Rayyan Khan is the founder and CEO of Founders Arm, an offshore recruitment firm that places vetted talent from North Africa and Latin America into US startups.
Pakistani, raised between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, he dropped out in his final month of college and moved to San Francisco with no money to go all in.
Today Founders Arm is at six figures a month with no venture funding and not a single North American hire, with clients including Cal AI and MyFitnessPal.
In this episode, he breaks down how he found his first client, why he deliberately avoided the Philippines and India, and what he felt when he finally met his team in Egypt.
Find out more:
https://foundersarm.com/
https://x.com/rayyanfkhan
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rayyanfkhan/
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0:00 - Introduction
1:33 - Dropping Out in the Final Month of College
2:23 - Hundreds of Job Applications, Not a Single Interview
3:04 - How Offshore Recruitment Actually Makes Money
4:14 - Why Selling to Everybody Means Selling to Nobody
4:52 - The Content Funnel That Brought Clients to Him
6:12 - Six Months of Running Every Interview Himself
7:27 - Why He Avoided the Philippines, India and Pakistan
8:18 - The First Four Months Were Really Tough
9:07 - The Client Who Hired 22 People Through Him
10:43 - What Gets You to One Won't Get You to Ten
11:36 - A Seven Figure Company With No North American Hires
12:33 - The Lake Tahoe Trip That Didn't Feel Like Winning
14:13 - Failing School and Knowing It Since Fourteen
15:24 - Why He Never Wanted Venture Money
16:50 - Figure Out Who You Are Before You Pick a Model
22:33 - The Criticism of Offshore Hiring, Answered
24:43 - Flying to Egypt and Meeting the Team
28:00 - Why Building Something Deepened His Tawakkul
30:00 - What the Next Ten Years Look Like
