CareersThe story, the product, and the people behind GoWithGuide.
About GoWithGuide
GoWithGuide is a marketplace for private tours where you can customize your itinerary by directly messaging guides and private car tour suppliers even before purchasing a tour.
Founded in Tokyo, Japan in 2013, we continue to provide the best travel experiences around the world by matching local guides and travelers.
Our vision: To have people become happier through traveling more
Our mission: Innovating a new travel style
Think of the trips you'll never forget — a graduation trip, a honeymoon, a family holiday. Travel is where some of life's happiest memories are made, and our vision is simple: help more people travel more, and be happier for it.
Technology keeps opening doors that didn't exist before, and we want to use it to create a genuinely new way to travel — one where having a private local guide by your side isn't a rare luxury, but the obvious way to see a place.
And we don't just build this for our customers: our own one-month vacation policy exists so our team lives the same philosophy, traveling for a full month, every year, for as long as we work here.
Naoaki Hashimoto
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Naoaki Hashimoto is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of GoWithGuide (Travelience, Inc.) and sets the vision and strategy for the company. Born in Tokyo in 1979, Naoaki graduated from Waseda University in 2002.
He began his career at Accenture and later moved to Recruit Co., Ltd., where he took on a role in the sales department of a major travel booking site. In 2012, he traveled across 30 countries for nine months, inspiring him to launch Travelience Inc. in 2013. He is also a member of the committee for National Government Licensed Guides at the Japan Tourism Agency.
Naoaki's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries, including an overland journey from Tokyo to Africa during his student years. He has been featured in magazines, authored articles for travel media, and appeared on various TV and radio channels.
Happiness as productive professionals.
We define happiness as flow — the state psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi identified, where you're so absorbed in meaningful work that time and distraction fall away.
Flow needs a clear goal, a challenge matched to your ability, and fast feedback, so we build our culture around exactly that: mission sheets, stretch missions, and regular 1-on-1s with your lead — plus the concentration that comes from working from home.
We hold to a simple logic: professionals are happier as businesspeople, happy people are more productive, and productive people are true professionals — so our whole culture exists to help you be happy as a productive professional.
Passionate
Enjoy what you do, chase your goals, never stop learning.
Professional
Quality first, then speed — data-driven, logical, and rule-following.
Teamwork
Enjoy working together, contribute freely, and take ownership as a team.