Episode 13: Scaling Startups and Redefining Remote Work with Sondre Rasch
Welcome to the Remote Business Growth podcast! In this episode, host Paul Urwin speaks with Sondre Rasch, co-founder of SafetyWing, about his journey from working as a policy advisor in the Norwegian government to building startups that support the global remote workforce. Sondre shares his experiences founding Superside, a freelance platform, and SafetyWing, which provides a global social safety net for remote workers and digital nomads. This insightful conversation dives deep into the challenges and strategies involved in building and scaling businesses in the digital age.
Key Takeaways:
The Entrepreneurial Journey: Sondre discusses his transition from government work to entrepreneurship, highlighting his motivations and the initial challenges he faced.
Building SafetyWing: Learn about the inspiration behind SafetyWing, a company that aims to provide health insurance and income protection for remote workers globally.
Navigating Y Combinator: Sondre reflects on his experience with the renowned startup accelerator, Y Combinator, and how it shaped his approach to product development and growth.
Growth Strategies and Scaling Challenges: From acquiring early users through AdWords to leveraging word-of-mouth and an ambassador program, Sondre explains how SafetyWing grew sustainably.
The Three Phases of Startup Growth: Sondre outlines the “DIY Stage,” “Adolescent Stage,” and “Scaling Stage,” offering valuable insights on how to handle the unique challenges at each stage.
Vision for the Future: Sondre shares SafetyWing's future plans, including launching a membership product that offers comprehensive benefits and protections for remote workers.
Connect with Sondre Rasch:
Website: SafetyWing
LinkedIn: Sondre Rasch
Closing Thoughts:
Paul wraps up by reflecting on the value of remote work and digital nomadism, emphasizing the importance of support systems for this new era of the global workforce. If you're interested in building remote teams or scaling your business, visit There Is Talent.
Here is the full transcript:
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
remote work, business growth, Sondre Rasch, Safety Wing, digital nomads, Y Combinator, startup challenges, product development, customer acquisition, growth strategies, team management, legal challenges, scaling phase, user experience, membership product
SPEAKERS
Sondre Rasch, Paul Urwin
Paul Urwin 00:01
Welcome to remote business growth. Your go to source for all things remote work and business growth. Join us as we delve deep into the strategies, insights and success stories that will help you thrive in the remote work landscape. Whether you're an entrepreneur, a remote team leader, or simply curious about how to grow your business, this podcast is your gateway to unlocking your full potential. So get ready to embark on a journey of innovation and success. Hey there, Paul here, and welcome to episode 13 of the remote Business Growth podcast. How you doing this week? I hope everything is going well. I hope your remote work is going well, and I hope you're considering some of the amazing possibilities that working remotely or building remote teams bring. So just yeah, lots of opportunities out there, and that's what we like to talk about on this show. If you'd like to find out more about building remote teams or hiring a virtual assistant or remote specialist for your organization, then head on over to www dot, there is talent.com that's www dot, there is talent.com right? Let's get cracking today. I've got a very special guest, and his name is Sondre Rasch. So this, this podcast episode. I've recorded hundreds of podcast episodes, and this, honestly, is just one of the best I just absolutely loved it. I loved the style that that Sondre has and how he takes us through some of his thought processes as he, as he builds startups, as he creates those, those startups, I think was just for me. It was just fascinating, really revealing he's, he's just a really smart guy and just just a wealth of information in this episode. If you're looking, if you're interested in that, that thought process as of how to actually go about creating and scaling a startup, then this is, this is the episode for you. As I said, I just think it's really, really brilliant. So let's get cracking with Sondre. Sondre Rasch, a former policy advisor in the Norwegian parliament, is the co founder of safety wing, a company dedicated to building a global social safety net for remote workers and teams. His vision is to create a country on the internet offering citizenship as a service regardless of your location. The idea for safety wing originated from his previous venture, superside, a freelance platform he co founded in 2016 recognizing the need for benefits and income protection for freelancers. Sondre took the initiative to build these solutions himself when none existed. Both companies were supported by Y Combinator, a prestigious startup accelerator that provides seed funding and membership to early stage companies. Sondre, welcome to the show. Thank you. Paul, great to be here. Yeah, no. Great. Great to talk about anything related to remote work. And today we're going to be talking about, well, among other things, insurance for remote workers. But before we get to that, Sandra, tell us a little bit about you and your entrepreneurial journey and how you got to where you are today, please.
Sondre Rasch 03:11
Yeah. So I started my career working for as a policy advisor for the government of Norway. Well, I had some as a teenager, some entrepreneurial dabbling as well. Yeah, when I started sort of web hosting company in my room, but later got interested in policy and politics, and so I worked there for a bit, and it was there that I felt, you know, a bit disillusion with the pace of change and government and so, yeah, left to fund startup with my friend from school, Frederick, and we started Freelancer platform, super side.
Paul Urwin 04:00
Okay, that sounds, that sounds, that sounds great. And you make it sound, you know, sort of like it was a smooth transition, and very easy to do. I'm always interested in these transitions. I mean, how did you actually come up, come up with that idea? How did and then, how did you actually take the plunge? Was it was that difficult to go through? Yeah.
Sondre Rasch 04:21
I mean, it was, I should say, I always had a hunch that I probably would start a I wanted to start a technology startup, yeah. So it was like it was in the back of my mind, and I was for a long time looking for a way, but it was still hard. In particular was hard because I was comfortable. So my job was really pleasant. It was quite meaningful, policy advisor. We, I kind of like, got this, you know, it, it felt meaningful and important. I also had a super, like, flat. Flexible place. I lived in a nice part of town. I worked to work along the ocean there in Oslo. Yeah, it was just, it was a really pleasant situation, yep, and, and I had, like, a career there, right? So I was giving that up. And so I come across this idea of the digital nomad idea a few years before, so I knew that, oh, it's possible, if I get, like, some kind of freelance income, that I can sort of sustain myself while starting my startup. Yeah, if I live in somewhere cheap, like Berlin. Berlin was much cheaper back then. This is continuous, yeah, you could live, you could live in like, $500 a month in Berlin, if you really, okay, yeah, yeah. So anyway, that was, that was roughly the plan. So I started thinking ahead at the time. It was also like developing, you know, exploring a few different ideas and and on the way discover and a few different people I might start something with. And it is just one of those days come up the idea that I'm and then talk with Frederick about it, and very sold on this and it the partnership really works out. Our cooperation works. And yeah. So then I sort of just start planning this day where I was going to quit my job and become a digital nomad and work full time on my startup, yeah. And I think I did that, like, six months ahead of the date and and in between, then I'm registering an Upwork. I'm trying to see if I can get some freelance gigs, like on the weekends and stuff. Yeah, yeah, and, and I do so I get this economics writing thing, and, and, yeah, that the time comes and goes. I should add there's one part to the story. Right before this. It's like December. So this is 2015 so in December, 2014 I remember I went to the cinema and watched this movie, Walter Mitty. Okay, Walter Mitty. And there's such a great scene in the movie, because at this point, my mind is churning on this idea, like, should I quit my job and just go full time on my startup, yeah, yeah. But, and, and there's some part of that that seems very stupid and irresponsible, because of course I would earn any money. Yeah, yeah, they have bills. So I recall there was the scene in that movie where he's like, pursuing this person, and weirdly finds himself in Iceland, and there's this moment where, in order to pursue this one path, there is this helicopter pilot who's really drunk, who's getting into his helicopter, and then he's like, playing the song by David boy, I'm blanking on the name, and He's sort of running after and jumping into the helicopter. Into the helicopter. And I just found, like, I was like, yes, that's exactly what this feels like, yeah, like, not like bold, just like, really stupid, like, very unclear reward at the end of this, yeah and, and definitely high risk, and actually likely to go badly. Yeah, reckless way, yeah, but still anyway. So, so, yeah, so. And then I said this date, decided to do it, try to get this freelance job, tried to reduce my costs. So I came across this idea about increasing your personal runway, able to save up, like, I think it was 10, 15k Yeah,
