Assumptions
- Post-Series A ($5–15M)
- 10–30 person team
- Korean HQ + Japan office (or reverse)
- ARR $1–5M
Core
**CRM/marketing**: HubSpot Sales Hub Professional + Marketing Starter **Customer support**: Channel.io (KR+JP) + Intercom (EN customers) **Collab**: Slack + Notion + Google Workspace **Development**: GitHub + Linear + Cursor + GitHub Copilot + Sentry + DataDog **Data**: Mixpanel + Segment + BigQuery + Looker Studio **Email marketing**: HubSpot Marketing + Stibee (KR) + Benchmark (JP) **Docs/contracts**: Notion + Docusign **HR**: Flex (KR) + SmartHR (JP) + Kaonavi or HRBrain (performance) **Automation**: self-hosted n8n + Yoom (Japan integrations) + Zapier (minimal) **AI**: Claude Team + ChatGPT Team + ElevenLabs + Notta **Accounting**: Samjeomsam or tax firm (KR) + freee or MF + tax accountant (JP) **Sales**: Sansan (JP) + Sales Navigator **Payments**: Stripe + TossPayments + PAY.JP
Monthly cost (20 people)
- HubSpot: $1000–2000
- Slack/Notion/Workspace: $400–600
- Channel.io + Intercom: $500–800
- GitHub + Linear + dev tools: $500–1000
- Mixpanel + Segment: $500–1500
- HR SaaS both countries: $500–1000
- Tax/legal: $1000–2000
~$5–10k/month total.
Series A strategy
- Customers 10–50 → 100+: invest in CRM + MA
- Support tickets 50+/week: strengthen Channel.io AI + automation
- Team 10 → 30: upgrade Flex/SmartHR + performance management
- Split vs unified per country: split by principle (data + legal)
Pitfalls
- Adopting Salesforce too early: TCO hard to justify pre-Series B
- Over-complex data stack: BigQuery + Looker is enough for Series A
- Trying to unify HR: keep per country (legally impossible otherwise)