Integrity Is No Joke - Sondre Rasch ep. 047

Remotely One - A remote work podcast

A politician, a startup CEO, and a rowdy crewmember were all on a boat in the middle of a storm. Suddenly, the engine died and the boat started to drift towards a rocky shore. The startup CEO suggested hotwiring the boat, but the rowdy crewmember objected, saying they should check the engine first. The politician, meanwhile, just stood there looking for a camera crew.

As the storm grew worse, the startup CEO grew more insistent, shouting "I know how to hotwire this thing!" The rowdy crewmember replied, "I'm telling you, let's just check the engine first!" The politician chimed in, "I've got an idea, why don't we all just pretend the storm doesn't exist?"

In no time at all, the boat crashed onto the rocky shore and the three were forced to swim to safety. As they clambered onto the beach, the startup CEO turned to the politician and said, "Guess you'd rather sink the boat than make waves."
The joke above was based entirely upon a true story, and you can hear it in this installment of Remotely One!
In this episode, Kaleem and guest host Josh Morse (who suggested there was a joke somewhere in that story) have an insightful chat with Sondre Rasch, co-founder and CEO of SafetyWing – a fully remote team building a global social safety net. Their mission is to remove the role of geographical borders as a barrier to equal opportunities and freedom for everyone by creating a home country on the internet.
Born in Bergen, Norway, Sondre studied economics and computer science, before starting work as a policy advisor for the government of Norway advising on social policies. After getting frustrated with the slow pace of government change, Sondre first founded SuperSide (YC W16), a platform for freelance designers. It was where he discovered the lack of a safety net for online remote workers. SafetyWing was born in 2018 (YC W18), has raised $43M in investments, and has grown its community of 100k+ customers.