Emerging Tech in the HR Space: Highlights from Joe & Nur’s Chat

David Hughson, CRO of Remofirst, moderated the discussion with Joe Saijo, our Co-Founding General Partner & expert HR tech investor and Nurasyl Serik, Co-Founder and CEO of Remofirst.

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Hear directly from Nur and Joe on how execution set Remofirst apart in the fundraising process, the three pillars of HR Tech and a founder's view of Counter Club 📹

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Shifts in the HR Tech Landscape: Supply & Demand

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Joe has been working with and investing in HR Tech start-ups since 2008. He was the President and Managing Partner at Recruit Strategic Partners, where he successfully invested in 30 startups including Palo Alto Networks (NYSE : PANW), DocuSign (NASDAQ: DOCU), 99designs (Acq’d by Vistaprint), Noom, DataRobot and ShipBob.

When it comes to how the HR Tech investing landscape has changed in recent years, Joe distilled it down to supply and demand — where the demand side is companies and the supply side is the job seekers.

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"There was more demand than supply in the past several years until 2023,” said Joe. “That meant companies spent more money on job boards and software like Indeed to capture more talent. This led to more investment in B2B side technologies such as sourcing platform, ATS, and skill assessment.”

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“Now we are seeing a complicated market after the pandemic, coupled with fluctuations in interest rates and inflation,” said Joe. “We are facing a labor shortage in front-line workers like retail, transportation, logistics, etc., while skilled workers — especially in the tech market — are unstable due to GAFA‘s (Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon) huge layoff. Sourcing platforms and job boards for front-line workers are still bullish, but tech companies are looking at quality rather than quantity of candidates.”

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Remofirst Simplifying International Payroll

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We first Nurasyl in 2022 at a Lazy Lunch in San Francisco when they were raising their seed round—already on an amazing trajectory despite minimal prior funding, a lean team of five and zero dollars spent on marketing. In their effort to simplify international payroll, they have built an all-in-one Employer of Record (EoR) platform available in more than 180 countries.

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Joe took us back to the scene in 2022 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “We knew multiple models were needed to assist businesses of all shapes and sizes hiring people worldwide.” Remofirst is the technology that empowers all manners of “work” and allows businesses to be global from very early on, a perfect example of the future of work post-pandemic.

Joe pointed to the costly convoluted processes that used to be required for companies to onboard talent globally like like hiring local attorneys and consultants. Remofirst is disrupting and reinventing global hiring.

However, Joe said it was Remofirst’s early traction and cash efficiency that impressed him the most, from the first meeting to today.

“I’m a guy from Kazakhstan, not a typical founder,” Nurasyl said. “It’s all about execution— they don’t care where you’re from if you’re numbers are great.”

‍

AI's Impact on the Three Pillars of HR Tech

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When asked about how the rapidly evolving AI landscape is impacting HR, Joe broke it down into three categories.

1. Sourcing: AI can deeply profile candidates by looking at various data points and bringing better matching between candidates and recruiters.
2. Skill assessment: AI can discern the candidate's skillset for both hard and soft skills.
3. Onboarding: AI can streamline the various workflows like contracts, signups for the HRMS, compliances and more.

‍

Remofirst lives in the onboarding category as they are making it affordable and accessible for companies of all sizes to hire internationally. When it comes to incorporating AI, Nurasyl and the Remofirst team are utilizing it to populate job descriptions.

‍

“You’re not going to replace every engineer with AI,” added Nurasyl. “Companies should approach AI advancements as an opportunity to uplift their workers and help them be more productive.”

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Counter Club 🤝 Remofirst on September 25th at Counter V

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We were flattered to hear Nur and David's compliments about the Counter Club—our corporate venture community designed to be a value exchange to benefit our portfolio companies.

When we welcome 400+ corporate investors to San Francisco this September for Counter V, the premier CVC conference, Remofirst will be hosting a side event alongside Silicon Valley Bank and Mouro Capital on September 25th. It will be an excellent opportunity to bring fintech-focused founders and investors together.

‍

‍

To request an invite, corporate investors can find the event page on counterclub.vc and founders can email team@counterpart.vc .

‍

David Hughson.David Hughson.Joe Saijo, our Co-Founding General Partner & expert HR tech investor sat down with RemoFirst's Co-Founder and CEO, Nurasyl Serik, and CRO, David Hughson.

‍

Hear directly from Nur and Joe on how execution set Remofirst apart in the fundraising process, the three pillars of HR Tech and a founder's view of Counter Club 📹

‍

‍

Shifts in the HR Tech Landscape: Supply & Demand

‍

Joe has been working with and investing in HR Tech start-ups since 2008. He was the President and Managing Partner at Recruit Strategic Partners, where he successfully invested in 30 startups including Palo Alto Networks (NYSE : PANW), DocuSign (NASDAQ: DOCU), 99designs (Acq’d by Vistaprint), Noom, DataRobot and ShipBob.

When it comes to how the HR Tech investing landscape has changed in recent years, Joe distilled it down to supply and demand — where the demand side is companies and the supply side is the job seekers.

‍

"There was more demand than supply in the past several years until 2023,” said Joe. “That meant companies spent more money on job boards and software like Indeed to capture more talent. This led to more investment in B2B side technologies such as sourcing platform, ATS, and skill assessment.”

‍

“Now we are seeing a complicated market after the pandemic, coupled with fluctuations in interest rates and inflation,” said Joe. “We are facing a labor shortage in front-line workers like retail, transportation, logistics, etc., while skilled workers — especially in the tech market — are unstable due to GAFA‘s (Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon) huge layoff. Sourcing platforms and job boards for front-line workers are still bullish, but tech companies are looking at quality rather than quantity of candidates.”

‍

Remofirst Simplifying International Payroll

‍

We first Nurasyl in 2022 at a Lazy Lunch in San Francisco when they were raising their seed round—already on an amazing trajectory despite minimal prior funding, a lean team of five and zero dollars spent on marketing. In their effort to simplify international payroll, they have built an all-in-one Employer of Record (EoR) platform available in more than 180 countries.

‍

Joe took us back to the scene in 2022 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “We knew multiple models were needed to assist businesses of all shapes and sizes hiring people worldwide.” Remofirst is the technology that empowers all manners of “work” and allows businesses to be global from very early on, a perfect example of the future of work post-pandemic.

Joe pointed to the costly convoluted processes that used to be required for companies to onboard talent globally like like hiring local attorneys and consultants. Remofirst is disrupting and reinventing global hiring.

However, Joe said it was Remofirst’s early traction and cash efficiency that impressed him the most, from the first meeting to today.

“I’m a guy from Kazakhstan, not a typical founder,” Nurasyl said. “It’s all about execution— they don’t care where you’re from if you’re numbers are great.”

‍

AI's Impact on the Three Pillars of HR Tech

‍

When asked about how the rapidly evolving AI landscape is impacting HR, Joe broke it down into three categories.

1. Sourcing: AI can deeply profile candidates by looking at various data points and bringing better matching between candidates and recruiters.
2. Skill assessment: AI can discern the candidate's skillset for both hard and soft skills.
3. Onboarding: AI can streamline the various workflows like contracts, signups for the HRMS, compliances and more.

‍

Remofirst lives in the onboarding category as they are making it affordable and accessible for companies of all sizes to hire internationally. When it comes to incorporating AI, Nurasyl and the Remofirst team are utilizing it to populate job descriptions.

‍

“You’re not going to replace every engineer with AI,” added Nurasyl. “Companies should approach AI advancements as an opportunity to uplift their workers and help them be more productive.”

‍

Counter Club 🤝 Remofirst on September 25th at Counter V

‍

We were flattered to hear Nur and David's compliments about the Counter Club—our corporate venture community designed to be a value exchange to benefit our portfolio companies.

When we welcome 400+ corporate investors to San Francisco this September for Counter V, the premier CVC conference, Remofirst will be hosting a side event alongside Silicon Valley Bank and Mouro Capital on September 25th. It will be an excellent opportunity to bring fintech-focused founders and investors together.

‍

‍

To request an invite, corporate investors can find the event page on counterclub.vc and founders can email team@counterpart.vc .

‍