Directory — Est. 2025

Crewtool·Guides

GUIDE

Dual-Market (Korea + Japan) SMB Stack

Practical stack for small teams serving both Korean and Japanese customers simultaneously.

— Market: Korea & Japan— Audience: Small team

Assumptions

Korean entity + Japanese entity (or branch)
Serving both markets simultaneously
5–20 person team

Three-layer structure

**Shared global**: Slack, Notion, HubSpot, GitHub, Zoom, Google Workspace, Claude Team **Korea-only**: Channel.io(KR), Stibee, Flex, Samjeomsam/tax accountant, Naver Ads **Japan-only**: Sansan, freee, SmartHR or freee HR, LINE Official, Yahoo! Ads

Core principles

1. HR and accounting fully separated per entity 2. CRM in a single HubSpot with tags + pipelines split 3. Customer support tools per market (Channel.io KR vs JP) 4. Automation centralized in n8n

Monthly cost (10 people)

Slack/Notion/HubSpot/Google Workspace: $500–800/month
Channel.io: $100–300/month
Stibee + Benchmark: $30–50/month
Korean tax accountant: KRW 150–250k/month
Japanese tax accountant: ¥30–50k/month
Sansan: ¥30–100k/month
Flex + SmartHR: ¥100–300k/month (headcount-dependent)

~$2–3k/month total.

Pitfalls

Mixing KR/JP leads in one CRM without tags: requires strict pipeline separation
Trying one HR SaaS for both countries: legally impossible
One tax accountant for both: you need local experts per country

Dual-market ops requires the three-layer structure.

Featured in this guide

Channel-based team messenger, the de-facto standard for startup collaboration. Supports thousands of integrations and workflow automation.

Collaboration · KR+JP · Freemium

Notion is an all-in-one workspace integrating documents, databases, and tasks. The most widely adopted productivity tool among startups and solo founders globally, with full Korean and Japanese support.

Collaboration · GLOBAL · Freemium

HubSpot is the world's largest inbound CRM platform integrating sales, marketing, and customer service. A powerful free tier and built-in AI make it popular from startups to enterprises.

CRM & Sales · GLOBAL · Freemium

Channel Talk is an all-in-one business communication platform combining AI-powered customer support and team messenger. Small teams can deliver enterprise-grade customer experiences through chatbot automation and live chat.

AI & Automation · KR · Freemium

Sansan is Japan's #1 business card management and CRM service that uses AI to digitize cards and turn company-wide connections into a strategic asset. It bridges Japan's unique business card culture with modern sales intelligence.

CRM & Sales · JP · Paid

Flex is the most widely adopted HR platform among Korean startups. It unifies attendance, payroll, leave, e-contracts, and employee records in one place, especially tuned for teams of 1–50.

HR & Hiring · KR · Paid

SmartHR is Japan's #1 HR Tech SaaS, digitalizing employee onboarding/offboarding, payroll integration, and talent management on the cloud. Specialized in automating Japan's complex labor and social insurance processes.

HR & Hiring · JP · Paid

FAQ

Can a single HubSpot manage KR+JP leads?

Yes — but tag (country=KR/JP), separate pipelines, and split product lines are mandatory. HubSpot Sales Hub Professional or higher recommended.

Why n8n as the automation hub?

Zapier's per-task pricing hurts once both countries scale. Self-hosted n8n is unlimited.

How to post jobs in both countries at once?

Master JD in English → post to Wanted (KR) and Wantedly (JP) separately. Translate via ELYZA + human review.