KIMARU Talent is a boutique executive search firm with expertise in AI, Gaming and Tech.
After more than a decade placing executives at global brands and startups, our founder Rumiko Matsumoto kept seeing the same pattern: large firms moving candidates like inventory, prioritizing speed and volume over fit, and leaving clients to deal with the fallout.
KIMARU was built as the alternative. We work exclusively with companies in gaming, technology, and advertising -industries that move fast, where culture is everything, and where the wrong leadership hire can set a team back by years. We keep our client list intentionally small so we can go deep on every search.
Rumiko built this firm on a straightforward premise: the best executive searches feel less like a vendor transaction and more like a trusted colleague quietly working on your behalf. That’s still how we operate.
We uphold the highest standards in the quality of candidates we present, ensuring they reflect the caliber our clients expect.
We prioritize open, timely, and honest communication with both clients and candidates to build lasting, trust-based relationships.
We bring deep industry knowledge and thoughtful perspective to every interaction, adding value beyond recruitment.
We approach every engagement with empathy, care, and collaboration, acting as true partners in the success of our clients and candidates.
Rumiko Matsumoto is the founder of KIMARU Talent, specializing in executive search for AI, Gaming, and Tech startups. Her team’s high-touch, personalized approach focuses on understanding each client’s unique needs to deliver tailored leadership placements that align with company culture and goals. Rumiko’s expertise ensures that every placement is a strategic investment in long-term success.
Throughout her career, Rumiko has partnered with global brands and startups, placing executives who have gone on to significantly grow valuations and revenue for her Clients. Her boutique approach, built on trust and strategic insight, distinguishes KIMARU Talent from larger firms, offering clients a deeper, more personalized level of service.
AI, Gaming, and Tech Specialties
KIMARU Talent truly understands the gaming industry and has introduced us to countless high-caliber Executive candidates. Rumiko operates with high integrity and feels like an extension of our team, and every hiring manager has enjoyed working with her and her team throughout the process.
a16z-backed Roblox Game Studio
Working with KIMARU Talent has been a fantastic experience—they are friendly, professional, and highly skilled, making the hiring process smooth and efficient. Their structured approach, dedication, and valuable advice helped us successfully hire excellent professionals, and they consistently go the extra mile as true partners.
App Store Marketing & Intelligence Platform
KIMARU’s approach to recruitment is thoughtful and we trust them in delivering on our mission-critical searches.
Digital Market Insights Platform
Working with Rumiko has been an absolute pleasure. She is kind and thoughtful, and she brings positive energy to every interaction. Her professionalism makes collaboration seamless, and her caring, genuine personality makes her someone everyone enjoys working with.
a16z-backed Roblox Studio
The communication throughout the process was prompt and seamless, with consistent feedback and great preparation at every step. KIMARU Talent took the time to match me with a role that perfectly fit my profile, and the experience was so positive that I’ve already recommended them to my friends.
Most of the best candidates aren’t on the market – they’re heads-down in a role they’re great at. We’ve spent years building real relationships with those people: following their careers, sharing useful intel, and having honest conversations about what they’d actually move for.
By the time a client engages us, we’re not starting from scratch. We’re making calls to people who already know us. That’s why roughly 80% of our placements are candidates who weren’t actively job searching when we first reached out.
We post roles when it makes sense, but job boards aren’t our primary tool. The majority of our placements come through direct outreach to our network – people we’ve tracked and stayed close to over time.
Before we reach out to a single candidate, we spend time understanding your company: what makes it compelling, what the role actually requires, and what kind of person will thrive there. That groundwork is what makes our outreach land. We’re not blasting a list, outsourcing our work, or hiding behind automation. We’re having targeted conversations with a short roster of people we believe are genuinely worth your time.
A few things we’ll let you judge for yourself:
We track our candidate-to-interview conversion rate obsessively. Ours sits at 85% – well above the industry norm. That number keeps us honest about quality.
We embed directly into your workflow. Most of our long-term clients give us access to their ATS, Slack, and internal comms. We’re not a vendor you check in with weekly — we operate like an internal recruiter who happens to have an external network.
And we know our markets deeply. We’re not generalists who’ll take any search. We focus on startups and growth-stage companies hiring leadership and critical roles, and we’ve built genuine expertise in a handful of specific markets.
We start by getting the brief right, which takes longer than most firms spend on it. We want to understand your culture, your growth trajectory, how to pitch your equity value, what’s made past hires succeed or fail, and what you actually need versus what the job description says.
From there, we build a target list, begin outreach, and keep you closely in the loop. No black-box recruiting. You’ll know who we’re talking to, what they’re saying, and where the search stands at all times.
Primarily the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Japan.
Japan deserves a separate mention. It’s a genuinely difficult hiring market — different communication norms, strong cultural expectations around loyalty and employer brand, and a talent pool that’s largely inaccessible through Western recruiting playbooks. We’ve helped many international companies build and scale teams there, and we know what works.
We focus on leadership and critical individual contributor hires at startups and growth-stage companies – the roles where a bad hire is genuinely costly and a great one changes the trajectory of the business. We take a lot of pride in knowing we are helping our Clients hire for these mission-critical roles.
That includes C-suite and VP-level searches, but also key IC roles across product, go-to-market, operations, and corporate functions. If the role matters enough that getting it wrong would hurt, it’s the kind of search we’re built for.
Partner with KIMARU Talent to land top Executive talent in AI, gaming, and tech.
Whether you’re ready to start a search or just want to learn more, our team is available to guide you.
