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/

How We Hit $1 Billion in Revenue in 5 Years: Employee #20 at Deel

The Nichole Wischoff Podcast

How We Hit $1 Billion in Revenue in 5 Years: Employee #20 at Deel