Back in 2018, Alex Bouaziz and his co-founder Shuo Wang picked up on the trend of remote work and founded Deel, a startup that helps companies of all sizes compliantly hire and pay talent remotely all around the world. Over a year into COVID, it's clear that remote work is here to stay and has become a new norm, particularly for tech companies. With this shift in work behaviour, Deel has seen their business explode with 20X growth in the past year, reaching a $1.25 billion valuation after a $156 million Series C funding led by the YC Continuity Fund and existing backers Andreessen Horowitz and Spark Capital.

In this episode, we dive into the story of the newly-minted unicorn with its co-founder Alex and one of its first investors, Anish Acharya of Andreessen Horowitz. We discuss the future of work, learn about their VC-founder encounter, and —with Alex and Anish both having founded successful companies— pick up lots of founder wisdom along the way.

Topics:

00:23 — Introduction with Cindy Yang

01:24 — Alex Bouaziz on the origin story of Deel

03:16 — Anish Acharya's macro-analysis of work and employment

04:14 — How Alex and Anish met through Ryan Hoover (Product Hunt, Weekend Fund)

06:34 — Growth and unicorn status

07:10 — Trends in remote work: contractor vs. full-time

09:13 — Best practice for cross-timezone collaboration

11:16 — How to find the best talent geographically

12:10 — Working in a physical office vs. in remote

14:01 — Anish and Alex on the future of work

20:04 — The relevance of starting a company in Silicon Valley today

23:15 — Anish's investment scope at a16z

23:58 — Alex on how VCs perceive remote teams

23:27 — Anish on FinTech and FinTech-adjacent companies

25:32 — Alex on how Deel falls into the FinTech spectrum

26:04 — How Deel helps companies compliantly employ and pay talent in so many countries

28:15 — What Anish looks for in founders at a16z and what struck him about Alex and Shuo

29:44 — Companies that Anish and Alex are excited about

32:09 — Advice for early-stage founders

This episode is supported by TikTok, hosted and produced by Cindy Yang. Art is by Gaëtan Lefebvre.

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