Interview with Amplitude

Thank you for your time today.
You are the very important customer for many years, even before Ryze was established. Recently, you hired an employee. You were at Zoom before joining Amplitude, and you introduced us to the members of RYZE through Francis Chng at that time.

Aaron：I’d worked with them even before they formed Ryze. Actually, I think it was two companies ago. I had some connection with them at one of my earlier roles. But yes, the formal collaboration began while I was at Zoom.
They were recommended to me through my network—not so much because of the company, but because of Bill and David themselves. I spoke with them back then, but we couldn’t work together until years later at Zoom, when they were at another recruitment company. So essentially, I’ve followed Bill and David’s work, and later they started Ryze.

Was your first engagement with them in Japan, and what roles were you hiring for?

Aaron：Yes, it was in Japan. Primarily for go-to-market roles like sales, sales engineers, and marketing positions.

And moving forward, what level of roles do you anticipate hiring for?

Aaron：Mostly enterprise sales leadership and niche roles that are particularly hard to fill. This is true not just for Amplitude but for companies of a similar size where budget constraints are a factor.

So, do they typically find you, or do you actively look for agencies?

Aaron：When I joined Amplitude and we had the budget and an open role where we could use an agency, Ryze was my first call. There were a couple of agencies already contracted by Amplitude before I joined. At Zoom, it was different—that’s when I first started working with Ryze. Right now, I’d say we have about three active agencies we’ve worked with in the past six months, including Ryze. There are another two or three with agreements in place, but we’re not actively using them.

That makes sense. Is it fair to say that the types of candidates you’re looking for aren’t typically active job seekers? Even if they have a LinkedIn account, they probably don’t log in frequently. Is that why you rely on executive search?

Aaron：Absolutely. Japan is a unique market. In other regions, LinkedIn is ubiquitous, with one or two strong alternatives. In Japan, LinkedIn is still the best option, but its penetration is minimal. The other job boards like BizReach and Rikunabi aren’t great either. Using them is possible, but it’s a lot of manual work for me and the team. Instead, I’d rather use the same budget for a partner like Ryze, who can handle it all.

Is it also true that candidates you might attract through job boards tend to be less stable or qualified, compared to those sourced by an executive search firm?

Aaron：Absolutely. Or just as common, they lack the relevant background for the role.

When choosing or sticking with an executive search firm, is quality over quantity your main priority? You don’t want your inbox flooded with low-grade resumes, correct?

Aaron：Exactly. There are usually two reasons we’d use an agency: speed or difficulty. If a role opens suddenly and we need it filled quickly, or if it’s a challenging role that we’ve struggled to fill on our own. Those are the primary cases. The other benefit is time savings. A good agency saves me time by prequalifying candidates. With Ryze, I know they won’t waste my time—they understand what a good candidate looks like and only send qualified options.

That’s a big difference compared to agencies that flood you with resumes without really understanding the requirements.

Aaron：Exactly.

And they rely on claims like, “We have the biggest database in Japan,” but that doesn’t mean much, right?

Aron：Yeah, their selling point is often a large database, but that’s not helpful.

Does your company have head office-level relationships with recruiting firms, or are you free to choose who you work with?

Aaron：It’s a mix. I’m the only talent acquisition person for APAC, so I have flexibility. But sometimes our country manager or APAC leader might want me to work with someone from their network. There are a few agencies we’ve used this year based on those connections, even if they weren’t my first choice.

Did you have to justify your decision to use Ryze, or was that left to your discretion?

Aaron： I did have to justify it, especially given the painful procurement process. At Zoom, it took six months to onboard an agency. Here, it’s about three or four months, even for standard agreements. We want to ensure any agency we onboard is worth that effort. At Zoom, we also reviewed agencies periodically to decide which ones to keep. Ryze always stood out in those evaluations.

So the lengthy process is partly compliance-driven, to prevent issues like kickbacks?

Aaron：Yes, but it’s also a bandwidth issue. Procurement teams often prioritize sales agreements over recruitment contracts, which pushes us to the back burner. It’s a challenge.

Any final feedback for Ryze?

Aaron：If I had to summarize Ryze’s key strength: they don’t waste my time. Many agencies flood you with resumes, but Ryze understands what we need and delivers only qualified candidates.

Thanks so much for your time, Aaron.

Aaron：Thank you . Have a great day.