Founding VP Sales executive search · B2B data & MarTech · Japan
Anteriad | Founding VP Sales, Japan
Seven conversations. Two candidates.One hire.
CherryPeople undertook a targeted executive search for Anteriad’s Founding VP Sales in Japan, navigating the demands of a specialist B2B data and marketing technology market.
Anteriad came to CherryPeople through an introduction from Joe’s network. It was a new relationship, and the first brief was a significant one: a Founding VP Sales to launch Anteriad’s new region in Japan.
The brief: A founding commercial leader for a new region
This wasn’t a hire into an established Japanese sales organisation. CherryPeople was being asked to identify the founding commercial leader who would establish and lead Anteriad’s presence in a new market.
Before the search began, CherryPeople researched the market and compensation landscape to make sure the package was positioned where it needed to be.
The budget was competitive. The harder part was the brief itself: an executive-level sales leader who was genuinely bilingual in Japanese and English, with relevant MarTech or AdTech experience.
The market: A narrow brief creates a narrow market.
At this level, each requirement materially reduced the available talent pool. Combined, they left a very small number of people worth approaching.
The founding mandate narrowed it further. Anteriad needed a leader who could establish a region from the ground up, not step into an existing Japanese sales organisation.
CherryPeople didn’t try to manufacture a ten-person shortlist. The objective was to identify the small number of people who genuinely matched the brief and engage them properly.
- Japan
- New region
- Founding VP Sales
- Executive level
- Japanese + English
- Genuinely bilingual
- MarTech / AdTech
- Relevant vertical experience
- Competitive
- Market-aligned package
The search: More candidates wouldn’t have made the search better.
- 7
- Candidates engaged
- 2
- Submitted
- #2
- Hired
The first candidate was strong. Then Joe met Lavin.
Lavin’s background immediately stood out in the market. His experience with StackAdapt and Teads brought direct relevance to Anteriad, and his profile reflected many of the characteristics the search had been built around.
But the profile only got him into the conversation.
Meeting him was what changed the search.
Joe came away from their first in-person meeting convinced he’d found someone different: an intelligent, humble and highly credible sales leader with the presence expected at this level.
There was one complication.
Lavin wasn’t looking.
He was passive, lukewarm at best, and needed to be convinced that the opportunity was worth properly exploring.
Client feedback
After Lavin’s first interview, Anteriad’s hiring manager Jake sent Joe this feedback:
You couldn’t have been more on the money in terms of targeting… This feels like we have found the needle in the haystack.
The process: The assessment went both ways.
Anteriad quickly saw what CherryPeople had seen. But Lavin wasn’t going to make an executive move without doing his own diligence.
Additional conversations were arranged so he could meet stakeholders across the APAC team, understand the business properly and assess the opportunity from his side.
CherryPeople and Anteriad welcomed that approach. At this level, the candidate should be assessing the company just as carefully as the company is assessing the candidate.
The result: Candidate #2 submitted.
Founding VP Sales Japan hired.
LavinFounding VP Sales · Japan
Lavin accepted Anteriad’s offer and joined the business in August 2026 as the Founding VP Sales for its new region in Japan.
7 engaged 2 submitted 1 hire
In September 2026, Joe asked Jake how the Japan launch was going, and how Lavin was performing.
He’s smashing it! Been brilliant.