Shootsta removes global hiring barriers — and grows its business opportunities

With the ever-growing popularity of video content in marketing, it’s important for businesses to produce engaging, professional videos.

However, most companies don’t have the time or resources to continually create such high-quality content. Shootsta was founded in 2015 with this in mind, giving any company — regardless of size — a quick and easy way to create video content at scale.

Since then, Shootsta has worked with some of the world’s biggest brands, from Forbes, Google, and Estée Lauder, to Deloitte, Samsung, and LinkedIn. To drive this kind of growth, Shootsta has had to expand into multiple markets — with the help of a committed global HR partner.

Here’s how Remote has helped Shootsta hire seamlessly in these markets and streamline its operations in the process.  

Shootsta at a glance

• Headquarters: Australia

• Founded: 2015

• Hiring with Remote in: Hong Kong, Mexico, Turkey, and the US

• Industry: Media production

Shootsta was originally conceived in Australia but, for the company’s CEO, Daniel Chiha, going global was always the plan.

“Our customers have a global presence and so our own international growth was very organic in response to their needs,” he says. “We first expanded to Singapore and then the UK and the US, employing local people and expanding the team as demand grew.”

Shootsta started this expansion by forming legal entities in the countries it was doing business in. But with extensive administrative, legal, compliance, and tax requirements, this was costing the company both money and time — especially in the US, with its state-specific labor laws.

In addition, the setup was creating structural complications within the company. “All of a sudden, we had four different jurisdictions, each operating differently,” Chiha says. “The complexity of managing everything was just immense.”

The final straw came when Shootsta’s planned expansion into Mexico hit a wall.

“I’m a person who likes to make progress,” Chiha continues. “We’d already spent over four months on the entity setup process in Mexico, and we were no closer to success. We needed to expand our team so we started looking for a faster and more efficient solution.”

Shootsta turned to Remote — and within weeks, the company was up and running with its first hire in the region.

A better way of doing things

Before partnering with Remote, Chiha looked closely at several employer of record (EOR) providers.

“We assessed Deel and Remote, and I felt more comfortable with Remote as our international expansion partner,” he says. “We had a consultation on what we were looking for from a strategic perspective, what growth looked like, and what our challenges were. And we designed a partnership based on those individual requirements.”

For Chiha, it was crucial to maintain the same level of freedom and flexibility the company was enjoying with its own legal entities. For example, Shootsta’s employment contracts are tailored specifically to the way the company works and, by moving to an EOR, Chiha was worried that it would have to adopt more generic forms and processes.

“We don’t have to sacrifice that with Remote,” he says. “Remote allows us to customize everything to our employees’ needs, such as contracts, benefits, incentives, time off, and other perks.”

 Passing on the significant administrative burden of managing compliance and international onboarding in-house was also a big relief.

“Suddenly we didn’t have to be on top of every minute detail from compliance to localization, because we knew Remote was taking care of everything,” says Chiha. “After the initial company onboarding, all we had to do was provide job descriptions and entitlements for our new hires, and we were off in a heartbeat.”

This simplified process has transformed Shootsta’s entire approach to global HR.

“Now there’s just one provider relationship,” he says. “We don’t have to go directly to third-party payroll companies, tax advisors, and legal advisors. There are fewer people in the conversation, which is better for us and our employees.”

Streamlining its US entity — and transferring employees to Remote

With these new streamlined payroll and administrative processes in place, Shootsta quickly began to reevaluate the efficacy of its existing entities. Chiha wanted one centralized portal for its employees outside of Australia, Singapore, and the UK — so he decided to streamline the company’s US entity and onboard the majority of those employees to Remote.

“That was a strategic decision that came with so many benefits for time, efficiency, and cost,” he explains. “And crucially, we knew our employees would be completely looked after from a day-to-day HR perspective.”

“We had a very tight deadline to streamline our US entity and transfer to Remote. We were helped through the whole process and there were no surprises. The whole experience was excellent.”

Chiha knew his US employees would have questions and concerns as they onboarded, but he says Remote was there to support and help every step of the way.

“Our employees had full communication with Remote all the way through,” he explains. “They were able to ask questions through their dedicated account manager, and we had really good feedback from the team about how the transition was managed.” 

Remote was able to usher Shootsta and its US staff through the transition quickly — while remaining fully compliant with all local labor laws.

A single source of HR truth

With employees, contractors, and freelancers in multiple countries, Shootsta needed a single, centralized platform to house all its HR information, and Remote’s human resources information system (HRIS) was ideal.

It houses information for all of Shootsta’s remote team members, including expense management, time off, and benefits — which is especially helpful, given the company doesn’t have a dedicated HR team. For its Australia-based employees, the company also leverages Remote’s integration with BambooHR.

“Employee information visibility is vital for us,” says Chiha. “Previously, our international team members were in different systems depending on their country, which added unnecessary complexity and time to our day-to-day operations.”

By simplifying the company’s HR tech stack, Chiha believes the HR process is now more efficient, with less noise and more value. In the long term, he says, this will also help Shootsta scale.

”When you’re running any business, it's infinitely more scalable to have a smaller tech stack with specialist platforms you can trust,” he explains. “Remote is truly a global employment provider that’s specifically designed for scaling international teams. It’s quick, efficient, and we can see all our employment information in one place.”

“It’s actually very hard to find a global HR solution that successfully consolidates global teams without having to make sacrifices. Remote is that provider by design.”

As a partner to some of the world’s most recognizable brands, compliance is crucial for Shootsta, too.

“We work with enterprise clients and so we need to be able to evidence how we comply with local employment laws, how we handle data, and what our people processes look like,” Chiha says. “It’s not just our reputation and integrity on the line, it’s also our clients. Everything about our business needs to be top-notch, and we have that assurance with Remote.”

More talent, more opportunities

For Chiha, moving into new markets is now so much easier, allowing Shootsta to find and hire talented individuals wherever they happen to live.

“Our intent to scale globally fits perfectly with Remote,” he says. “For instance, we’re in the process of hiring a creative director and we know we can find the best person for the job, no matter where they are based. It gives us unprecedented freedom and flexibility.”

The partnership also means Shootsta is better-placed to seize more business opportunities. For example, if a client wants to focus on a particular market for their video campaign, Chiha can have a team in that location in a matter of weeks.

“We can strategically pitch to a certain market by targeting new business opportunities where our service is underrepresented,” he says. “We can grow a team incrementally as deals land, instead of being tied to an entity and making that market work at all costs.”

A value-driven relationship

Shootsta’s commitment and care for its clients is one of the company’s core values, and — according to Chiha — one of its major differentiators in the market. “Our customers could go anywhere to create videos,” he says, “but at Shootsta, we’re all about the experience.”

Chiha sees the same level of dedication, care, and commitment in Remote’s approach.

“The personal connection with our Remote account manager is second to none,” he says. “They are invested in our success and are absolutely an extension of our team. I don’t know many other companies that do it better.”

This is also reflected in the level of support Shootsta receives, especially for time-sensitive queries. 

“The speed of response is so valuable to us,” Chiha adds. “When we have questions, we get an immediate follow up acknowledgement, and then nine times out of ten we get an answer in 24 hours.

“Of course, it’s sometimes longer if the situation is more complex, but even then we are updated all the way. And if they don’t have a resolution or an outcome, it’s always explained as to why. It’s fully transparent and removes all the guesswork.”

What’s next for Shootsta?

The Shootsa team is excited about the future, with its high-quality video production services raising the bar across the entire industry.

For Chiha, international hiring is a key enabler of this — and he thinks other smaller companies should consider following suit.

“My advice is to always have a strategy for international growth, because it’s not great having to scale back,” he said. “The team at Remote can help with that strategy and make the process relatively low-risk. You don’t need to set up entities or worry about local payroll; you know you’re compliant and that you’ve got full support for employment law.”

“We highly recommend Remote to help you through the process. They’re accessible and friendly, and we’re not just a number to them. The whole team always goes above and beyond.”

So what’s next?

“I’m really excited to bring our incredible product and industry-leading customer experience to new markets as we scale with Remote,” Chiha concludes. “There are big things on the horizon, and I’m proud of the team and what we’ve achieved to get here.

“My only regret is that we didn’t find Remote earlier in our journey!“

Want to kickstart your international expansion? Contact us today to schedule a free and friendly consultation with one of our global hiring experts.