For business owners, spreading their wings to expand globally is a great opportunity. It reduces the cost of project development, expands the talent pool, and gives access to new markets. But a business undergoing such a transition is bound to face growing pains. It has to build its presence to increase its employees – but it needs employees to establish a footprint. This is a problem an Employer of Record (EOR) can solve easily. An EOR service provider assumes responsibility for the financial and legal processes required to open and maintain an office abroad. 

Since this is a challenge for every other ambitious business, the EOR industry has grown tremendously. After all, it replaces many expensive legacy solutions at an affordable cost. But one name that has broken ground is Remofirst. For our entrancing edition, “Top 10 Visionary CEOs to Watch in 2023,” we got in touch with Remofirst’s CEO, Nurasyl Serik. The following article will highlight Nurasyl’s journey—how he has made Remofirst a preferred and reliable platform worldwide.

The impetus for the innovation

Hailing from Kazakhstan, Nurasyl has spent much of his time in the UK. He is a serial entrepreneur and, with a friend from Ukraine, has been launching startups in the country for many causes. Being bootstrapped, the remote-first model was a necessary incentive. They spent over seven years in the remote work space, much earlier when it became a trend. During this time, they came across many of its prevailing challenges. One of the biggest challenges was hiring people internationally in a compliant and affordable manner. “We tried some legacy solutions, but they weren’t quite tech-savvy or fast enough for our needs,” he says.

Despite being in an era of innovation, they realized this was not only theirs but also the challenge of many around the globe. This ignited their soul to design an innovative solution that can help tackle this hassle. This led to the first prototype payroll system being born. The efficiency of this innovation eventually inspired them to build a next-gen, cost effective, global payroll system that is innovative enough for the dynamic tech world. And Remofirst was born. In the two years since its inception, the exciting features of the platform have made it a “top-notch” EOR service for both startups and enterprises. With an emphasis on customer success, Remofirst ensures every company can grow a borderless team effectively.

Redefining Global Payroll

As mentioned earlier, Remofirst is ushering remote-first businesses into a new era of innovation. The influence of technology has permeated across industries. Every business is seeking smart solutions to optimize its growth at low risk and low cost. It has gained more focus ever since the transgressions of COVID. Resolving these concerns adeptly is where Remofirst marks its niche. From hiring full-time employees in 150+ countries to their fast onboarding and payroll with 24/7 customer service – they offer everything under one umbrella. Each part of the process has dedicated checkmarks to ensure 100% compliance. For instance, its payroll and invoice management can calculate a team’s hours, time off, holidays, bonuses, and commissions automatically into payroll. In short, the platform offers a dedicated success manager to ensure clients’ global hiring processes run smoothly. 

Such integrated international HR services make it the most affordable and accessible EOR provider in the industry. “And all the benefits start at a feasible cost of $199/month, whereas some legacy solutions cost a minimum of about $1,000/month,” adds the CEO. Where expensive legacy solutions were only found in giant enterprises, Remofirst is offering an advancement that companies of all sizes can use. They geared every optimization and product feature towards making the service better and more cost-effective for clients. They are further innovating to launch new and exciting features that add to their USP. 

Innovation is the Key

“Innovation is key, and the only thing that truly differentiates companies in the same industry,” exclaims Nurasyl.

Like every ambitious company that believes in harboring change, Remofirst puts a premium on researching, innovating, and iterating. This helps them stay in tune with the dynamic changes of the world and have a learning paradigm in place. They have a remote, asynchronous culture that enables them to accelerate innovation through collaborative technology. They work with people from different geographies and worldviews, which makes them a diverse group of problem solvers. With a focus on excellence and delivery, the team constantly nurtures the company’s technical base while ensuring room for experimenting with new technologies to boost inventiveness.

Unhindered by uncertainties

There is a saying, “One man’s challenge can become another’s blessing.” As Nurasyl says, COVID-19, which was a trial by fire for many industries, was their steppingstone to growth. Since the pandemic, remote work has become an exponential trend, with every other company adopting it. After all, companies can have a global team and stay connected, but at reduced costs, with higher diversity, greater productivity, better coverage, etc. The scenario allowed Remofirst to take charge of the HR responsibilities of many companies and help them adopt the remote-first model. This helped them build their presence around the globe and scale new heights.

Nurasyl Serik – The man keeping the sails high

An innovative leader is like a rudder that keeps a ship moving forward in the right direction, just like Nurasyl. He summarizes his leadership as “I practice what I preach.” In a broad sense, he strives to be innovative while keeping all the heads dedicated to business goals. All his efforts clearly reflect his company’s growth and its ability to be at the forefront of trends. He also believes in using failures as stepping stones. For instance, he would set an example by not allowing a setback to stop him from pursuing the larger goal. He instills the same diligence in his team as well. This shows his growth-driven mindset towards his team. “I want every member of my team to know their CEO will take care of budding issues before they become full-fledged problems,” he says in a warm tone.

His ideal and distinct leadership has helped him build a team of resilient, hardworking members who would go to every extent to get the job done. They have a very flexible work model that keeps everyone focused on results and output, and allows them to work from wherever they are most productive. Putting it simply, Nurasyl is leading a team of smart individuals working towards making “freedom of work” a reality.

The journey to new strides continues

“Experience is the biggest inspiration and learning for any entrepreneur.” Looking at Nurasyl’s growth, we can safely assume that he has learned from his experience to level up. Prior to Remofirst, he and his co-founder failed at multiple startups. But that didn’t deter his motivation. He is proud to try and fail rather than not try at all. It strengthens his drive and resilience to iterate over and over until he creates his magnum opus. “While it was hard to keep your head up after an initial failure, Remofirst wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the lessons we learned with those initial startups,” he adds proudly.

His mission to make an affordable EOR service enables companies to hire the best talents around the world and earned the company a resounding presence in both the startup and enterprise communities. Nurasyl and his team strives to keep moving forward and continue offering best-in-class support while innovating more product updates that take them to newer echelons.

A tip from for the ‘Overachiever’

“Everything in life is a numbers game! Knock as many doors as possible and one of them will open!”

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