From £12K seed round in the UK to 520-person company and successful US exit. Husayn Kassai, founder of Onfido, shares his complete journey of building an identity verification company, expanding to the US, and now building Quench AI.
✨ Powered by Wilson Sonsini
📍 KEY TOPICS & TIMESTAMPS
2:03 - The Origin Story: Why identity verification matters (personal experience moving from Iran to UK)
6:45 - The "Two Miracles" Problem: Raising early funding when investors didn't believe
8:18 - Building product-market fit in Europe before US expansion
10:15 - UK to US fundraising strategy (Series A → UK, Series C/D → US investors)
15:30 - Timing your US market entry: Three critical factors
20:45 - The Dual-HQ Model: Tech in Europe, Go-to-Market in US
25:20 - US hiring mistakes & lessons (title inflation, hiring operators vs managers)
28:40 - Navigating US regulatory complexity (state-by-state variation)
32:15 - UK vs US investor dynamics
35:20 - Managing culture across 520 people in multiple countries
38:45 - The exit journey
42:06 - Quench AI: Building privacy-first workplace search
47:03 - Advice for European founders expanding to US
👤 ABOUT HUSAYN KASSAI
Founder of Onfido (2010-2024), scaled from £12K seed to successful exit. Built identity verification into industry standard with 520 employees across London and San Francisco. Raised from M12 (Microsoft), Salesforce Ventures, SoftBank, and others.
Now founder of Quench AI, a privacy-first workplace search platform helping mid-market companies find information across tools and deploy AI agents. First job: Selling music on eBay at age 12 (learned about margin protection when competitors undercut him!)
🎯 KEY TAKEAWAYS
✓ Wait for product-market fit in your home market before US expansion
✓ The dual-HQ model works: Tech in Europe, Go-to-Market in US East Coast
✓ Structure legal, compliance, and operations BEFORE scaling
✓ US title inflation is real—hire operators who execute, not just managers
✓ Each US state has different regulations; get expert legal help early
✓ UK investors for validation, US investors for scaling
✓ Research thoroughly before committing to US expansion
✓ Founder-problem fit matters more than market trends
🔗 CONNECT & RESOURCES
Husayn Kassai: linkedin.com/in/husaynkassai
Quench AI: quench.ai
Onfido: onfido.com
🏢 POWERED BY WILSON SONSINI
This episode is powered by Wilson Sonsini, the leading law firm for technology and growth companies. Wilson Sonsini helps European founders navigate US expansion—from entity formation and regulatory compliance to VC fundraising and M&A. Their deep cross-border expertise ensures you structure it right from day one.
📢 ABOUT SCALING STATESIDE
Helping European founders understand the US expansion journey. Hosted by David Rose and Matt Oxley of US Expansion Partners (USXP).
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube Follow: #ScalingStateside
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Episode length: 48 minutes Hosts: David Rose & Matt Oxley Guest: Husayn Kassai, Founder of Onfido & Quench AI