Today, we're back with Alex Bouaziz, co-founder and CEO of Deel, to talk about his life lessons.
Alex Bouaziz is the co-founder and CEO of Deel, the global payroll and HR platform he's grown from zero to a $17 billion business in just a few years. Tommy Stadlen talks to Alex about the mindset behind building Deel, from why he calls himself a "wartime CEO" to how a chance encounter on Reddit led to his first hire. Alex opens up about running the business alongside his father, why he thinks his generation's gaming habits made remote-first culture feel normal rather than crazy, and the moment of...
What Alex Bouaziz said
Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
Alex Bouaziz, CEO and co-founder of Deel, discussed his journey building a $17 billion business. He said he did not initially believe he would achieve such scale, but was driven by a desire to build products and iterate quickly. Bouaziz described himself as a 'wartime CEO,' but emphasized that Deel is at war with itself, not competitors, focusing on intense execution and adapting to changes like AI. He downplayed external threats, including a corporate espionage lawsuit, saying they prefer to compete on product. On values, he highlighted genuine care for customers, speed, and default optimism, noting that employees who don't fit don't last long. He shared three defining snapshots: early YC days with his team in a tiny apartment, seeing Deel's brand on Arsenal shirts, and his generation's comfort with remote work, citing his first employee met on Reddit. He also discussed working with his father, who stepped down as CFO to become CSO, and expressed pride in their partnership.
Key takeaways
Bouaziz said he did not initially believe he would build a $17 billion business, but was driven by a desire to build and iterate quickly.
He described himself as a 'wartime CEO' but said Deel is at war with itself, not competitors, focusing on intense execution.
He said his first employee was met on Reddit, and he worked with them for two years knowing only their username.
Alex, I want to ask you about the person behind the idea. You've built this enormous $17 billion business. We talked about the rapid growth as a venture capital investor. Now, we're often looking at pre-seed, looking for insights into whether this person is somehow very special that we can see at the beginning that they are going to build a really big business or at least have an unfair chance of doing so.
Did you see that in yourself when you were getting started? Did you believe you were going to do it to this degree? There are two parts. I could tell you yes, 100%, I always knew. But the real answer is that I don't think most entrepreneurs do. They are most excited about building something impactful, helping people, generating revenues. Most founders don't think about that part early on; it's a means to an end. So the real answer is no. What I knew was that I wanted to build, and the team I was with in London saw me through a few iterations of building. I saw myself as someone who wanted to build products, put them in people's hands, get feedback, and iterate quickly. That mindset is the most valuable. If you are driven by that, or by something that shook you at the core when you were younger, you are more likely to be successful. But what success means at scale is harder to say. I've seen founders whose businesses I knew would fail, but I knew they would be successful eventually. It's about how many times they try.
One thing we're not very good at, Dylan, is reflecting and patting ourselves on the back. We don't function that way. So at every instant, every week, every deal, every product release, we are intense because we feel like we are at war. But we are not at war with others; we are at war with ourselves in how we build for our customers. I think we are one of the best companies in our space. There are CEOs who are great in good times, cruising, but when the world is changing, the CEOs who create chaos that results in good outcomes are what I am. For example, adopting and navigating AI over the last three months required being full-on wartime, not just at the CEO level.
Does part of that wartimeness come from the shots fired at you from all sides? You have this insane lawsuit where a competitor accused you of corporate espionage, it blew up on Twitter, and it must have been incredibly intense for you and your family. Is part of the fire in the belly from competitors coming for you, as an outsider to Silicon Valley? How does that make you feel?
To be honest, not really. As you grow, people try to eat your lunch, especially when you are winning. But we are focused on ourselves. It's constant war with ourselves more than anything else. These things are expected. We look forward to our day in court, but it's part of growing up and building a great company. We prefer to compete on product and customer perspective, and we will keep doing that.
Alex, the other question that Elliot Okonor, our mutual friend, told me to ask you is about the values that you and Shu have for Deel and how that parlays into not just values on the wall, but the reality of how you operate the company.
The values we are built on are similar. What I care about is whether we genuinely care about our customers. That's a value: genuine care. It's how I was raised. In a business dealing with people's payroll and livelihoods, that care has to be through the roof. As you scale, you risk losing empathy. When a support person takes their 300th ticket, they might not have the same empathy as the first. But with the trust customers place in us, we must carry that empathy forward. Combine that with the need to move fast, and those two principles guide us. We also have default optimism. We want to hire happy people. You spend more time with colleagues than family, so it should be with people who make you happy. That's what we carry into every hire.
Bouaziz, A. (2026, July 9). "We're Very Much at War With Ourselves": Deel Co-founder & CEO, Alex Bouaziz [Interview transcript]. Giant Ideas. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1073814/
MLA
Alex Bouaziz. ""We're Very Much at War With Ourselves": Deel Co-founder & CEO, Alex Bouaziz." Giant Ideas, 9 Jul. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1073814/.
BibTeX
@misc{bouaziz2026_1073814,
author = {Alex Bouaziz},
title = {"We're Very Much at War With Ourselves": Deel Co-founder \& CEO, Alex Bouaziz},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, Giant Ideas. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {jul},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1073814/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
