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Jack Thorogood is the Founder and CEO of Native Teams, a comprehensive payments and employment platform designed to support freelancers, remote workers, and their employers. With over a decade of experience in the fintech and remote work sectors, Jack has successfully led multiple companies focused on knowledge management, video software, and smart building technologies. His entrepreneurial journey includes founding and exiting InPlayer.com, a video monetization specialist, and BuildingBrain.com, a smart building platform. Native Teams, founded in 2021, is Jack's largest project, operating in more than 70 countries and employing a global team.

Native Teams addresses the growing needs of remote workers and freelancers by offering seamless payment solutions and local employment status. The platform provides tools for managing global work payments and creating a streamlined process for cross-border employment. Recently, Native Teams raised €6.2 million to enhance its platform and further establish itself as a leader in the evolving world of remote work payments, becoming the go-to platform for freelancers and global employers.

1. What inspired you to start Native Teams, and how did the idea evolve into the platform it is today?

Simply put, Native Teams solved a problem we had ourselves. I had a small digital agency building software for others. Even in that company of 15 people, we had issues paying people in a way that gave them the biggest intangible and in-work benefits, for example, the creditworthiness that comes from a good job.

We fixed that for ourselves and then had first a friend then some friends of friends ask if we could help them too. That was the genesis and the driver that made us go ‘all in’ on the idea that Native Teams grew from.

2. What gap did you see in the remote work and freelance space that Native Teams was created to address?

First off, we’re ‘employee-first’. Unlike any of our competitors, we’re happy to work directly with employees. It is that group of users we are building our feature set around. If we can look after employees better than anyone else, we'll win their employer's business.

Secondly, we needed to build a cost-effective platform that works for all knowledge and tech sector workers. When we launched some of our initial users were lower-earning remote workers. Our cost base and pricing reflect that and open up a world of opportunity even to less well-remunerated talent.

Our competitors were charging fees that in some cases exceeded what the actual end talent was earning each month. That made no sense to us and felt like price gouging.

3. How does Native Teams simplify global payments for remote workers and freelancers, and what unique solutions does it offer?

We offer a wide variety of payment tools - for example, an invoicing platform and multi-currency wallet - and employment options (including payouts through the payroll system in the country of a user’s tax residency) for remote workers and freelancers.

This provides remote workers and freelancers with the best of both worlds of work: The freedom and opportunity of freelancing and remote work combined with all the benefits of a local employment contract.

4. What are some of the key features of Native Teams that set it apart from other global payment platforms?

Compared to other EOR (employer of record) platforms we’re built around a multi-currency wallet, giving absolute flexibility and transparency for payments.

Compared to generalist payment platforms, we are unique in supporting our payments via the in-country payroll system. We also go much further when it comes to functionality such as automating access to tax-free allowances, enabling our users to keep more of the money that they earn.

5. How do you see the future growth of Native Teams, especially with the increasing shift towards remote work?

We expect the company to grow 2.7x during 2025 which will be on the back of 3x growth this year.

While the trends towards remote work help us - and despite some of the recent ‘back to the office’ drives, remote work is still growing in popularity - it isn’t the sole driver behind our growth. We can work with local firms and distributed teams too to improve the way they think about and manage remuneration.

6. Do you have a mentor or figure who has inspired or influenced your entrepreneurial journey?

My business partner and co-founder Alex has had the biggest impact on my journey to date. Moving from zero to one is exceptionally hard and there is no way I could have made the progress I’ve contributed to without her.

7. What are potential exit scenarios for investors supporting Native Teams?

This depends a bit on the journey that the investors want! We expect to grow the business over the next 3-5 years ourselves. We have a unique opportunity to grow shareholder value over this period and while we have had a couple of significant acquisition offers already, we can add a lot more value for Native Teams shareholders ourselves over the short- to mid-term time horizons.

Having said that, we are regularly approached by potential investors who are keen to buy out existing investors’ positions. For those looking for a shorter-term exit, therefore, there remains optionality.

8. Why should investors consider being part of Native Teams' journey?

Fundamentally I’d summarise this as:

• We have product/market fit and consistent growth, month over month.
• We are in a uniquely massive market. We are relevant to anyone getting paid for the work that they do, which is basically anyone with a job (although we are of course segmenting this and not trying to boil the ocean).
• There are many adjacent and ‘upsell’ products we can and are adding to the stack to increase both ARPA and ARPU.

Explore the opportunity on SeedBlink.