Our co-founders Ken Charles and Cody Pettit, two Americans living in Tokyo, met in 2010. Cody was a young English teacher and Ken had just sold his first startup company to a tech firm in San Francisco after years recruiting on Wall Street.

They bonded over a love of life, gaming, Japan, and all sorts of geeky things.

Ken went on to found the IT recruiting division at a preeminent executive search firm in Tokyo. Over many drinks across many nights, Ken convinced Cody to leave the safety of English teaching and to become a recruiter. This was 2015 and set off the sequence of events that would lead to ExecutiveSearch.AI.

It became obvious to both Ken and Cody that the recruiting industry was stuck in the dark ages. Boiler-room style call centers, bothering office receptionists, or even worse — mindlessly spamming people on LinkedIn or Bizreach all day — is low quality work and not worthy of the high service fees recruiting firms charge.

High quality, passive job seekers need a trusted partner who truly understands their industry and career ambitions. And tech companies looking for top talent need partners who can find candidates outside of LinkedIn & Bizreach.

Thus began the founding principle of ExecutiveSearch.AI — Ken and Cody would start a “Tech-first Executive Search” firm. One where the focus would be on the human-to-human elements. One where software & AI would be used to free up recruiters’ time so they could spend more time with candidates.

Ken & Cody launched ExecutiveSearch.AI on February 1st 2018 as a modern recruiting firm for a modern era. Focused solely on filling tech companies’ executive, engineering and product positions.

ExecutiveSearch.AI started with 2 customers in 2018, added a third in 2019, and a few more since. We added a third partner, Eileen Tian, and expanded our team. We’re quickly becoming the leading executive search firm for Japan’s tech industry. What’s next? Reach out and find out!