Hire anyone, anywhere: how Globalization Partners powers growth

CEO Nicole Sahin explains how her business deals with all the red tape of cross-border recruitment so that yours doesn't have to

Transcript

Expanding your business with overseas employees represents enormous opportunities for growth. But it can also come with the challenge of navigating completely different jurisdictions for legal, tax, and HR matters. Nicole Sahin is CEO of Globalization Partners – a company she founded with the mission of making it fast and painless for companies to hire anyone, anywhere. She explains how the company works, why businesses are trying to get feet on the ground in international markets faster than ever, and the opportunity this represents for Globalization Partners.

European CEO: Expanding your business with overseas employees represents enormous opportunities for growth. But it can also come with the challenge of navigating completely different jurisdictions for legal, tax, and HR matters. Nicole Sahin is CEO of Globalization Partners – a company she founded with the mission of making it fast and painless for companies to hire anyone, anywhere.

So Nicole, instead of taking on my new international hire directly, I’ll come to you?

Nicole Sahin: Yes exactly – so if you wanted to hire an employee in Brazil, or China, or the UAE, or any other country – you identify the candidate, and we put that person on our payroll in that country, and on our benefits. And that enables you to hire anyone, anywhere, without having to set up a company in that country, or deal with any of the accounting, the tax, the legal issues that come along with hiring people globally.

Most of our clients are high-growth tech companies – and they want to hire salespeople internationally. So it’s usually primarily related to being able to capture global marketshare. And I think the benefit is that, if we can get somebody on our payroll in another country within three days of the client figuring out who they want to hire, they can go into that market quickly, without having to really think about it too much. It can almost be experimental, just to get feet on the ground.

European CEO: What’s driving the demand for the business? Is it that there are more companies that are seeking that high-octane growth internationally? Or is it, despite becoming more connected than ever before, these cross-border challenges are actually harder to overcome?

Nicole Sahin: I think it’s both things. I think what’s driving the growth is the mandate that, in order to capture global marketshare, that you have to get people on the street in those countries as quickly as possible.

Prior to starting Globalization Partners I had worked with an international business consulting firm. And every time one of my clients called and they said, ‘We want to hire somebody in China, or Brazil, or the UAE,’ I would say, ‘Okay, we can help you with that – and before you can hire this employee, I’ll help you set up a company in that country, deal with all the employment law issues in that country, deal with all the tax and regulatory issues.’

And after setting up 100 companies in the UK, and 20 companies in China, I thought – you know, it would be a lot easier if I could just set one company up in each country, and give all my clients access to it.

And when I started the company, I wasn’t actually sure if we could figure out all the legal underpinnings to the business, to make it a business opportunity that would meet the needs of America’s Fortune 500 companies, or the biggest companies in Europe. Because everybody needs to have a good, solid solution. And ultimately – seven years later – we’ve built the platform, and are really going to market.

European CEO: You are really going to market, you’re in 150 countries now. You’ve only been going for seven years – what was your original vision for the company when you started it? And tell me about the sort of, shape, the company’s in now?

Nicole Sahin: Right – I had two mandates for the company. The first was that, I wanted to make it easy for anyone to hire anyone, anywhere, in any country, as quickly and easily as possible.

The second mandate of the company was to build a company that people love. I knew that there was a huge market opportunity, if I could figure out how to help anyone hire anyone anywhere, quickly and easily. But to build a high growth company that people also love is much more compelling and important to me.

We call it the triple bottom line, which is that of course our shareholders must be happy with the company, but equally as important is that our employees have a great experience, and that our clients love the company as well. And I’m happy to say that we’ve achieved all of those things.

European CEO: Finally, what does the future hold for Globalization Partners? You mentioned the market opportunity earlier; how big is that, and how are you going to make sure that it’s you who’s capturing it?

Nicole Sahin: I’m so excited about the future of Globalization Partners – I feel like we’re just at the beginning of our adventure. And if you were a financial person, you’d say this will be a multi-billion dollar company five years from now.

The size of the market is almost limitless. I mean, if you think about every company that wants to hire an employee in another country… it’s as limitless as the amount of talent in the world.

But, more exciting to me is the impact that we’ll have on the world. By enabling companies to employ anyone, anywhere, quickly and easily – we’re really breaking down barriers. Not only to businesses going abroad, but also between people around the world.

Global commerce is a great way to build ties between people – and I really love that part of our business.

European CEO: Nicole, thank you very much.

Nicole Sahin: Thank you, thanks for having me.