Deel COO Dan Westgarth on the rise of global payroll

Hi everyone 👋

Global payroll startups like Deel, Remote, Papaya Global and Panther are on track to generate $150M in revenue this year. While that's less than 1% of the $22B that ADP, Paychex, Paylocity and TriNet will do, COVID tailwinds and the potential for these platforms to manage the cross-border flow of trillions of dollars of wages and benefits have driven $1.2B in investment over the last 2 years.

To better understand how global payroll companies think about their opportunity in the crowded payroll space, we talked to Deel COO Dan Westgarth.

A few of our key learnings from digging in with Dan:

Startups and companies that are bootstrapping would find talent overseas, and they would effectively agree to some terms -- probably on a contract that the founders had drafted themselves... On the flip side, you have more established companies [that] would set up an office, they would make the hires, and they would build what I call a "material presence" in the country. What Deel has done is to solve those two cases... through a technology platform that marries fintech and HR tech together. (link)

The way I look at this is, the truly global platforms will always appeal to businesses with global needs. I travel a lot, and that always means I default to Uber over Lyft, even when in the States, because I have international needs. I think that Deel will always prevail for any company which has international presence. (link)

[C]onsolidation of platforms is so powerful. Having to run payroll over multiple platforms is a pain in the ass. Now our selling position is, "You can use us for domestic too. Deel is awesome -- one quick payroll for all of your team around the world." (link)

Our full conversation with Deel COO Dan Westgarth sheds more light on the competitive dynamics in the global payroll industry—and why it’s “land grab” time for companies like Deel. Give it a read and let us know what you think by replying to this email. 

Thanks!

Jan