I first realised that talent and opportunity don’t always cross paths when I was still a child. Born in France, but growing up between Paris and Tel Aviv, I was brought up in a big family having to navigate two very distinct cultures. That experience taught me very early on that the world isn’t a one-size-fits-all. There are lots of possibilities. But you have to know where to look for them.
That sense of possibility sparked a curiosity in me that’s really influenced my decision making and what I’ve done since. I’ve always been drawn to how ideas take shape, why we do things the way that we do, and how we build and create. Upon reflection, this is probably why I decided to study civil and environmental engineering at the Technion in Israel, followed by pursuing my masters at MIT in environmental engineering.
I really valued my experiences at MIT. Being in that environment encouraged me to start exploring what I could build of my own. I co-founded Lifeslice, a mobile app for collaborative videos, and shortly after, I launched Sarona Ventures, an investment fund that helped early-stage companies to scale. Those experiences taught me the value of building solutions that solve real problems, moving fast, and creating systems that can scale.
I look back at my time at MIT with real fondness, not just for the academic experiences that I had, but for the people that I met. In 2013, I met Shuo Wang, a fellow inventor with an equally international background. While I had lived and moved between France, Israel, the US, the UK, and Spain, Shuo had moved from China to the US and then back to China. I think Shuo has always wanted to build a company since the day that I met her. But she was really passionate about robotics and ended up building a robotics startup that she eventually sold to iRobot.
We both worked on our separate ventures for some time. But, in 2018, we started discussing the possibility of doing something together. The conversation started because we began noticing a clear pattern amongst our friends, all of whom shared similarly international backgrounds and global perspectives. While some had chosen to stay in the US, living in San Francisco working for some of the biggest tech companies in the world, securing top of the range compensation packages, many others had decided to return to their home countries, either to care for family or to be closer to their roots. Those who had moved back were struggling to find jobs and salaries that matched their skills and experience, not because they lacked the right qualifications, but because they weren’t located in the right place for those opportunities.
At the same time, Shuo and I had both encountered difficulty hiring and paying international workers at our previous ventures. Bank transfers took weeks, forms required legal expertise, compliance regulations differed in every country, and tax implications were a minefield. The idea for Deel was born from these insights. Not in a boardroom. But it wasn’t until 2019 that we took it to Y Combinator where our vision came to life.
Like many startups, we started off scrappy. But, our mission was very clear. Make it easy for companies to hire, pay, and support the best talent in the world, no matter where they are. Our first 100 customers came straight from the Y Combinator community, where we interviewed batchmates, gathered feedback, and iterated quickly on the product. In those early days, we built on top of existing payment infrastructure, integrating PayPal first and then TransferWise (Wise) to handle international payouts. By bringing multiple providers into a single platform, we made it easier for companies to pay contractors globally, while layering in compliance and contract support as the product evolved. What started as a shared frustration between our university cohort, has grown into something so much bigger.
Scaling Deel so rapidly has been as much about people and culture as it has been about technology. And that means understanding the business, and our customers inside out, which Shuo and I were only able to do by responding ourselves in the early days to customer enquiries. Doing this, I quickly learnt that success isn’t about the tools you use, it’s about attitude. No matter how impressive your platform or processes are, they’re redundant without discipline, perseverance, and a culture of trust and accountability.
Today we have 7,000 people working across 115 countries and we serve more than 35,000 customers, from startups to global names like Reddit, Klarna, and Cloudflare. In just five years, we’ve raised over $600 million in funding and scaled faster than I ever imagined possible. We’ve proven that thriving in a distributed workforce isn’t about where people log in from, it’s about how they work together toward a shared goal. The highest performers are quietly disciplined, they own their outcomes, prioritise ruthlessly, and deliver results while still collaborating as part of a team.
For me, possessing rigour is everything. Rigour in the context I’m using it, doesn’t mean strict rules. It means self-discipline and personal responsibility – teams set clear priorities, deliver reliably, and take accountability for outcomes. In a remote environment, where managers can’t give constant cues, embedding rigour into the culture, from leadership down to new joiners, has been critical to Deel’s growth.
Trust is equally important. Over-monitoring remote teams can quickly backfire, signaling a lack of faith and undermining engagement. At Deel, we focus on empowering people to deliver great work in the way that suits them best. That trust accelerates growth, frees teams to focus on results, and fosters accountability.
Perhaps most importantly, I’ve seen first-hand how human connection can’t be overlooked. I’d be lying if I said relationships weren’t harder to build virtually, so we intentionally create opportunities for teams to connect – virtual coffee chats, milestone celebrations, and in-person gatherings when possible. Connection strengthens collaboration, drives knowledge sharing, and keeps people engaged, even across time zones.
Getting these elements right – rigour, trust, and human connection – has been essential to our rapid growth. They’ve allowed us to scale faster than I ever imagined, support tens of thousands of customers worldwide, and build a culture that’s resilient, adaptable, and ready for whatever comes next.
But of course, leading a tech Unicorn comes with its own set of unique challenges, and expectations. I’ve found that staying grounded, focusing on what we can control, our product, our people, and our long-term vision, and being willing to pivot when needed has been key.
On a personal level, leading at this scale requires reflection and self-care; taking the time to step back, seek advice from trusted advisors, and keep my team around me from start to finish. And of course, I wouldn’t be able to do it without Shuo, my business partner – sharing the load and benefitting from our individual skill sets has been key to the success of Deel. Leading a unicorn isn’t always glamorous, it can be tough and unpredictable, but every challenge is an opportunity to build a stronger, more resilient company and create something that truly changes how people work around the world.
Even with everything we’ve achieved, we’re still just getting started. For me, Deel is about more than technology or growth; it’s about unlocking opportunities for people everywhere.
