Introduction to freee for engineers in 10 minutes [English Ver.]

P.45 「freee Tech Night」
「freee Developers Hub」

P.46 Why freee's development organization continues to challenge
I had a casual interview with freee CTO Yokoji.

Transcript

1. 　 Introducing freee to Engineers
2. 　 2 freee Company Profile 16,106.03 million yen (including capital . reserve, etc.) Number of employees Business content Development and sales of cloud-based back office services Capital Date of establishment July 2012 916 (total number of consolidated companies as of the end of June 2022) "Best Companies to Work For" In the top 10 of the best companies for 8 consecutive years * As of February 2022
3. 3 Born in Tokyo in 1980, grew up in a family that runs a beauty salon. Graduated from the Faculty of Commerce, Hitotsubashi University. Responsible of marketing for small businesses in APAC at Google. Promote the use of Internet advertising for small businesses in Japan, where fax and leaflet advertising was the mainstream. Also experienced CFO at a venture company and witnessed the complexity of accounting. Based on these experiences, freee Co., Ltd. was established to improve the low productivity of small businesses in Japan and the delay in utilizing technology. Have developed software such as "cloud accounting software freee accounting" that makes it easy to create financial statements and file tax returns. Also serves as a member of the Hitotsubashi University Management Council. A father of two children. Favorite word is (Maji Kachi) "serious value". freee Ltd. CEO 佐々木 大輔 Daisuke Sasaki
4. 4 About Executives Yuki Shigeiwa, Executive Officer CISO Born in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Pref. After completing a master’s degree at Tokyo Metropolitan University in 1995, joined IBM Japan and worked as a system engineer. Then joined DeNA in 1999 and oversee infrastructure construction and operation from its founding until 2014. In 2014, established the Security Department and oversee the information security of DeNA Group. Joined freee in April 2022. Ryu Yokoji, Director and CTO Raised in Ruby City Matsue. Completed and graduate school at Keio University. Been involved in business system development since I was a student. After working for Sony, Co-founded freee Co., Ltd. (Technology will redefine the way small businesses should be.) Yoshimasa Wakahara, Executive Officer VPoT / Head of Advisor Business Development Joined free in June 2013 after being involved in the development of cloud services. After launching a mobile app and working as a development manager for freee accounting, and now watching over product development as a whole. (Still writing the code.) Yuichiro Izumi, Executive Officer VPoE / General Manager of Product Core Planning and development of BtoB products. Joined freee in December 2015 and was involved in the development of freee tax filing. Worked as an engineering manager before assuming his current position. (Want to create a valuable product.) Masashi Yamazaki, Executive Officer / General Manager of Engineering Planning Division Born in Niigata. After working in Sales, IT project management, organizational development at Recruit Co., Ltd, and IT planning at Fast Retailing Co., Ltd, joined freee in April 2020. I create an environment where engineers can devote themselves to product development with the excitement of a child, and encourage the evolution of society. Yoshi Takeda, Executive Officer VPoE / General Manager of New and Growth product Joined freee in 2018 after setting up a new development department and developing a new product at a major CRM development vendor. At freee, set up the Kansai branch for development and take on a wide range of development roles including Engineer, PdM, EM, etc. As a VPoE, want to create an environment where engineers can develop the best products while having fun in a natural way. Teppei Tosa, Executive Officer CIO Experienced in core system development and R & D at a major domestic financial institution system company. In charge of accounting product development at freee and work as the first CSIRT full-time, then assumed CIO and CISO. After Mr. Shigeiwa joined freee, I’m responsible for the internal IT systems manager as CIO full-time. Aim to contribute to the business through IT infrastructure.
5. 5 　 ミッション・ビジョン・バリュー Mission/Vision/Value
6. 　 Mission Empower Small Businesses to Take Center Stage With the mission of "making small business the leading role in the world" freee develops and provides services with the aim of building an "integrated management platform that anyone can freely manage." We believe that a small business that can boldly and quickly embody ideas can generate various innovations and at the same time stimulate large companies to create a new movement in the world as a whole.
7. 　 7 Issues related to small business * 1 From the 2019 Small to Medium Enterprises White Paper * 2 From the 2018 Tokyo Commerce and Industry Research Deficit and surplus composition ratio * 3 From the 2021 Small to Medium Enterprises White Paper * 4 The 36th Works University Graduate Jobs-to-applicants Ratio Survey (graduated in 2020) April 24, 2019 Recruit Co., Ltd. Opening rate among major countries Slow start-up rate and entrepreneurship rate Bottom rank at 5.6%※1 Unfavorable credit for both companies and employees 60％ small to medium enterprises with financial issues ※2 Labor productivity comparison ※3 Low business productivity 5.34 million yen <13.63 million yen Small to medium enterprises Large companies 1.08 times <8.62 times ※4 Low employment popularity / difficulty in hiring Job openings-to-applicants ratio Small to medium enterprises Large companies
8. 　 An integrated management platform that anyone can manage freely. VISION To develop and provide an "integrated management platform" to create an environment where anyone can manage freely and naturally. By integrating back office operations, automation and overall operational efficiency can be improved. Furthermore, by visualizing the entire management, to evolve into a platform that can execute smart and optimal actions that have never been seen before. In addition, as an open platform linked with external services, it responds to various business needs. To also strengthen the activation of mutual transactions within the user network. In addition to providing a platform, to promote changes in the world by making efforts to improve the environment of people involved in small businesses.
9. By connecting all operations and data, smart and appropriate management actions can be performed in addition to automation and visualization. Integrated cloud ERP
10. 　 10 freee Accounting freee Opening business freee Benefits freee App store freee Human Resource freee Company establishment freee Smart Receiving business orders freee Project management freee Fundraising freee Filing freee Card Product lineup
11. 　 11 　 Providing optimal business efficiency function groups according to scale and needs in a single system Covers all business stages from founding to listing Founding period Expansion period
 Listed company IPO preparation company Sole proprietorship freee Accounting freee Company establishment freee HR
12. 12 * (1) Number of paying users as of the end of June 2022. The number of paying user companies includes sole proprietorships. Also aggregated for the entire freee group. 【Notes】Please refrain from using the previously used “1 million user companies” after August 2020 in order to match the information contained in the financial statements, annual securities reports and financial results presentation materials. June 2019 June 2020 June 2017 June 2018 June 2021 The number of paying user companies (cases) Efforts to expand the user base The number of paying user companies(1) To 380,000 83,000 121,000 224,000 293,000 160,000 379,000 June 2022
13. 13 Cloud accounting software market 56.3％ No. 1 corporate share for both accounting software and mobile app Mobile app market 71.3％ ※2 ※1 ※1 ※2　Leadplus Co., Ltd. “Industry analysis series to understand by search keywords : Cloud Accounting Software” (August 2022)
14. No. 1 corporate share for payroll software users Cloud payroll software market 40％ ※1 ※1 March 2016, according to MM Research Institute * From August 2017, the cloud payroll software freee has been enhanced and renamed to "Human Resources freee". In addition, with the subsequent brand renewal in June 2021, it is now "freee human resources".
15. Cumulative number of companies established using freee company incorporation service: Over 30,000
16. 16 Extensibility with public API / freee app store Number of App Store listings(1) 148 POS Register Chat tool Google Settlement PayPal BASE RAKUS Sales management Square Slack Stripe SmartHR HR data linkage Recruit PoS Register Salesforce Sales management RAKSUL IT/SaaS management note: 1. As of the end of July 2022 Groupware Settlement EC IT / SaaS management Money forward
17. 17 Cooperation with financial institutions Business alliances with 37 financial institutions 119 banks 937 other financial institutions (shinkin banks, labor banks, cooperatives, JA banks, etc.) Based on the number of contracts, 119 banks and 1006 other financial institutions (shinkin banks, labor banks, cooperatives, JA banks, etc.) API cooperation with a total of 1056 companies API contracts signed with 1125 banks and other financial institutions ※All as of the end of June 2022
18. 18 Strong positioning in the growth company segment (listed company) Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime・ Standard Growth TOKYO PRO Market IPO conducted using freee
19. 　 19 Released "freee card Unlimited", a corporate card that strengthens management Realization of high limit Speedy synchronization of details to freee accounting Employee usage control
20. 20 　 freeeのエンジニアリングについて Engineering
22. 22 Culture of Developers Are you working on all-round issues that your team deals with without sticking to specific techniques or areas? Apps, infrastructure, server-side, front-end, speed and accuracy. You understand and demonstrate the features that you can contribute to in the team. Also, you need to increase its features. Make learning mistakes and grow fastest. Learning failures are failures that lead to the growth of teams and products. Not making a learning mistake is not enough challenge. Let's fail and attack
 We do anything, we’ll do anything Special move freee's development culture is a criterion that everyone is actually aware of when developing.
23. 23 Culture of Developers Are you helping your surroundings with your own knowledge, both inside and outside the team? Are you reviewing, or are you reacting to system or human alerts like a gale and thunder? At the very least, can I post what I want to do without being satisfied so far? Is it possible to take a positive interest in and resolve system bottlenecks and anger over deficit? Beyond the MVP Being very caring freee's development culture is a criterion that everyone is actually aware of when developing.
24. 24 Engineering in Organization PM UXD Eng QA New Business Recruit ment Business manage ment Corporate planning Business Board of directors Emerging Small Business Initial Public Offering Advisor business Alliance business Product Small Business Accounting Human resource Financial statements Established / Opened Mobile Service infrastructure Management / Operation Strategy Development Sole proprietorship Business planning PM/UX and engineers form a team, develop on a project basis. Engineers handle everything from planning to development implementation, and operation. SRE Finance
25. 25 About the development system Release Operation and maintenance PM UX Eng QA Plan Technology selection Development Implementation Design Test Strategy Development Engineers form a team with PM and UX to handle everything from planning to development implementation and operation. Technology selection is also determined by the engineers on site.
26. 26 Hypothesis definition Organize issues Design Implement Test Code review Release Effect measure ment review Development cycle Adopt agile development that is resistant to market and estimation uncertainty. The product becomes stronger by repeating improvements in a short cycle while forming a team with PM and UX as well as engineers. 
 QA Test
27. 27 Evolutionary Trajectory: Products and Teams プロダクト リリース freee Accounting API release Service split start Introducing a team system Cloud ERP concept announce ment Microservi cing start Infrastructur e investment acceleration Platform first year New products acceleration Global develop ment freee Human resource freee Company establishm ent freee Opening business freee Filing freee finance lab Established freee App store freee Project manageme nt freee Card Unlimited
28. 28 Technical Layer 2012 - 2013 2022 Web Front end CoffeeScript Backbone.js Sprockets TypeScript JavaScript (Flow) React / Babel / webpack Native client - - Kotlin, Swift Flutter Web Back end Ruby Rails3.2 Ruby Go Rails 6.x gRPC Infrastructure / Configuration management Heroku -> AWS Chef AWS Kubernetes Terraform Machine learning / Data analytics - - Python TensorFlow BigQuery Evolutionary Trajectory: Technology Stack Technology replacement is almost complete in all areas. Rails from 3.2 to 6.x
29. 29 Actively introduce the latest technology while valuing purpose orientation Select the best technology to solve the user's problem without being obsessed with a specific technology.
30. 30 - Mainly slack communication - Team meeting - Many teams hold a morning meeting every day at 11:00 AM(JST). - Looking back and regular meeting is about 1 hour a week. - Some teams have introduced Scrum and are holding Scrum events. - Company-wide All Hands - A company-wide information sharing meeting is held every Tuesday at 3:00 PM(JST). Progress on company-wide OKRs is shared once a month. - Engineer All Hands - Monthly sharing of important topics within the development organization. - 1on1 - We set up 1on1 on daily and weekly during the first 3 months of employment to create an environment where communication is easy. - Regular 1on1 with JM will continue throughout the year. About the environment where team development can be done with peace of mind freee engineers currently have a rule of coming to work at least once a week. Team development is very important, try to communicate when when coming to work.
31. 31 　 freeeのカルチャー Culture
33. A sense of responsibility for the evolution of society In order to push society as a whole forward, we will take on the challenge of taking risks if it is essential, at the same time as being trusted by society. Two Principles of Serious Value The mindset that freeers must have Movement model team Friends who sympathize with the mission and gather together take action autonomously. A group that creates a better synergistic effect by spreading the enthusiasm.
34. Serious value guideline　Daily Judgment Criteria / Principles of Behavior Idea driven Think from the ideas. Continue to challenge regardless of current resources and skills. Output → Thinking First、 output. And think and improve. Hack Everything★ Get a deeper understanding of what you are working on and the nature of the resources you have. On top of that, think beyond the frame. Many things are just fun and have a bigger impact. Self Ghost Buster Verbalize the Self Ghost that you want to face now, greedily seek feedback on it, and confront it. Dare to share Get to know people and teams. Share to be known. We grow together by giving feedback to each other openly.
35. 35 会社について About Company
36. 36 At freee, we are taking various measures to create an environment where each member can maximize their talents even as the organization expands. About Company Office Diversity Promotion Office • Expanded and relocated in August 2022. In addition to the design that creates accidental encounters, there are meeting rooms that stimulate creativity that reflect fun, such as "a meeting room with a candy shop" and "a meeting room with a kitchen," which were created from employees' ideas. • There is no president's office. We encourage frank relationships and active communication. You can easily find the CEO in freee office. • After the COVID-19 pandemic, we are actively utilizing remote work while also flexibly utilizing office work with adequate infection control measures in place. • We have set up the Diversity Promotion Office to create an environment where everyone can work comfortably regardless of gender or age. • Actively participate in media and events as an ally company. We also prepare sessions on diversity for new employees and mid-career hires onboarding to deepen their understanding as an organization. • Obtained the highest rank "Gold" in "PRIDE Index 2017" sponsored by work with Pride. * Information on the event is before the Corona virus
37. 37 At freee, we are taking various measures to create an environment where each member can maximize their talents even as the organization expands. About Company Taking childcare leave & Tsubamekko Club 「Snack Tsubame」 • The CEO, CTO, and other management take the initiative in taking childcare leave, creating an atmosphere that is easy to take throughout the company. • Since April 2016, a total of 78 people have taken childcare leave (including 62 men). • The "Tsubamekko Club" has established a childcare support system such as family day, production of goods for children, and a discount system for housekeeping services to create an atmosphere of understanding the workplace for childcare. • Prior to Corona virus we provided snack tsubame as a welfare program. We had the opportunity to charter the coworking space in Gotanda, and while the officers became moms and entertained the eight employees who applied for the lottery, they talked about things they couldn't usually talk about. Freee actively held such events that created not only conversations with executives but also horizontal connections. * Information on the event is before the Corona virus
38. 38 At freee, we are taking various measures to create an environment where each member can maximize their talents even as the organization expands. About Company Hero interview (before Corona) Company-wide MTG WAH once every two weeks (after Corona) • Before the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a section in company-wide meetings called "Hero Interviews," in which the director would introduce an employee who had performed well that week. • While praising them, we dared to share what we had devised and tried to learn from other employees so that we could grow as an individual and as an organization. • Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the company-wide MTG has changed to remote work specifications. • At the company-wide MTG "Weekly Aekyo Hour" held once every two weeks in the evening, members will be the moderators, internal information will be shared, and the activities of freeers such as engineer development secrets will be shared. In addition, there is a session for a word from the president, Daisuke Sasaki’s ds. The comment section is always filled with freeers' comments and excitement. * Information on the event is before the Corona virus
39. 39 Internal communication and efforts to be like freee that have not ceased after Corona About Company Shall we Lanch Value Standard Anniversary of Cultural Awareness • We have an initiative to have remote lunches with coworkers regardless of team or job, and we encourage active use of Uber EATS with company subsidies up to a maximum of 1,000 yen. • This is because at freee, we value not only direct communication in business, but also informal and indirect communication. • We believe that having colleagues across operations and teams within freee has a variety of positive effects, including a sense of excitement and the generation of new ideas. • A "Value Standard Anniversary" has been established for each of the seven value standards. • For example, in May and June 2021, to coincide with the anniversary of one of the two Principles of Serious Value, "A sense of responsibility for the evolution of society," an exhibition was held to review the initiatives and activities in which freee has played a role in the evolution of society to date. • On the anniversary of each value, we are working to spread the culture by creating opportunities for freeers to think about the values and experience the actions that accompany the values. * Information on the event is before the Corona virus
40. 40 Internal communication have not ceased after Corona About Company Entrance ceremony freee Spirit • The entrance ceremony for 2021 was held online. • New graduate freeers were introduced individually, and senior freeers also participated to warmly welcome their new colleagues. The comment section was filled with congratulatory comments from senior freeers and replies from new graduate freeers, and exchanges took place. The event was lively with over 1,000 comments. • An internal event held once a year with the participation of all employees. In July 2021, this event was held completely remotely. Management share their thoughts on topics important to freee’s activities, such as the new vision, and and volunteer employees set up stalls online to interact with other employees. • Goods, curry, and taco rice were delivered to participant’s homes, making it a day to enjoy the festival in a delicious and fun way and to feel the freee culture. * Information on the event is before the Corona virus
41. 41 Candidate system transfer system (engineer Sengoku transfer) -This is a system that allows those who have been in the company for one year to move to the department of their choice. (Implemented in July every year) -As a precedent, some people have changed services within the WEB application, and there is also a track record of transferring from the WEB application to the SRE, application platform, and UX designer. -We aim to create an environment where you can broaden your career as an engineer while staying at freee. Book purchase system (Swallow Library) - You can freely purchase up to 3 books a month for the books you need for your business! - There is also a library space on the floor, so you can freely borrow the books you need.　 Introduction of system etc. At freee, we are seriously aiming for an engineer organization that engineers long for, implementing various measures and designing and implementing systems.
42. 42 Conference participation fee subsidy - Part of the company will subsidize the participation fee as well as the stage of the event conference. - In 2019, been on stage and participated in the Japan Accessibility Conference and GopherCon. Committee system - It is possible to join the committee as a candidate. - In addition to the front-end committee, productivity improvement committee, and microservices committee, the technical cooperation of each team's tech lead decides the direction of freee's engineering. Introduction of system etc. At freee, we are seriously aiming for an engineer organization that engineers long for, implementing various measures and designing and implementing systems.
43. 43 Introduction of system etc. At freee, we are seriously aiming for an engineer organization that engineers long for, implementing various measures and designing and implementing systems. Serious value DeepDiver (Old master system) – "Engineers who can have a huge impact on freee" are selected by in-team voting with their technical capabilities. – The "master" selected by voting will be given freedom away from normal work for a month. – The mission of the master is to think about and implement measures that bring "discontinuous growth" to services and companies within the period. – After the period ends, the result is fed back to the whole company (here, "master time" ends and returns to normal work again). Development camp - At freee's development camp, the product team is a little off the main task, leaving the office for two full days to solve their usual challenges and technical debt. -The purpose is to contribute to improving the quality and productivity of the entire product.
44. 44 • Housing Allowance ◦ If you live within a 2km radius of your office, you will be provided with a housing allowance of 20,000 yen for a single person and 30,000 yen for a life partner or family member. • Rental company housing system ◦ A rental property that will be the base of your life is contracted under the name of a corporation, and the company rents the property. By deducting 50% of the housing rent from the salary (payment in kind) and deducting the remaining 50% from the salary, the social insurance premiums of the members will decrease and the actual take-home pay of the members will increase. • Relocation support system ◦ A system that provides support before and after moving and living in order to eliminate the psychological / economic burden associated with moving for members who are on a long-term business trip or change their work location within freee and to reduce the impact on their main business as much as possible. Tsubame house system Introduction of system etc. At freee, we are seriously aiming for an engineer organization that engineers long for, implementing various measures and designing and implementing systems.
45. 45 freee Tech Night Technical transmission example We are making various announcements so that the technology, development organization, development culture, etc. used in freee can be widely known. freee Developers Hub This is an event to introduce freee's technology and engineers sponsored by freee engineers, to share experiences and know-how with external engineers, and to be an opportunity to expand the exchange network. Currently, it is live-streamed on YouTube about once a month. It is a medium that introduces the development organization of freee. The freee Developers Blog, information on holding / speaking technical events, technical presentation materials, engineer recruitment information, etc. are posted.
46. 46 Technical transmission example We talk about examples of how freee's development organization has continued to challenge itself technologically and organizationally, and the secrets to achieving this, contrasting new product development with product development that has a long history. Why freee's development organization continues to challenge YouTube Channel「freee developers」is the official channel of freee that sends information for developers. We publish event archives such as freee Tech Night and videos created for the purpose of disseminating information for developers. CTO yokoji talks in detail about the reality of the development organization and the atmosphere of the engineering team. If you are interested in freee, this is a must-see. I had a casual interview with freee CTO Yokoji.
47. 47 Empower Small Businesses to Take Center Stage. 47