Oyster is a global employment platform that helps companies build distributed teams across more than 180 countries without establishing local legal entities, handling compliant contracts, payroll, benefits, and ongoing compliance through a single platform. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Oyster CEO Hadi Moussa to learn more.
Hadi Moussa’s Background
When asked about his background and the experiences that led him to Oyster, Moussa shared:
I grew up in Lebanon during a period of real instability, and that experience fundamentally shaped my perspective on global opportunity and access. I originally trained as a computer and communications engineer in Lebanon before pursuing my master’s degree in Atlanta, Georgia. From there, I joined McKinsey & Company in Dubai and London before making the jump into technology.
My career has since been built around one consistent theme: identifying companies at the critical inflection point between product-market fit and true scale and helping them get to the next level.
This journey took me to Facebook during its pre-IPO hypergrowth years, Airbnb as a general manager across multiple international regions, and Deliveroo as Chief Business Officer, where I navigated the complexities of a global pandemic and an eventual IPO.
Most recently, I served as CEO of the HR technology platform Couple after a tenure at Coursera, where AI became central to our vision of the future of learning.
When the Oyster opportunity came along, it resonated on multiple levels: the mission, the stage of the business, and especially the personal connection.
Similar to our Co-Founder Tony Jamous, I left Lebanon because opportunity wasn’t equally distributed. Oyster exists to make that problem smaller for the next generation. That’s not just a tagline for me. It’s personal.
Primary Responsibilities
When asked about his primary responsibilities as Oyster’s new CEO, Moussa explained:
We are currently in the high-growth phase of scaling from $100 million toward $1 billion in revenue. At this stage, complexity increases, decision-making gets harder, and the cost of ambiguity compounds, so my role is to cut through that noise.
My focus is categorized into three strategic pillars.
The first is defining our long-term strategy, being clear about our value proposition, what we’re uniquely positioned to do, and how we differentiate in a competitive market.
The second is making sure we execute against our 2026 plan with real discipline and accountability.
The third is accelerating our transformation into an AI-native company, not just optimizing existing processes, but fundamentally rethinking our internal operations and how we deliver value to customers.
Core Products And Features
When describing Oyster’s core products and features, Moussa detailed:
At its core, Oyster is a global employment platform built around the Employer of Record model.
We enable companies to build distributed teams across more than 180 countries without the burden of setting up local legal entities.
We handle the entire lifecycle of employment, from compliant contracts and payroll to benefits and ongoing compliance management, all through a single platform and invoice and with a seamless experience across all their global hires.
But we are evolving beyond basic Employer of Record services to become a strategic workforce partner.
This includes supporting other employment models while advising companies on the complexity of multi-jurisdictional employment.
What distinguishes Oyster is that we combine technology with genuine human expertise. Employment relationships are high-stakes. They’re long-term, they’re personal, and they’re legally complex.
Our technology makes the experience seamless. Our people make sure it’s done right.
Industry Challenges
When asked about recent challenges in the global employment sector and how Oyster is addressing them, Moussa noted:
The current macro environment presents a unique mix of headwinds and tailwinds.
For instance, the market has become more competitive, and awareness of some of our well-funded competitors has grown faster than ours.
We’re doing important work to sharpen our value proposition and make sure the market understands what truly differentiates Oyster. It’s not just speed or automation. It’s the combination of a sophisticated platform with genuine human expertise and a mission that informs every product decision we make.
Simultaneously, as the sector grows, we see increased regulatory scrutiny in some markets.
We are actively engaging with key stakeholders to ensure we are clearly laying out the benefits of our model and aligning on the best way to set standards and regulations that support companies, team members, and local economies.
Finally, we continue to monitor the potential impact of AI on jobs. But we currently see that the demand for AI skills globally is outpacing supply in any single geography, which drives companies to look internationally.
We plan to provide the essential infrastructure for that shift.
Technology Evolution
When discussing how Oyster’s technology has evolved since launching, Moussa described:
When Oyster launched in 2019, the Employer of Record model already existed, but it was largely an expensive professional service accessible mainly to large enterprises.
What Oyster did was bring it down-market through software, making it accessible to midsize and smaller companies that could now act like a Google or Microsoft in terms of global hiring capability.
The technology has since evolved significantly. We’ve moved from a platform that primarily manages the mechanics of compliant employment to one that actively guides customers through complex decisions, providing a more seamless experience rather than just a workflow tool.
The next evolution, which is a core priority for me, is becoming truly AI-native.
That means AI embedded in the customer experience, including first-line support, AI enabling faster and smarter product development, and AI transforming our internal operations.
We’re also running an internal AI Accelerator program where nontechnical employees across the company are building automation tools that are delivering measurable productivity gains.
Major Company Milestones
When asked about Oyster’s most significant milestones, Moussa said:
A few stand out.
Reaching a presence in more than 180 countries is a significant infrastructure milestone. Building compliant employment entities at that scale takes years and requires deep local expertise that’s genuinely difficult to replicate.
Scaling to more than 40% of the team members on our platform coming from emerging economies is something Tony, our Co-Founder and Executive Chairman, has always pointed to with real pride. It’s the mission made tangible.
Becoming a certified B Corp was also a meaningful marker. It’s not just a credential. It’s a governance commitment that forces you to make decisions differently.
We’re one of the very few unicorn-valued companies in our category with that certification, and it reflects how seriously we take our mission and impact.
Human Expertise
When asked what differentiates Oyster from its competition, Moussa emphasized:
Combining technology with human, expert-led support for the moments that matter is Oyster’s biggest differentiator.
While competitors increasingly rely on AI chatbots and generic support, Oyster provides a seamless platform experience but complements it with real people when customers need them most.
From a company’s first hire to its most sensitive people decisions, Oyster’s in-house specialists and HR business partners guide customers with care, precision, and local expertise.
In an industry moving toward impersonal automation, Oyster is doubling down on what matters: human expertise when the stakes are high.
Ethical Employment Practices
When discussing how Oyster’s mission and employment practices create a competitive advantage, Moussa explained:
Oyster is the only Employer of Record that’s a certified B Corporation, independently verified for how it treats people and runs its business.
Customers choose Oyster not only for what the company does, but for how it does it.
In an industry where transparency and fairness are rare, Oyster stands apart as a mission-led company that believes global employment should be ethical, inclusive, and sustainable.
Transparent Pricing
When describing Oyster’s approach to pricing, Moussa stated:
Hidden fees are a common pain point with competitors.
Customers trust Employers of Record with managing the compliance, complexity, and cost of legal entities, not to incur new fees for every process or service.
At Oyster, pricing is clear, predictable, and designed to support customers through ups and downs, not take advantage of them.
Customer Feedback
When asked what he has been hearing from Oyster’s customers, Moussa shared:
What I consistently hear from customers, and this has come up in almost every customer conversation I’ve had since joining, is that they value our platform, but the human touch is what sets us apart.
They all consistently point to their account and support teams and how they have established a high level of trust and partnership with them as the reason they stay and expand with Oyster.
The employment relationship is not like buying software.
It’s long-term, high-stakes, and deeply personal for the team member on the other side of the world.
When something complex comes up, a sensitive termination in a jurisdiction with strict labor laws, an unusual benefits situation, or a compliance edge case, customers want to know there’s a knowledgeable person who can help them navigate it quickly and accurately.
Future Goals
When discussing Oyster’s future goals, Moussa concluded:
We want to build the most trusted global employment platform, the partner companies turn to not just to process a hire, but to think through their entire global workforce strategy.
This includes expanding our product and infrastructure coverage and continuing to invest in our capabilities to serve as true strategic advisors and to provide an exceptional level of experience and service, all enabled by the best team in the industry and powered by AI.
Our goal is to win through differentiation, not just spending.
We’re not going to out-market the most well-funded players in this space. We’re going to out-execute and out-trust them.
We’re going to be the company that customers recommend because we genuinely cared about getting it right, for them and for the team members on the other side of the world.
The long-term vision is a multibillion-dollar business and impact built on a foundation of trust, mission, and genuine human-plus-technology expertise.
That’s what I’m here to build.
