hokan COO on Vertical SaaS Growth, 90% Market Share, and First-Time Managers

Hayato Matsumoto, COO of insurance-agency Vertical SaaS hokan, explains why Vertical SaaS must target 90% market share and how to build leaders who have never managed before.

• hokan’s only competitors are SIs and legacy vendors — no startup rivals and no US analog with matching market density, so the product roadmap must be built from scratch.
• Vertical SaaS must target 90%+ market share, not 10%, because the TAM is capped; Matsumoto cites Sansan holding 83% of Japan’s business card market as the benchmark.
• Paper direct mail is hokan’s highest-converting marketing channel; adding a pre-nurture email or a second DM before the main piece measurably lifts response rates.
• Insurance agencies treat hokan as core infrastructure, making onboarding the hardest CS challenge — some clients need five workshops; the CS team is split into four sub-teams: enterprise onboarding, SMB onboarding, support, and success.
• Matsumoto disclosed known unknowns openly during the Series A pitch, arguing that separating confirmed KPI correlations from unvalidated assumptions builds more durable VC trust than overstating certainty.
• hokan promotes leaders without prior management experience based on domain depth and tenure; each leader builds their own style through 1-on-1 mentoring rather than generic training programs.
• 1-on-1s are structured around three employee goals: internal career progression, external market value, and personal life targets such as income milestones or family plans — employees without personal goals are seen as burnout risks.
• Matsumoto’s advice to COO aspirants: the role goes to people who charge at problems regardless of title; most COOs did not specifically target the position.

2025-06-26 · Watch on YouTube