[Interview with Matsusaburo Tsukuda, CEO, and Ryota Sato, CTO, of Initial Engine Inc.] Bridging Technology and Management: Uncovering Their Grounded Strategies

Initial Engine Inc. develops DX strategies that deliver genuine results by combining two perspectives: technology and management. Led by Tsukuda, who has the experience of founding a company after moving to the United States, and Sato, who built his career at global startups, the company charts grounded, practical DX strategies — neither technology-heavy nor detached from reality.
We interviewed the two of them about the company’s business, its strengths, the kind of person who thrives there, and asked them — as two people with hands-on management experience — to share their thoughts on the essence of DX and the vision for the future.

From Solving Client Challenges to Leveraging Generative AI — Initial Engine’s DX Support as the Bridge Between Management and Technology

— Could you tell us about Initial Engine’s business?

Under the concept of “bridging management and technology,” we provide one-stop DX support spanning everything from discovering client challenges and formulating strategy through to development. Our main service areas are divided into three: DX consulting services, CTO advisory services, and CIO assistant services. In all of these we accurately identify the client’s challenges and provide accompanying support.

Our strength is that our support is led by people who have actually served as CTOs. By combining deep technical capability with specialized management knowledge, we work to draw out the maximum benefit from DX.

Recently, in addition to operational automation — which has been one of the traditional approaches to DX — we are also focusing on providing solutions that leverage generative AI. We provide services that utilize the latest AI technology, including building organization-wide generative AI platforms, constructing dedicated in-house RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) environments, and building task-specific AI agents.

— Your expertise covers both management and technology. Could you walk us through how the support process typically works?

We usually start our support with consulting to develop a deep understanding of the client’s challenges. We clarify where the client is now — their “as is” — and then map out the “can be” — the state they should be aiming for. Conventionally the framing is “as is to be,” but at our company we focus the question on “can be.”

— Why do you place such importance on “can be”?

Because simply indicating a “to be” often leaves front-line staff unclear about “what exactly should I do starting tomorrow?” and “where do we need to be in six months?” Through our support work, we have seen cases where the means become the end — where people lose sight of the fundamental purpose of what they’re doing.

To prevent means from becoming ends, you have to close the gap between as is and to be. We believe it is important to carefully analyze the process toward the goal, take into account the client’s company culture and practices, and concretely show the path forward — the “can be,” or “what to do next.” The analogy is rock climbing: making it visible where to place your hands and feet on the next move.

— So you make the path to the goal tangible. Are there other things you keep in mind?

We also keep DX talent development within the client organization in mind. In recent years, when operating companies try to hire DX or PM talent directly, the salary ranges often don’t align — and recruitment challenges have become an increasingly visible issue.

By working to develop DX talent internally within the client organizations we support, so that they can continue their DX journey sustainably, we are able to provide support with deep knowledge of each client’s situation.

Leveraging the Strengths of a Lean Team Through Flexible Structure and Client-Aligned Project Management

— Could you tell us about your headcount and project structure?

We have approximately 30 people active, including contractors. Of those, roughly a third are on staff as consultants.

In terms of project structure, we typically start the initial upstream phase with two to three people, with the team growing gradually as the project expands. We also form project teams that include external partner companies and contractors — not just our own staff.

Many of our projects are long-term. There are cases where visible results start to emerge after more than a year, at which point the project expands further.

— Where do you see your competitive advantages over other firms?

Our advantage over major consulting firms is simply cost. Rather than assigning people full-time, we can assign resources in fine-grained increments — 0.2 to 3 people per month — which helps keep initial investment down. We can avoid the scenario where three or four consultants descend on a client simultaneously at project launch and the client can’t keep up, meaning clients don’t have to incur unnecessary costs.

— What about working style?

The default is fully remote. Most meetings are online, and our staff live in various locations. That said, we do visit client sites in person when needed. We also have well-developed benefits to support relationship-building within projects, including an unlimited communication travel allowance.

Being able to work fully remote from the outset is a major working-life advantage — made possible precisely because we are a lean team. That said, the flip side is that because staff are spread across different locations, communication ability is one of the most important qualities for joining our company.

We don’t over-manage our staff — when they work and what they do is largely up to their own judgment. What we value is having output ready by the deadline, and clearly defining roles in service of that goal. For that reason, communication ability and the ability to manage your own tasks are even more essential here than in a face-to-face working environment.

The Key to Thriving: the Combination of “Technology” and “Management” Perspectives

— What kinds of backgrounds do people at your company have?

It’s a varied mix — including people who worked as PMs at SIers and those who were at operating companies — and the majority have no prior consulting experience.

What they have in common is some form of involvement in IT-related work. We believe that without familiarity with work in the IT industry, meaningful communication with clients simply becomes difficult.

— Are there other skills that would be beneficial to have?

The ability to think not from a purely technology-centric standpoint, but from the perspective of how much impact something can have on management. It’s not about having management knowledge per se — it’s about being able to think through how to connect technology and management together.

— In terms of mindset, what characteristics tend to make someone a good fit at your company?

We place great importance on the perspective of “management with both feet on the ground.” For that reason, rather than someone who charges ahead relentlessly, we believe people who can pause and reflect on management questions are more likely to thrive. Without the mindset of viewing technology and management as pointing in the same direction — not just making the technology succeed, but steering the business toward success — it is difficult to build long-term, healthy relationships with clients.

The Challenges of Two People Led to the Birth of Initial Engine

— I’d like to ask both of you about your careers. Mr. Tsukuda, could you start by telling us about your career?

My career began as an engineer developing semiconductor equipment. I then went independent with a former manager of mine, gaining experience in both engineering and management, and at 30 I left that company, moved to the United States, and founded a startup. It was a business providing a service that had human translators translate emails — what would today be called a crowdsourcing service. Unfortunately it didn’t work out, and after returning to Japan about a year and a half later I went back to my former employer. I subsequently joined a gaming company, where I served as CTO for about ten years.

In fact, Initial Engine as it exists today spun out of a system development business I launched at that gaming company.

— You started your career as an engineer — was that always your intended path?

No. I was torn between becoming a sushi chef and becoming an engineer — and the main reason I chose engineering was related to that indecision. Everything from logistics to new technologies was being created in America at the time, and I had a strong desire to go there. Back then, the two professions for which a visa was relatively easy to obtain were engineering and sushi chef.

My original preference was actually to become a sushi chef, but that world is one where it’s standard practice to spend about ten years training under a senior chef. My girlfriend at the time strongly talked me out of it, saying “you’ll definitely end up in a fight with your senior chef — don’t do it.” So I ended up choosing engineering.

— Mr. Sato, could you tell us about your career?

I also have an engineering background — I came from a liberal arts university into the IT industry. I started out working on ERP development and similar areas, and after about four years of experience, moved to a startup targeting the global market where I worked on application development for Android and iOS. I was primarily building applications for users in Asia and South America, and about two years in, I was appointed Director and CTO. The team was incredibly diverse — members from Spain, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and beyond — and I worked on some remarkably high-difficulty projects. It was a struggle at times, but the network of connections with other CTOs I built through that experience has become a real asset.

It was through those connections that I met Tsukuda. We immediately found common ground in the idea that our CTO knowledge and experience could be put to use as a bridge between technology and management, and that brought us to where we are today.

— What first led you toward engineering?

I originally came from a liberal arts background and hadn’t been aiming to become an engineer, but my encounter with programming during job hunting was the catalyst.

I was drawn to the fact that something I created could take on a visible form and might be useful to people. I’m someone who gets interested in all kinds of things, so feeling that engineering might also be a good path was the turning point.

— Thank you. Could you tell us a little more about how Initial Engine came to be founded?

Initial Engine originated as a spin-off from a business unit at the gaming company where I was serving as CTO. Because the gaming industry is subject to large market fluctuations, there was momentum among company leadership to find new business pillars. Within that context, the president of the gaming company — who is now one of our shareholders — and I together started a new system development business focused on my area of expertise: systems and web service development. Initially we were taking on development projects one at a time, but since I was also the CTO, we were increasingly receiving requests not just for development but for solving technical challenges — and upstream needs around what a development organization should be doing and how. That’s when the word “DX” began to spread across society.

Against the backdrop of DX becoming embedded in the broader social consciousness, and in an era where “being technically capable is taken for granted,” I began to feel that the focus should be on how to connect technology to management outcomes. It was around that time that Sato, who shared a similar perspective, joined, and as we worked together to put our thinking into words, we faced the challenge that it was difficult to find synergy with the gaming company’s core business. That led us to choose the path of spinning out.

— So although the company was founded a year ago, the business itself has been around for longer.

We launched the new business in 2021, so it has been about four years. At the time of the spin-off, we were a team of around seven to eight people.

The Organization Expansion and Strategy That Initial Engine Has in Mind

— Could you tell us about your vision for the future? Mr. Tsukuda, could you go first?

In addition to continuing to strengthen hiring and expand the organization, we want to provide comprehensive support in domains where DX has until now only been implemented partially. Our goal is to build an organization that can support company-wide DX — the aim of “turning companies into software” through DX. Because our strength is our close, long-term engagement style with clients, we want to build a structure that can cover an ever-broader range of company challenges.

On a separate axis from our consulting work, we are also beginning to develop products with data management as the core. We are still in the discussion phase, but we also want to look at products that combine the data management domain with generative AI.

— Mr. Sato, is there anything you are thinking about for the future?

There are two things I want to focus on: building an AI-native development organization, and forming a consulting team capable of AI-driven transformation. As businesses and organizations grow, we enter a phase of building the internal structure — and being able to support that robustly from the technical side, while keeping the management perspective in view, is something I see as our strength. I want to advance organizational expansion and business growth on both axes simultaneously.

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【Post-Interview Note】

Initial Engine Inc. — Company Information

Representative Director & CEO	Matsusaburo Tsukuda
Founded	February 19, 2024
Address	NOVEL WORK 5F, 4-30 Yotsuya, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
Business Activities	・DX consulting ・CTO advisory ・CIO assistant services

Initial Engine Inc. — Job Listings