The Fastest Growing SaaS Startup In History: $1M to $1B Revenue In 4 Years | Shuo Wang, Deel
Timestamps are as accurate as they can be but may be slightly off. We encourage you to listen to the full context.
Podcast Summary
In this episode, Shuo Wang, co-founder and CRO of Deel, shares how they built one of the fastest-growing companies of all time, scaling from 0 to $1 billion ARR in just five years. (00:00) Wang discusses Deel's mission to enable global talent hiring regardless of location restrictions, their unique "Deel speed" culture focused on rapid execution and problem-solving, and how COVID-19 became their "lifetime opportunity" moment. (45:18) From pivoting three times during Y Combinator to establishing entities in 150+ countries, Wang reveals the strategic thinking behind building a truly global-first company and the importance of understanding problems deeply rather than just accepting surface-level solutions.
- Main Theme: Building a global-first company through rapid execution, data-driven decision making, and maintaining optimism while solving complex international hiring and compliance challenges at unprecedented scale.
Speakers
Shuo Wang
Shuo Wang is the co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer of Deel, one of the fastest-growing companies in history, scaling from 0 to $1 billion ARR in five years. (13:03) Wang holds a mechanical engineering degree from MIT where she designed DARPA-funded exoskeletons, and previously founded a hardware company in China that was later acquired by iRobot. Born in China and moving to the US at 16, Wang brings a unique global perspective to building distributed teams and international business operations.
Key Takeaways
Go Global Much Earlier Than Most Companies
Wang emphasizes that today's infrastructure makes it much easier for companies to operate globally from day one. (03:48) With modern communication tools, internet connectivity, and AI translation capabilities, the barriers that once required companies to start locally have largely disappeared. Instead of building for one city and then expanding, founders should think about how their product can serve billions of people worldwide from the start. This approach allows for faster scaling and access to the best talent regardless of location. The key is leveraging existing global infrastructure rather than being constrained by traditional geographic expansion models.
Build Systems Based on Capacity and Data
In Deel's early days, Wang created a systematic approach to sales by calculating exact capacity metrics. (08:36) She determined that an account executive could handle six meetings per day, leading to 120 meetings per month, with a 60% interest rate yielding 72 qualified opportunities and a 30% close rate resulting in 22 expected deals. This purely capacity-based approach provided clear targets and expectations. The lesson is to break down complex processes into measurable components and use data to set realistic goals rather than relying on intuition or arbitrary targets.
Focus on Understanding Problems, Not Just Solutions
Wang's core algorithm for decision-making centers on deeply understanding why problems exist rather than immediately accepting proposed solutions. (97:34) When someone presents both a problem and solution, she advocates for acknowledging the problem's existence and importance, then asking "why" - why does this problem exist and why did people create the existing solutions they did. This deeper understanding allows for developing better, more comprehensive solutions that address multiple dimensions rather than quick fixes that may create downstream issues.
Maintain High Standards with Low Expectations
Wang describes having "very high standards but low expectations" as a key to navigating uncertainty and unpredictability in business and life. (108:40) This philosophy means holding yourself and your company to excellent standards of execution while not being devastated when external factors don't align perfectly. It allows for maintaining quality and focus while remaining adaptable when circumstances change, like during COVID-19 when they turned challenges into opportunities by quickly adapting their product to serve remote hiring needs.
Hire Managers Who Do the Work, Not Just Manage
As Deel scaled rapidly, Wang noticed they had created too many management layers that distanced leadership from actual work. (57:37) She realized managers were booking meetings to tell her things she already knew instead of working on new projects. Their solution was to hire "Ghostbusters" - special project people who report directly to founders and identify inefficiencies across departments. More importantly, they changed their hiring philosophy to only hire managers who are experts in their domain and can actually do the work themselves, not just manage people.
Statistics & Facts
- Deel scaled from 0 to $1 billion ARR in just five years, making it one of the fastest-growing companies in history. (55:50)
- The company now has entities across close to 150 countries with 165 total entities, and transacts $2 billion across 160+ countries monthly while paying 2 million people. (101:05)
- Deel opened 100+ entities across 80 different countries within one year during COVID-19, averaging almost one new entity every three days despite government shutdowns. (47:49)
