Scaling So Far

In series 3 episode 5 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Casey Bailey - Head of People at Deel. 

You wouldn’t be amiss in wondering whether Alex Bouaziz and Shuo Wang, Co-Founders of Deel, had a crystal ball when they launched Deel back in 2019 - pre-pandemic. The San Francisco headquartered scale-up helps businesses hire anyone, anywhere, in minutes. They automate onboarding, payroll and compliance across 150+ countries globally and have 6000+ customers - from SMBs to publicly traded companies. 

Now in 2022, they’re already 650+ team members strong, globally distributed and have an eye-watering valuation of $5.5bn. In 2021 alone, they grew from 50 to 550+ employees. They’re a team that are truly creating the new world of work together. 

Scede's Dan Caines spoke with Casey Bailey, Head of People at Deel, formerly SVP of People and Places at Divvy, and Head of Global HRBP for Uber. Casey shared some incredible learnings with us, what they’ll be doubling down on throughout 2022 and what she believes the future of work really looks like. 

Casey is a true champion of the People team, and advocates for investing in talent early on as a startup. If you listen to one thing today, we'd recommend making it this. 

Check out the State of Global Hiring Report 2021 that Casey mentions in the episode here. 

In series 3 episode 4 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Yasar Ahmad, Global VP of Talent and Carolina Veiga, Global Head of TA at HelloFresh. 

Founded in 2011 in one of Europe’s most vibrant tech hubs - Berlin - HelloFresh has evolved to become one of the world’s leading meal kit companies. In Q3 of 2021 alone, they delivered 227 million meals and reached 6.94 million active customers globally. 

From Designers & DevOps Engineers to pasta makers and potato farmers - HelloFresh is a team of more than 20,000 employees globally.

At such scale, Talent Acquisition needs a well oiled, efficient machine. And that’s exactly what HelloFresh has built. Luke Eaton spoke with their Global VP of Talent Yasar Ahmad and Global Head of TA Carolina Veiga to learn more about how they doubled productivity with what they’ve called TA 4.0. 

It’s an absolute must-listen for those looking to optimise their hiring process for rapid growth.

Podcast produced by www.scede.io.

Music from Pixabay.

In series 3 episode 3 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Matt Britton and Anthony Onesto, Founder and CEO, and Chief People Officer at Suzy. 

Martech scale-up Suzy has been making waves in the US tech scene since it was founded in 2018. Many of the biggest brands in the world use Suzy to deliver breakthrough products and experiences backed by data-driven decisions. 

Suzy has also been recognised on Forbes’ list of America’s Best Startup Employers 2021, Inc Magazine’s Best Workplaces in 2021 AND Built In NYC’s Best Places to Work in 2022. With ambitious growth goals on the horizon - their journey is showing no signs of slowing down. 

In this episode, Dan speaks with Matt and Anthony to understand how they’ve built an award-winning place for their team to work, their learnings along the way and what achieving 70% headcount growth this year looks like in reality for them. 

In series 3 episode 2 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Alexey Mazurov, HR Director at Palta.

Palta is a unique community of founders, investors, and talented people who are focused on building super impactful, mobile consumer products. Palta partners with ambitious Founders and exceptional people to transform great ideas into life-changing products that make a positive impact on a global level. Fast-growing companies such as Flo, Simple, and Zing are part of the growing Palta family. 

Alexey shares what they're focused on for 2022, scaling teams for impact-driven organisations, and what that early-stage HR and Talent team should look like for success. 

Podcast produced by www.scede.io.

Music from Pixabay.

In series 3 episode 1 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Jonathan Roomer, Co-Founder and Head of Customer Success at YuLife.

In this episode, Scede's Head of Growth Laura Bibby chats with Jonathan Roomer, one of 5 Co-Founders of Insurtech company YuLife - the folks taking a gamified, wellness-oriented approach to life insurance. They’ve won a ton of awards since inception in 2017, making the Startups 100 list for 2021 and being named by City AM as one of the top 50 London startups to work for. 

Listening to Jonathan and the way he describes the YuLife culture and what’s important to them as they scale the company, it's no surprise the startup has garnered such recognition. Laura has an insightful chat with Jonathan about YuLife's people plans for 2022, why workplace culture is SO important and how fast-growing scale-ups can level up on that front too. 

In series 2 episode 14 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Tiina Hahtorvita, HR Director at Yousician. 

Helsinki-based startup Yousician is the world’s largest music educator, having raised an impressive $28 million series B in April, and reached 20 million monthly users globally. 

In this chat, Tiina shares the talent initiatives they're doubling down on over the coming months, why leadership coaching is so important, and what people practices companies should be focusing on if they want to keep their best people engaged and retained. 

Tools and people leaders that Tiina references throughout the show can be found below:

Music from Pixabay.

In series 2 episode 13 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Andrew Bartlow, Author & Founder of Series B Consulting.

Andrew Bartlow has 25 years of HR and talent management experience at companies across various sizes, maturity stages, and industries. He is the co-author of Scaling for Success: People Priorities for High-Growth Organizations. Andrew leads Series B consulting, which helps businesses articulate their people strategy and grow fast. He’s worked with clients like MasterClass and many others to help them overcome challenges at a hyper-growth pace. 

In this chat, Andrew shares some super valuable insights from his book, the most common pain points faced by hyper-growth companies when it comes to people practices, what your HR function should look like as you scale, and more.

If you're a Founder or Talent leader with rapid growth on the horizon - this is a must-listen. 

Find Andrew's book on Amazon here. 

Music from Pixabay.

In series 2 episode 12 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Samantha Rao, Head of People at Siilo. 

Amsterdam-based HealthTech company Siilo is changing the way healthcare professionals communicate - democratising access to expertise and experience and improving patient care through knowledge-sharing in a compliant way. This is all facilitated through their secure medical messaging app. 

Today, Siilo is the largest medical network in Europe, with over a quarter-million active users who, to date, have exchanged over 200 million messages. During the Covid pandemic, digital messaging has been a critical tool for medical professionals - so there's little wonder Siilo has been named in Sifted's Netherlands startups to watch list and is in the top 50 most disruptive startups named by Sprout Challenger50 2020.

Samantha shares what their scaling journey has looked like so far, their approach to attracting and hiring mission-driven talent to bolster their growth, and with close to 50% of their org being female - how they're continuing to champion diversity in the healthcare industry. 

Music from Pixabay.

In series 2 episode 11 of “Scaling So Far”, Matt Ellis is joined by Martin Threakall, Chief Operating Officer at Yapily. 

Open banking fintech Yapily enables businesses and consumers around the world to share data and access payment infrastructure. Backed by the likes of Lakestar, HV Capital, and LocalGlobe, Yapily has seen incredible growth following their series A round in 2020 - being named on Otta's rocket list 2021 for the 50 best companies in London. 

With over a decade’s expertise in growing payment start-up and scale-up businesses such as Modulr and CurrencyCloud, Martin joined Yapily in November 2020 - coming on board to lead Yapily's European expansion. 

Matt chats to Martin about his role as COO, building a team to face into challenges, his approach to having difficult conversations, what companies should be optimising for at the different stages, and when recruitment processes and structures should come into play. 

Podcast produced by www.scede.io.

Music from Pixabay.

In series 2 episode 10 of “Scaling So Far”, Marisa Bryan is joined by Vanessa Stock, Co-Founder and VP People at Pitch. 

Before joining Pitch, Vanessa was part of the Wunderlist crew, where she helped hire and built the core team that saw Wunderlist reach its exit stage. 

With experience spanning between Berlin, New York, and London Vanessa is a thought leader and one of Berlin’s key voices on conversations around leadership, people management, and development and moreover how to build a successful distributed team.

It's at Wunderlist that she met her Co-Founders with whom she built her current startup Pitch. Pitch is an open platform for presentations and content collaboration - a new paradigm to improve the way presentations are crafted and knowledge is shared.

Music from Pixabay.