How Kintsugi hired top global talent and passed VC due diligence with Deel

Kintsugi is an AI-powered compliance company built to solve the complex challenges of indirect tax and sales tax. After raising nearly $30 million from VCs—including Stanford's accelerator StartX—the company found instant product-market fit and entered a period of hypergrowth, scaling at 20–30% month-over-month.

This created two immediate, high-stakes challenges for founder Gibson:

A global talent bottleneck: To hit company milestones, Gibson needed to hire the best engineers he knew, immediately. The problem? They were based in Canada, Mexico, Asia, and Europe—each with their own compliance risks and hiring restrictions.

Intense compliance expectations: Being VC-backed meant heightened scrutiny from lawyers and auditors. Kintsugi needed to prove strong IP protection, SOC 2 audit readiness, and legal clarity to be investor-ready for future rounds.

The “old world” of fragmented HR tools was never an option.

Disconnected systems meant delayed onboarding, security gaps, and a heavier legal burden. Gibson needed one system that could handle scale, speed, and compliance—all from day one.

Gibson, a Deel customer since 2019, chose Deel as Kintsugi’s global HR system from day one. It was a strategic decision—not just to pay people, but to build a diligence-ready business from the ground up.

The first proof point came fast: investor due diligence. IP was Kintsugi’s most valuable asset. When VC lawyers asked for employment agreements, Deel’s globally compliant contracts were ready.

“Our investors' lawyers had never heard of Deel. We sent them the contract, and they came back and said, 'Yep, this is good. No problem here.' When lawyers have nothing to redline, you know you're in a good spot.”— Jeff Gibson, Founder, Kintsugi

As the team scaled, Deel evolved from hiring infrastructure into Kintsugi’s central HRIS. The team integrated Deel with their SSO provider, JumpCloud, to automate access provisioning and deprovisioning—a critical requirement for SOC 2 audits.

“For SOC 2, the less automation you have, the more evidence you have to show. Having everybody in one place, integrated with our SSO, means we're not just doing things, we're tracking them. That's what passes an audit.”— Jeff Gibson, Founder, Kintsugi

As Kintsugi grew, Deel became the operational backbone that enabled lean, fast-paced scaling without the need for dedicated HR staff.

“We scaled to 90 people across 13 countries with zero full-time HR. Deel was our secret weapon; it made what would normally be an 'unthinkable' administrative burden for a founder completely manageable.” — Jeff Gibson, Founder, Kintsugi

The time saved on hiring, onboarding, and compliance workflows meant Gibson’s team could stay focused on product development and customer growth.

Built to scale with speed and trust

With no redlines in funding rounds, no delays in onboarding, and zero internal HR overhead, Kintsugi’s partnership with Deel unlocked global speed without sacrificing compliance.

From IP protection to SOC 2 audit trails, from onboarding in 13 countries to automating offboarding workflows, Deel helped Kintsugi deliver enterprise-grade operations on a startup timeline.

And they’re just getting started.