The startup ecosystem in emerging markets, often dubbed the “Wild Wild West” by those familiar with its intense volatility, demands a unique blend of technical expertise and profound cultural resilience. No sector exemplifies this challenging intersection better than Human Resources Technology (HR Tech), especially when coupled with the complex movement of money, or Fintech. In our recent discussion at Wasssl Podcast – The experience of American founder Rebecka Zavaleta, who established the platform Paismo in Pakistan, provides a stark blueprint for what it takes to survive and scale in environments defined by chaos, manual processes, and significant cultural learning curves.
The Global Leap – Rebecka Zavaleta and the Founding of Paismo
Rebecka Zavaleta, a Mexican-American from Los Angeles with over a decade of experience in AdTech and Fintech, made the unconventional decision to move to Pakistan to build technology. Her move was rooted in the optimism of 2021, when there was massive investment in the country, and “everyone said Pakistan is the next Thailand” in terms of economic potential.
As a seasoned product expert, Zavaleta focused on HR and payroll, realizing that basic services available in the US were completely absent in Pakistan. She found it “wild that people have to manually get their paylips”. Furthermore, unlike the US, where direct deposit means immediate payment, payment cycles in Pakistan are often 30 days – a standard for emerging markets but a significant financial hurdle for individuals who need rapid access to funds for rent or credit card payments.
The core operational problem driving Paismo’s creation was the monumental inefficiency: companies were spending up to 10 business days manually aggregating time sheets, leaves, reimbursements, and provident funds just to calculate and disperse payroll. Paismo was conceived to resolve this issue.
The Burden of Culture and Operational Inefficiency
Zavaleta’s journey required navigating a steep learning curve regarding work culture and market practices.
- The Crisis of Management Philosophy
A critical challenge identified across emerging markets, including Pakistan and Kenya, is the management style itself: employers often focus intensely on behavioral management instead of performance management. This emphasis translates directly into inefficient business practices, such as companies “over-index[ing] on company size,” preferring to employ 100 people over 50 for the same project. As Zavaleta notes, once a business crosses 30 to 35 employees, managing all these variables manually becomes extremely difficult.
For a founder accustomed to the US working culture, which emphasizes accountability and punctuality, this presents a significant contrast. While she observes a “more relaxed” behavior in the home country, she notes a slow behavioral shift is occurring, similar to what was observed in India and the Philippines, as the large English-speaking population in Pakistan increasingly works with mature markets through BPOs and software agencies.
- The Talent and Trust Deficit
Pakistani startups face a fierce talent war. The top engineers are often already employed remotely by American, European, or Singaporean companies. Additionally, competition from higher-paying markets like Saudi Arabia and the UAE puts local budgets under severe strain.
Paismo counters this by being highly mission-oriented. Instead of competing purely on salary, they build an ecosystem that offers learning opportunities, such as machine learning skills and experience collaborating with a distributed team spanning Pakistan, Ethiopia, Mexico, and the United States. This globally distributed structure leverages Zavaleta’s 10-year technical network in Mexico and the US, sharing “osmosis knowledge” regarding established work practices with the Pakistani and Ethiopian teams.
The Inseparable Link – HR Tech as Foundational Fintech
Building a payroll product in an emerging market quickly becomes a Fintech endeavor, requiring the construction of infrastructure that does not yet exist.
Security First – Handling PII and Fraud Risk
While Paismo calculates the payroll number rather than handling the actual “movement of funds” (the classic definition of Fintech), it holds critical PII (Personal Identifiable Information). Because of this, the platform was built with security in mind from day one.
On the disbursement side, Zavaleta emphasizes being “terrified of like making a mistake” and facing a “bad actor situation” where fraud occurs (e.g., someone changing all employee bank accounts to run away with the money). Consequently, Paismo implements a very slow rollout on the disbursement feature to ensure every security possibility is considered.
The Ecosystem Gap and Layering Strategy
In mature markets, founders can utilize “plug-and-play” platforms and APIs (like connecting to Slack for AI data). In emerging markets, however, there is a lack of high-quality, verifiable data and foundational HR platforms. Therefore, Paismo must first build this basic infrastructure before adding subsequent layers.
This infrastructure enables Fintech layering, allowing the product to add services such as Earned Wage Access (EWA), InsureTech, and various benefits. The size of the HR Tech platform is “humongous”, capable of incorporating performance management, attendance, and eventually becoming an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.
Partnerships – Accelerating Adoption
To achieve mass adoption, partnerships are vital. Collaborations with traditional financial institutions (like Bank Al-Falah) and Fintechs (like EasyPaisa) help accelerate bank account access and disbursement. However, these partnerships only work if both parties have a “pacing for digitization” and possess APIs and teams ready to integrate
What is in it for MENA Entrepreneurs ?
The lessons learned from building Paismo amidst the turbulence of the Pakistani market provide clear strategies for founders operating in the MENA region.
1. Simplicity is the Key to Adoption
The primary user—the HR manager—often lacks formal training in using SaaS tools. To bridge this education gap, the product must be built to be “as easy as possible and not complicated”. The usability must be comparable to platforms like TikTok, which even cooks and drivers can use. The goal should be to provide a powerful tool (a “rocket to the moon”) but with only “one button” to ensure a safe launch and reduce the learning curve. Localization, including translating the language (like Urdu), is also essential.
2. Go-to-Market Strategy – Trust and Relationships
In emerging markets, the go-to-market strategy is built on two core pillars: trust and relationships. Many companies have been disappointed by providers who focus only on “logo acquisitions” rather than delivering the final product.
Since “gossip travels faster than the speed of light” and business circles are intertwined, founders must establish relationships by knowing “somebody that knows somebody” to get an initial introduction to the CEO or HR person. Foreign founders must demonstrate long-term commitment, proving they are not just there for a press release before disappearing. Having a local partner is indispensable to understand the cultural nuances and earn market trust in what Zavaleta calls the “Wild Wild West” of Pakistan.
3. Adopt the “iPhone” Premium Pricing Strategy
Local competition often uses “dirt cheap pricing” for market grab. Paismo chose to position itself as a premium product—the “iPhone” of HR Tech. Zavaleta found that pricing a product too low leads to the company being treated poorly in terms of customer success and sales.
Companies in Pakistan have shown they are willing to pay 20%, 30%, or 50% more for a product that clearly delivers value, automation, and a strong roadmap. Founders should charge accordingly and not compromise on quality, leveraging superior features like automation, AI-enabled optimization, and disbursement capabilities.
4. Design for Global/Regional Scale from Day One
Founders should “build your product to be global from day one” and think of the operations and business model regionally or globally. Since local markets may not be large enough, this global vision is necessary to showcase the talent within the region and export technology.
Paismo is intentionally expanding beyond Pakistan, exploring the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain) and East/North Africa (Kenya, Egypt). This expansion requires intentionality: assessing the intensity of the pain point and the speed of adoption in each new market. Local “troops” are essential on the ground in new markets to build trust and relationships.
V. Resilience Amidst Constant Turbulence
The founder’s journey in Pakistan is defined by navigating continuous turbulence. This included political instability, technical issues during fundraising calls (e.g., struggling with internet connectivity while pitching New York investors at 4 a.m.), and even unexpected events like the office being “completely sealed”.
Zavaleta praises the resiliency of Pakistani founders who have learned to operate despite this chaos. The necessary founder mentality is to be “married through life and death” to the vision and execute “at all costs”. Incidents like an office sealing or airport shutdowns must be viewed as the reality of the business, forcing the founder to “ride the horse without the saddle”.
This constant pressure pushes founders to their limits, but ultimately builds intense capability; as Zavaleta suggests, after going through these experiences, one feels nothing can stop them.
Building an HR Tech platform in emerging markets requires more than just technical skill; it demands radical resilience and a commitment to solving deeply manual problems. By focusing on extreme product simplicity, establishing local trust networks, pricing based on value, and adopting a global perspective from the start, entrepreneurs in MENA can transform regional complexities into globally competitive platforms, shifting the narrative from technology importation to technology exportation.