The Sales Machine Behind $17.3B Deel
Sep 29, 2026 · 12:49
Shuo Wang, co-founder and CRO of payroll platform Deel, tells Molly O'Shea that the company grew from $100M to $1B in ARR in 3 years and has surpassed $1.5B in revenue at a $17.3B valuation. She credits going global from day one — Deel runs its own entities, compliance and payroll teams in 160 countries — and argues founders simply aren't selling enough. The MIT-trained robotics engineer applies systems thinking to sales: understand what clients want, then incentivize a remote sales team across 120 countries, unified by an annual 1,500-person kickoff. She describes complementing CEO co-founder Alex Bouaziz, cites James Dyson and Jeff Bezos as inspirations, touts a Snoop Dogg campaign paying $10,000 a month for ice cream testers, and says AI hasn't yet grabbed Europe like San Francisco.
