Broadening Perspective: how international hiring helps this startup stay lean

After opting to stay remote post-COVID, Perspective — a Germany-based marketing SaaS startup — decided to prioritize diversity and talent by hiring globally. However, its small team lacked the local resources to hire compliantly in other countries.

To stay lean and fulfill its global hiring ambitions, the business needed a global HR partner that shared its values and design-centric approach. Here’s why Perspective chose to work with Remote.

Perspective at a glance

• Headquarters: Germany

• Founded: 2018

• Hiring with Remote in: Cyprus, Ireland, and Spain

• Industry: SaaS

Perspective is a bootstrapped startup that has revolutionized the digital marketing landscape. Its design-centric approach has helped them to completely rethink online marketing and recruitment funnels with a no-code solution, allowing users to build attractive mobile funnels in under 60 minutes. 

For Magdalena Finke, Perspective’s Head of Content Marketing, the tool’s success lies in its design-led approach.

“It's impossible to build an ugly landing page or ugly funnel using Perspective,” she says. “The features will always have your back.”

With approximately 5,000 business users, a thriving online community of 8,000 people, and a popular podcast with over 120,000 B2B streams, it’s a business that is doing some seriously impressive numbers.

Building a remote lean startup

Post-pandemic, founders Michael Bogner and Marco Waldner asked the Perspective team whether they should return to the office, or transition permanently to remote work. The results were crystal clear, with the team unanimously choosing to stay remote.

This was when Perspective began to consider leveraging the remote-first approach to expand its potential talent pool.

“We knew we wanted to hire internationally but we didn’t know where to start,” Finke says. “We’re a small team and we couldn’t possess all the local knowledge needed to hire compliantly in other countries.”

For a lean startup like Perspective, the first option — setting up legal entities in other countries — wasn't practical. As a result, the company began researching employer of record (EOR) services. 

“We looked at all the major EOR providers,” she says. “Our main concerns were cost, because we’re a small, bootstrapped startup, and compliance because our team members’ lives depend on this service.”

Perspective was also looking to select a global partner that shared its core values.

“HR and employment can be very delicate topics,” Finke continues. “We didn’t want a partner that would only direct us to chatbots or articles. We wanted actual people we could talk to when we needed help.”

After exploring its options, the company made the decision to work with Remote.

“We were being very deliberate in setting up the right remote working structure so that we could hire the best talent and remain compliant,” Finke says. “Remote was excellent at sharing the information and resources we needed to expand internationally.

“We’ve had the best communication and collaboration throughout the whole process.”

With Remote, we have a dedicated account manager and the whole team shares our values of cordiality, kindness, and transparency. Remote is a true partner which is just awesome.

A global HR partner with shared values

For Finke, the partnership has been characterized by excellent communication, seamless collaboration, and a shared design-led approach. Remote’s contract preparation service — and its approach to new employee onboarding — have been particularly valuable.

“Remote understands our company values and the way we like to work,” she says. “The support we receive from the team at Remote is excellent: our relationship is open and fun, and we always get the answers that we need.”

Remote serves as a bridge between Perspective and its employees, so the design of the platform is key to maintaining a seamless and trustworthy relationship.

“Remote gives our candidates peace of mind. Switching jobs is a decision that you do not take lightly and from the moment our new hires interact with Remote, they feel at ease,” Finke says. “The platform is intuitive and, if they have questions, they are answered quickly by the relevant team. The whole process is seamless.”

The impact of hiring globally on customers

To reach an equilibrium between the key facets of product engineering, the Perspective team needs to have the right talent on board. With the right SMEs, the wider team at Perspective can then make decisions that benefit both the backend and the frontend.

This allows the company to maintain a customer-centric approach and focus on delivering value.

“We look for the best talent with the right cultural fit for our business,” Finke explains. “Everyone we hire must be ‘customer-obsessed’, and partnering with Remote enables us to get the best people for the business — no matter their location.

“That’s important for our teams, but it also ensures that we’re developing the very best solution for our customers.”

Valuing the benefits of diversity

Hiring internationally poses its own set of challenges — such as incorporating new cultures and viewpoints. For Finke, though, the benefits of this approach are massive.

“Perspective has always been an open and diverse company,” she says. “We have people from different cultures, backgrounds, and levels of experience which adds so much value to the team culture and the product we create. It’s amazing what we’re able to achieve.”

Remote helps us excel in our recruiting efforts and bring greater diversity into the business, which gives us immense value in numerous ways.

As Perspective continues to invest in its international growth, Finke is already seeing the effects of this. The insights and language skills of its international team members have been invaluable as it enters new markets.

The partnership with Remote has also helped ensure that Perspective is able to attract the right people — and that it doesn’t miss out on top talent.

“Our new product manager is an American living in Spain,” says Finke. “We knew we couldn’t go through the time and hassle of setting up a new legal entity there.

“Without Remote, she would have either had to move to Germany, or we would have simply lost her to a competitor. With Remote, the whole process was managed quickly and efficiently.” 

What's next for Perspective

Perspective wants to expand every aspect of its business, including revenue, clients, and team members. 

“The future is exciting,” Finke says. “We have plans to grow our team by 45% this year, and begin exploring more international markets as well. Remote will really help us achieve that and I’m excited by what the future will bring.”

Our partnership with Remote has opened up so many opportunities for Perspective. It’s removed the barriers to international hiring and we can explore so many amazing new markets.

Finke believes a global, remote-first approach is the way forward for other growth startups, too.

“Hiring internationally opens up so many new possibilities,” she concludes. “I would say ‘don't shy away from hiring in new markets’, because that's generally where the gross lies for your company — in terms of both company size and revenue.

“Remote helps to unlock so many opportunities to get the talent you need. So my advice is simply to go for it!”

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