How Alex Bouaziz Built Deel Into a $17B Giant | Alex Bouaziz & Deel

Global payroll is a maze most companies dread navigating. Deel turned it into their MOAT by streamlining HR across borders, powering remote work, and hitting a $1B+ run rate with over 5,000 employees. Alex Bouaziz, Deel’s CEO and co-founder, grew up nerding out on Nintendo and hunted perfection from Paris to MIT. His relentless curiosity built a platform that’s rewriting how the world hires. In this episode, we explore: • why he wakes up obsessed with your problems, not his product • how a Disneyland obsession shaped his entrepreneurial spark • why he’s doubling down on AI and stablecoins ABOUT US: We’re proudly sponsored by Brex—a brand I co-founded, now supporting over 30,000 businesses like Anthropic, DoorDash, and Scale AI, helping them make every dollar count. I’m grateful for their continued support as I bring you all conversations with some of the most exceptional founders of our generation. Onward and upward, together. Connect with us: 1. Deel - https://x.com/deel 2. Brex - https://x.com/brexHQ 3. Henrique Dubugras- https://x.com/hdubugras This episode was produced and distributed by our friends at Atomik Growth: https://atomikgrowth.com/ 00:00 Introduction 01:35 Being happy 02:50 Big family 11:56 Video games and math 14:59 Confidence 16:12 College and older people 23:47 America, Nintendo, Disney 26:08 MIT 26:59 Helping yourself, cold emails 31:51 PhDs are super lonely 34:38 Trying to impress 39:16 Brex 40:06 Deel 45:05 Gaming forums and money struggles 49:49 San Francisco, Tel Aviv, Paris 52:26 Remote work 54:32 Growth and value 1:00:42 Marketing and getting old 1:02:09 Next decade 1:04:07 Crypto 1:08:42 AI and payroll 1:12:00 Outro