BUILDING A BETTER WORLD OF WORK

Nurasyl Serik is a serial entrepreneur, passionate about building companies and making a difference in the lives of many across the globe. Originally from Kazakhstan, Nurasyl has spent most of his life in the UK. He is one of those inspiring business leaders who continue to identify market gaps and purposefully build solutions that create great customer value. In his current role as the Co-Founder and CEO of Remofirst, Nurasyl is leading his team on the idea that freedom of work is the future of work.

The Journey of Building Companies, Solving Issues, & Making an Impact

While based in the UK, Nurasyl started building companies with his Co-founder, who lived in Ukraine. As the bootstrapped start-up entrepreneurs, their answer to save costs was working remotely, which they continued to do so. Unfortunately, many of their initial ventures failed. Nurasyl and his Co-founder tasted their first success with Felix Math, an AI math product that showed a detailed explanation and step-by-step solution to any Math problem via just one snap.

During that time, one of their biggest challenges as a remote-first company was hiring and managing employees around the world in a compliant way. They tried some of the existing legacy solutions but weren’t tech-savvy or fast enough for their needs. “We didn’t know why global payroll was so painful and expensive in this day and age, and that served as a big motivation to tackle this industry and build something we could use ourselves,” reveals Nurasyl.

After they sold the company, Nurasyl took on the role of a Product Manager at Job Today, where he led the division that built out payroll in the UK. “That was my first experience building a payroll system, and after that, I felt inspired to build the next generation of global payroll systems for the future of work,” shares Nurasyl.

Remofirst: The Most Affordable & Accessible Employer of Record (EOR) Provider

Founded in 2021, Remofirst is an all-inone platform for companies to manage their international HR and hire remote employees. From Mumbai to Mountain View to Malta and everywhere in between, Remofirst empowers employers to be free from geographical boundaries when accessing the talent and allows employees to pursue opportunities wherever they may exist. Currently, the platform is available in over 150 countries with same-day onboarding.

“Our mission is to simplify the way companies build remote teams,” states Nurasyl. “We believe in people, excellence, and delivery.”

Key Partner Benefits

For Nurasyl, understanding the customer's needs is his fundamental belief. He further explains, “When you take the time to put yourself in their shoes, it allows you to build products that matter.”

As opposed to the earlier days when hiring talent from another country was expensive and tedious, Remofirst clients now get to hire talent from any part of the world with one click at the most affordable pricing rates in the industry. They also get access to personal account managers and support services such as sponsoring Visas and more. Moreover, every optimization and new product feature is geared towards improving Remofirst’s service for its customers.

Accelerated Growth

While commenting on Remofirst’s growth after raising $14M in the largest Seed round in the EOR industry, Nurasyl says, “We raised our Seed round after reaching more than seven figures in revenue with only 5 team members. Since then, we have grown quickly and expanded the team to 40 people in about 10 countries.” In addition, the Co-Founders have also invested heavily in customer support since they want their customers to have the best possible experience with all the resources they need.

Time Management is the Greatest Challenge

As the 21st century CEO, Nurasyl considers time management the biggest hurdle. He is usually engrossed in working on multiple tasks at any given time, from working on the product to communicating with investors to delegating with the leadership team.

To stay ahead of the curve, Nurasyl prioritizes his tasks in four quadrants of the time management matrix by asking himself how important and urgent each task is. If the task is urgent and important, Nurasyl tackles it himself. He delegates it to a team member if it’s urgent but not important. If the task is important but not urgent, he plans a time to take it further shortly. And lastly, he eliminates all the tasks which are neither urgent nor important.

Taking Lessons from the Childhood

The biggest lesson Nurasyl has learned from life as a student is to keep going forward no matter what. Whatever odds are against you and whatever other people tell you, if you believe in yourself and have a plan of action, everything is possible.

Asynchronous Workplace Culture & Rightly Balancing ROI

At Remofirst, Nurasyl and his Co-founder have instilled a remote, asynchronous culture that allows them to accelerate innovation as the company gets enriched with different world views from its diverse workforce.

When balancing technology costs with ROI, Nurasyl makes sure not to cut costs in the most important business areas but also leaves room to experiment.

A Day in the Life of a CEO

Beginning his day early, Nurasyl enjoys having breakfast with his wife and taking his dog out for a walk. Since Remofirst has a diversified team distributed around the world, Nurasyl likes to start work as early as possible and greet everyone. First, he checks his emails for any pressing matters that need his urgent attention. He also wants his investors to know that he is readily available for any of their requests, so he makes sure to get back to everyone within 24 hours. He then goes through his lengthy to-do list of tasks and passionately begins to tackle them.

Since several team members start work towards the end of Nurasyl’s working day, instead of logging off altogether while they are working, Nurasyl takes short breaks in the afternoon and returns for a couple of hours in the evening so that he can better collaborate with those team members. At the end of each day, he goes through his tasks and lists them by priority. “This helps me know exactly what to do when I start the next day since I’ve already laid out my course of action the night before,” reveals Nurasyl.

Taking Regular Breaks, the Key to Staying Productive & Focused

Nurasyl’s secret to staying productive throughout the day is taking short breaks in between, as he believes it is nearly impossible to stay focused and productive for 8+ hours. Therefore, he makes sure to take breaks, even if it’s just to take his dog on a quick walk, and so, these little pauses from work help him to come back to tasks at hand refreshed and recharged.

Pearls of Wisdom for the Aspiring Leaders

According to Nurasyl, leaders need to offer flexible work options to their employees, as doing so allows employees to have a better work-life balance. It also means encouraging them to become happier and more fulfilled in their personal lives and having them hold their work in much higher regard. An increase in employee happiness, engagement, and morale equals more productive employees and fewer turnover rates.

Moving Forward

With some exciting new product features coming soon to Remofirst, Nurasyl and his team are continuing to optimize their products to make global hiring more affordable and accessible to companies of all sizes across the globe.