Deel has raised $300M at a $17.3B valuation
We started about 6 years ago, struggling to even make $10K.
I've never shared this before because of how embarrassing our start was.
The story of how we went from $1K to $1B and the advice I'd give to my younger self:
We started about 6 years ago, struggling to even make $10K.
I've never shared this before because of how embarrassing our start was.
The story of how we went from $1K to $1B and the advice I'd give to my younger self:
1/ Shuo and I were in completely different worlds. She was in China, I was in Israel.
Both my parents family emigrated from North Africa with nothing. One of my grandfather use to work at the French subway and the other was an electrician.
Both my parents family emigrated from North Africa with nothing. One of my grandfather use to work at the French subway and the other was an electrician.
I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs but when we arrived in Silicon Valley, we were outsiders.
2/ Our original idea was to ensure freelancers get paid and not ghosted after delivering work.
We built an escrow platform where money would be locked upfront and automatically released when milestones were completed.
We built an escrow platform where money would be locked upfront and automatically released when milestones were completed.
3/ We pitched Reddit freelancers our milestone-based contracts.
Nobody cared.
The crushing realization: contractors don't choose payment methods, clients do.
Nobody cared.
The crushing realization: contractors don't choose payment methods, clients do.
4/ We entered pivot hell. We became a collection agency and I started sending legal letters to companies.
We recovered $7,000 from a $15,000 invoice after my email. The freelancer gave us $1,000.
That was a huge WIN.
That was a huge WIN.
5/ We thought we'd found product market fit.
But we never collected another dollar.
But we never collected another dollar.
6/ Then a YC batchmate from Sunsama used our product differently.
"I like tying contracts to payments and having payment happen as work gets done," he said. "Plus you're giving me contracts out of the box and a way to pay internationally."
"I like tying contracts to payments and having payment happen as work gets done," he said. "Plus you're giving me contracts out of the box and a way to pay internationally."
7/ He wasn't solving trust issues. He wanted contracts and payments in one place, with proper compliance.
We listened to the customer and pivoted to this vision.
We listened to the customer and pivoted to this vision.
8/ Within ten days we had 290 contractors, $5,000 monthly revenue.
9/ This is a real side from my Series A pitch deck.
We raised from Andressen when we were at $50K ARR. We thought this is it. This is PMF.
This business scaled to $130M.
We raised from Andressen when we were at $50K ARR. We thought this is it. This is PMF.
This business scaled to $130M.
10/ Throughout this time, I've had hundreds of customers on WhatsApp and Slack. (I still do this)
I got constant feedback.
I got constant feedback.
11/ Thankful for the realization that helping people do contracts is not as big of a pain as helping them hire in a country they're not registered in.
12/ We launched Employer of Record - Deel would put people on it's own payroll on behalf of the client and handle all compliances.
This became a $300M ARR+ business.
This became a $300M ARR+ business.
13/ Deel was a remote only company. As it grew, I could see parity between the global payroll problems we were having and our customers also wanted solved.
We built Deel for Deel.
We built Deel for Deel.
14/ We then launched Payroll - a system to automatically do tax calculations and remit the correct tax and net salary to employees globally.
This became a $150M+ business.
This became a $150M+ business.
15/ We followed our customers' lifecycle, building what they needed next. While having our own vision of course.
In the last 18 months, we launched 6 more products and are not at a $1.2B ARR and September being our first $100M revenue month.
In the last 18 months, we launched 6 more products and are not at a $1.2B ARR and September being our first $100M revenue month.
16/ We grew to $1B ARR faster than Stripe, Palantir, Square, Salesforce and many other amazing companies.
Advice I'd give if I was starting over:
- All good things start small. Believe in yourself.
- Answering people super fast is underrated. What takes 1 day can be done in hours. What takes hours, can be done now. If you're remote this is the best piece of advice I have for you.
- Talking to customers every day on WhatsApp is the ultimate trick.
- Being profitable lets you control your destiny. It's the #1 thing every entrepreneur should aim for.
- Everything can be done in 1/2 the time. If you're not moving fast, shipping fast, you're dead.
- Your first few hires will shape the company and you need to have an impossible bar for them.
Advice I'd give if I was starting over:
- All good things start small. Believe in yourself.
- Answering people super fast is underrated. What takes 1 day can be done in hours. What takes hours, can be done now. If you're remote this is the best piece of advice I have for you.
- Talking to customers every day on WhatsApp is the ultimate trick.
- Being profitable lets you control your destiny. It's the #1 thing every entrepreneur should aim for.
- Everything can be done in 1/2 the time. If you're not moving fast, shipping fast, you're dead.
- Your first few hires will shape the company and you need to have an impossible bar for them.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
