strium-startale-app-startale-group-japan-n39zdkypeean) — Japan
- [シニアフロントエンドエンジニア（React / TypeScript）｜完全オンチェーン取引所「Strium」／デジタルアセットのスーパーアプリ「Startale App」](https://feeny.ai/job/react-typescript-strium-startale-app-startale-group-japan-twtw82prntex) — Japan
- [Growth Marketing Manager (Japan/Asia)](https://feeny.ai/job/growth-marketing-manager-japan-asia-startale-group-japan-etxgkdnkvee7) — Japan
- [Senior Software Engineer, Quality Engineering (SDET)](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-quality-engineering-sdet-startale-group-remote-qkr1h8ze3114)