Description
In this episode, we sit down with Meltem, one of Deel’s earliest growth leaders, who joined when the company was sub-$250K in revenue and helped scale it into a $1B+ ARR generational company.
00:00 — Joining Deel early & Andreessen backing 03:10 — From agencies to growth in tech 06:40 — Why paid ads break at SMB scale 10:25 — Deel in 2020: sub-$250K revenue 13:45 — What “Head of Growth” really meant 16:20 — First customers: cold emails & Reddit 20:05 — Non-scalable hustle vs long-term growth 24:10 — Competing with PayPal & wire transfers 27:40 — Sales ↔ Growth handoff that actually works 31:15 — Product feedback in hypergrowth 34:30 — First real inflection point 38:10 — Back-to-back fundraises & momentum 41:50 — Founder dynamics & execution speed 45:30 — Deel’s intense culture explained 49:20 — Hiring bar-raisers at scale 52:40 — Growth bets that surprised them 56:10 — Turning channels off to find truth 59:30 — Why she didn’t start a company 1:02:10 — The ideal stage to join a startup
Rho
Website - https://www.rho.co/
Public
Website - https://public.com/
Meltem Kuran Berkowitz
https://www.linkedin.com/in/meltem-kuran-berkowitz
Nichole wischoff
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholewischoff/