SyncUp with SwagUp

How will remote work change the future of globalized workforces? 

Find out in Episode 4 of the SyncUp! 

SwagUp COO Artem Mashkov sits down with Deel co-founder and CEO Alex Bouaziz to talk about the economic impact of remote work on globalization and more. If you're interested in working with the best talent all over the world, don’t make the mistake of cutting corners. Especially when it comes to payroll and compliance — because the legal stuff can come back to bite you when you least expect it.

The good news is Deel helps with exactly that problem. Co-founders Alex Bouaziz and Shuo Wang are building a world where getting the best talent is no longer about geographical location. Deel is the first payroll platform for remote teams that connects localized compliance and payments in one system of record and automates everything.

If you believe the future of work lies in access to a global workforce, join SwagUp COO Artem Mashkov and co-founder Alex Bouaziz for a discussion on hiring and onboarding remote talent, avoiding compliance issues, and simplifying payments for your entire team. Let’s go #tothemoon!

💡 Some of the Big Ideas: [1] How most companies don’t pay enough attention to compliance - a mistake that can be fatal [2] What it takes to be investible as a company (hint: it’s about scale and team) [3] How to approach KPI tracking with remote teams [4] Why Fortnite is the new golf course (plus the role of social gaming in team building) [5] The case for running lean and avoiding frivolous cash burn

Alex Bouaziz is a doer, investor, and Y Combinator graduate building the first payroll platform for remote teams with co-founder Shuo Wang. Alex has a background in engineering and, befitting a company changing things at a global level, educational experiences all over the world, including a master’s from MIT. Today, he is focused on growing Deel and taking their rapidly expanding team to the next level.

🎁  Plus, Extras: Connect with Alex on LinkedIn • Connect with Artem on LinkedIn • Explore Deel for your company

🚀 Get Started With SwagUp: Build a swag pack • Grab a sample pack • Connect with a Swag Expert

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In episode 3 of the SyncUp, SwagUp Founder and Chief Swag Officer Michael Martocci chats with co-founders Mac Reddin and Jacob Peters about their game-changing new community platform, Commsor. Join them as they chat about the entrepreneurial 'spark', what it takes to build a community, and why community is important now more than ever.

💡 The Big Ideas: [1] Why companies like Notion or Figma are unbeatable [2] How community fits into the dark forest theory of the internet [3] The biggest misconception companies have about community [4] How to understand and pick the right channel for your community ... but also why community is more than the platform it exists on [5] The difference between building an audience and building a community

🎁  Extras: Connect with Mac • Connect with Jacob • Explore Commsor for your company

🚀 Get Started With SwagUp: Build a swag pack • Browse preset packs • Grab a sample pack • Connect with a Swag Expert

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A SNEAK PREVIEW....

#A Throwback to the Lego Days

Most people bond over their favorite TV shows, sports teams, and latest hobbies. Mac and Jacob bonded over childhood experiences of running a profitable Lego business. The co-founders of Commsor affectionately recall the Lego days as one of the earliest signs of their entrepreneurial talents.

“The funniest part of all of this is that this is something that I used to be super embarrassed to admit or tell my friends about,” Jacob says, “But now I'm out here [...] on the podcast circuit sharing the story.”

Jacob was around 12 years old when he realized that there was a business opportunity before him. “I was the kid that never outgrew the hobby of Lego building,” Jacob says, “I would build these big creations and then one thing led to another.”

He began to find Lego bricks at garage sales, Craigslist, and secondhand collections where the owners were either completely discarding or selling the pieces very cheaply. And that meant Jacob could buy tens of thousands of bricks. 

MORE AT SWAGUP.COM/BLOG

Join SwagUp for Episode 2 of the SyncUp live podcast!

In the latest episode, SwagUp Head of Help Wade Lowe and BurnRate.io Founder and CEO Robert McLaws talk about scaling responsibly and what it takes to scale your team during uncertain times.

💡 5 Big Ideas: [1] Why 50 years of VC has not dramatically changed the success rate of companies [2] How sales is an engine for the business that can be taught and scaled efficiently [3] The invisible danger of the IKEA effect in spreadsheets [4] How ‘minor’ spreadsheet mistakes become a $20,000/day problem [5] Why you should always find (and solve) the problem underneath the problem

🎁  Extras:  Connect with Robert • Connect with Wade • Explore BurnRate for your company •  See the case study on How BurnRate Uses Swag Packs to Take Care of Their Top Supporters

🚀 Get Started With SwagUp: Build a swag pack  •  Browse preset packs • Grab a sample pack • Connect with a Swag Expert—

A SNEAK PREVIEW....

#From the Apple IIc to Commercial Real Estate Tech

“I have been inventive, creative, entrepreneurial, pretty much my whole life,” says Robert McLaws, co-founder and CEO of BurnRate. Robert took to computers in first or second grade working on an Apple IIc. Later on he taught himself to program. At the time, Robert had a plan. He would do 20 years with the military, get a government retirement, and work on a startup. 

But the plan, as best-laid plans tend to do, went awry. And Robert found himself wondering about his path forward. He realized he didn’t want to wait six years for a piece of paper just to get a job. “I hated that whole concept,” Robert says, “Shouldn't need a piece of paper to say I can go do something in the world. And so I said, I don't need to have that to be a programmer. So that's what I'm gonna go do.”

After high school, Robert experimented with several entrepreneurial pursuits with his friends, including a marketplace for Thomas Kinkade art galleries, a residential real estate startup, and some consulting work. Along the way, Robert built one of PC magazine's top 100 websites for 2004: Longhorn Blogs. “It was the first blogging community for Windows,” Robert says, “I got to meet Bill Gates because of that. So that was me. Just done a bunch of crazy, weird interesting things along the way of trying to be an entrepreneur.”

MORE AT SWAGUP.COM/BLOG

Welcome to Episode 1 of SyncUp with SwagUp!

In this episode, SwagUp CMO Helen Rankin and Fringe co-founder and CEO, Jordan Peace, talk about disrupting employee benefits in the modern workplace. Helen and Jordan cover how Fringe is helping companies offer benefits that can be enjoyed today (not post-retirement), build strong employee culture, and leverage personalization in the future of work.

💡 5 big ideas we talk about in this episode: [1] Why traditional benefits have become table stakes in developing employer brand [2] How Fringe is helping HR take back up to 60% of their work week [3] The importance of hiring people that are smarter than you [4] How offering personalized benefits attracts top talent, and helps you stand out [5] Why culture and employee experience will have more weight than even sales and marketing on company success in the coming decades

🎁  Plus, extras: Connect with Jordan • Connect with Helen • Learn more about getting Fringe for your workplace.

🚀 Ready to get started? Build a swag pack • Browse preset packs • Connect with a Swag Expert

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A SNEAK PREVIEW....

#Employee benefits that make sense

Like a lot of truly great companies, Fringe started with a problem. “I worked as a financial planner for a number of years alongside one of our other co-founders,” says Jordan Peace.

Jordan and Jason had their own firm serving mostly high-earning millennials that were “just trying to figure out their career and what to do with money.” It was this experience that allowed them to notice a frustrating issue.

“We’d spend our time routinely explaining traditional benefits to our clients,” says Jordan, “And it's not because we had unintelligent clients. It's because traditional benefits are written in a foreign language. A CFO I talked to recently [...] said that insurance is intentionally confusing. It's just one of those things.”

Confusion around insurance was one thing. Mismatched expectations were another, and that was what struck Jordan: the imbalance between expectations and results.

MORE AT SWAGUP.COM/BLOG