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The Deel vs Rippling Drama
The real life bond movie happening between two HR tech companies
Good Morning! Welcome to spring 2025, that magical time when flowers bloom, birds chirp, and sales reps finally admit those ‘pushed deals’ from Q4 aren't actually closing this quarter either. I've been there (and I’m sure you have too). Nothing says spring cleaning quite like finally updating your pipeline and accepting that your ‘sure thing’ deal from December was about as real as my chances of becoming a professional athlete. Now, let’s get into today’s Follow Up. 😁
Rippling vs Deel breakdown 🔍️
How to ask for a favor 🙏
High paying sales jobs vs mediocre ones 👀
Sales jobs & a meme 😂
What The Heck is Happening With Rippling & Deel?
Listen, I know the term ‘wild’ gets thrown around a lot... but THIS. STORY. IS. WILD.
Imagine Silicon Valley (the show) but make it real. We've got two massive HR tech companies – Rippling and Deel – going at it like Pied Piper vs. Hooli.
Here's the tea: Deel (valued at $12B) allegedly planted a real-life spy inside Rippling (also worth $12B), and this corporate espionage story has all of the makings of a Bond movie: a mysterious spy, secret Slack channels, and even a bathroom escape scene.
What happened?
Every sales rep knows to keep tabs on their competition, but Deel might have taken competitive intelligence a bit too far here...
According to a lawsuit filed Monday, they allegedly planted a mole inside Rippling (their biggest competitor) who spent months siphoning off sales intel like pipeline data, pricing strategies, and details about customers looking to switch from Deel to Rippling.
The alleged spy was hired as a "global payroll compliance manager," at Rippling and didn’t do anything out of the ordinary for over a year. But towards the end of last year, the spy started searching "Deel" in Rippling's systems an average of 23 times per day.
In simple terms, he was looking for any Rippling employees talking about Deel.
What exactly was he after?
According to the lawsuit, the spy was looking for:
Intel on which Deel customers were thinking of jumping ship to Rippling
Pricing proposals and discount strategies
Sales playbooks on how to compete against Deel
Internal deal discussions and customer meeting notes
But here's where our spy thriller get’s crazy.
In order to prove this was actually taking place, Rippling's security team set up a honeypot trap. They sent a legal notice to 3 executives at Deel, and mentioned a fake Slack channel called "d-defectors" in the letter.
Within hours, their suspected spy was searching for it. Caught in 4K.
The grand finale? When confronted with a court order to hand over his phone, our corporate James Bond locked himself in the bathroom, possibly trying to flush his phone down the toilet. When warned about jail time, he reportedly said, "I'm willing to take that risk" before making his escape from the office.
Deel's official response:
A Deel spokesman gave the following statement to TechCrunch:
Weeks after Rippling is accused of violating sanctions law in Russia and seeding falsehoods about Deel, Rippling is trying to shift the narrative with these sensationalized claims,”
We deny all legal wrongdoing and look forward to asserting our counterclaims.
The Sales Lesson:
Healthy competition is good. But risking jail time for some extra competitive intel ain’t worth it.
Do you try to get competitive intel on your competitors? |
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