The Story of Localyze: Building the Future of Global Employee Mobility
At age 15, Hanna Marie Asmussen made a decision that would unknowingly shape her future: she moved to Argentina for a year. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, she shared how this early experience planted the seeds for what would become Localyze, a company now helping enterprises move employees across borders efficiently.
From Farm to Global Mobility “Ten year old Hannah thought that she’d probably be a veterinary or something like that because I grew up on a farm and I always loved animals,” Hanna recalls. But that year in Argentina gave her “that bug of, okay, I want to explore the world.”
This desire led her on a journey across continents, from China to the United States, each move presenting its own set of challenges. “I was in secondaries, I think, like two or three times, which is slightly scary,” she shares, referring to immigration screenings. These personal experiences with the complexities of international mobility would later become the foundation for Localyze.
The Path to Entrepreneurship Unlike many Silicon Valley stories of calculated career moves toward founding a company, Hanna’s journey was different. “I would rather say by chance that my friends would probably say that I realized that I’m basically unemployable and I couldn’t work under a bus, so I had to create my own job,” she explains with candor.
The idea evolved over “five, six years” of iterations, starting from a simple blog concept helping international students. The breakthrough came when Hanna decided not to pursue a PhD she had started. With time on her hands and two co-founders who shared her vision – one with tech expertise and another with HR experience – Localyze began to take shape.
Finding Product-Market Fit Their first customer came through serendipity at an HR roadshow, before they had even launched their software. “Someone approached us and said, like, hey, look, I actually want to hire someone from India,” Hanna recalls. This early validation helped them overcome the initial fear of selling to enterprises.
Starting with “99% tech workers,” they’ve expanded into consulting, financial services, and manufacturing. Companies like Infineon and Roland Berger now use their platform, marking their successful expansion beyond the tech sector.
Navigating Legal Complexities The immigration space comes with significant legal challenges. When a competitor tried to sue them in Germany, Localyze prevailed. As Hanna notes, the key is carefully defining their service boundaries in each country: “You have to be really careful. But as long as you also make sure, what do you offer, what do you not offer… the risk is very minimal.”
The COVID-19 Challenge When borders closed during the pandemic, many expected Localyze to fail. Instead, they maintained a remarkable 98% customer retention rate. Hanna attributes this resilience to their deep mission alignment: “We really believed in what we do and really knew that the market would come back, which it did, ultimately.”
The Future Vision Looking ahead, Localyze’s ambitions are bold. “We always talk about our Bhag, like our big Harry Audacious goal, and that is to bring 100 million people across borders by 2030,” Hanna shares. While the number might seem staggering, it reflects a future where global mobility becomes increasingly common.
With companies becoming more global and talent more mobile, Localyze is positioning itself at the intersection of immigration, HR tech, and global mobility. Their evolution from helping tech companies hire engineers to supporting traditional enterprises move workers across borders suggests they’re well on their way to achieving their ambitious goal.
The story of Localyze isn’t just about building a successful business – it’s about making the world more accessible for talented individuals seeking opportunities across borders. As Hanna’s own journey from a farm in Germany to CEO demonstrates, sometimes the best founders are the ones who’ve lived the problem they’re trying to solve.