Regulations can be incredibly burdensome to companies operating globally. Managing workers and their pay across countries with very particular regulations can be extremely difficult. Yet, as the world is increasingly technologically connected and remote work has taken off, the workforce is likely to become even more internationally interconnected for companies. Eynat Guez, the Co-founder and CEO of Papaya Global, explains how Papaya’s platform simplifies payroll complexities and automates procedures.
On this episode of Future of Tech, Eynat also gives straightforward takes concerning difficulties and successes in her entrepreneurial career and offers advice to those who may wish to follow in her footsteps. Additionally, Eynat shares her passion for supporting women on their career journeys and for having diversity in the workforce. Enjoy this episode!
Main Takeaways:
- Overcoming Regulations: Of course, some regulations are necessary, but they can become burdensome to companies managing an international workforce and payroll across a variety of countries. Eynat explains how even the terminology can be different among certain nations, and, therefore, confusing for taking care of payroll, etc. She describes how Papaya’s platform can handle this complexity for companies while automating procedures.
- Entrepreneurial Lessons: Pivotal lessons can be learned through hard times and successes too. Eynat gives direct takes on some of the difficulties she’s had as well as the successes, and the lessons she’s learned from all her experiences. Every experience has something to teach if one is willing to accept the lesson.
- Giving Back and Promoting Diversity: When a person has success, it’s good to support others on their journeys too. Eynat demonstrates this mentality as she strives to lift up young women in their careers through mentorship. She also speaks passionately about the need for diversity at companies and the benefits of having a truly diverse workforce.
Key Quotes:
[23:19] “First, I think that, in general, when you are building a company, you are always starting with a very small team and you don't know what you don't know. You have this idea in mind and so on, and if you keep the same people in the room — the one that looks like you [and] thinks like you, that eventually you all [have] exactly the same opinion…You're probably going to miss tons of stuff. You're gonna miss a lot of stuff in thinking about the market. You're going to miss a lot of stuff of how you build things. You're going to miss a lot of stuff in communication. So diversity is a key in general. Second, I think that men and women — we are different creatures in many aspects. And eventually, when you are keeping [an] equal gender environment or trying to keep [an] equal gender environment, it just allows people to be their better self and to respect others better.”
[29:21] “So I'm a very detailed person. So I normally [am] very, very much involved on the bits and the bite of the organization [and] probably too much, but this is my way to gain confidence and to understand how to take [a] business decision. And the second thing that I think that every CEO should do is invest 20 or 30% from his time or her time in strategy; not on the here and now, but of where this company needs to be in a year time, two years time, three years time, and what we need to do currently in order to make it happen. Because if you don't invest in the future, you won't get there.”
[32:40] “What to try and avoid is, eventually, not keeping your focus because you will always have those distractions; other business ideas, some compelling offers, some business development, some great things that you think that, ‘Yeah, we should do this and this and this and that.’ And eventually focus is the one main thing that you need to keep. Not being on focus, is the one thing that you need to avoid because we all know that eventually there is as much as we can complete. You can't do everything.”
[33:55] “You need to avoid staying in places where you know you made mistakes. I mean, as quick as possible. We all have this way…or desire to try and correct things. We know that they're not going to the right way, but we give them another chance and we say, ‘Okay, let's see.’ Eventually, you know best. if you understand that you did a mistake, it can be [a] hiring mistake. It can be a commercial mistake. It can be a product mistake. Just fix that. Just throw everything to the garbage as quickly [as possible] and eventually start over because every day that you're going to spend on designing the wrong product is the day that you did spend designing the right product.”
[37:22] “So we are currently designing or renovating a new office for Papaya, and I've been asked, ‘How do I see this office?’ And I say, ‘It's not an office any longer. This is a space where people come because they want to have a nice place to work.’ They want to hang out with people. They need to attend meetings, but I don’t see it as this is my desk [or] this is my chair. I'm going to sit here and work. I think that you are going to come to the office when you have an intent to do things in the office, or when you have intent to meet people, both socially and both for…work purposes. But I think this is not going backwards any longer. I think we already kind of changed the way that we work in this aspect.”
