The Legal Maze: How Localyze Built a Compliance-Heavy SaaS Platform Across Multiple Jurisdictions

Building a SaaS platform is challenging. Building one that must comply with immigration laws across multiple countries while competing with established law firms? That’s a different level entirely. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Localyze CEO Hanna Marie Asmussen revealed their strategy for navigating this complex regulatory landscape.

The Regulatory Challenge For every new market, Localyze faces unique regulatory requirements. “For every country that we’re going in, we always need at least one legal expert,” Hanna explains. But their approach to staffing these roles reveals a clever scaling strategy.

Country-by-Country Compliance Each jurisdiction presents its own peculiarities. “In Germany, you can actually do immigration support without being a lawyer. In the UK you can also do that, but you need to have a certificate, you don’t have to have a law degree,” Hanna notes. This variability requires careful market-by-market analysis.

The Scaling Secret: One Expert, Many Cases Instead of building large legal teams, Localyze found a way to scale efficiently. “We almost always hire one person and then basically scale them via the software,” Hanna shares. This approach allows them to handle increasing volume without proportionally increasing headcount.

Facing Legal Opposition Disrupting established markets doesn’t come without pushback. “We had one case that was in Germany, if I remember correctly, where one immigration lawyer, we took away business from him and then he tried to sue us,” Hanna reveals. But they prevailed because they’d carefully defined their operational boundaries.

Risk Management Strategy Their approach to managing legal risk is methodical. As Hanna explains, “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.” This clear delineation of services helps them navigate regulatory gray areas.

Competing with Established Players Localyze regularly faces competition from traditional providers. “In a lot of cases we’re up against more traditional companies, immigration law firms, Fragment, et cetera, but also the big four like Noel PwC now split out their global mobility practice, which now call Vialto,” Hanna shares.

Key Lessons for Regulated-Market Founders

1. Expert-First Approach Before entering any market, Localyze ensures they have the necessary legal expertise in place. This upfront investment in compliance pays dividends in risk management.
2. Technology as a Scaling Lever Rather than trying to compete with law firms on their terms, Localyze uses technology to scale legal expertise efficiently.
3. Clear Service Boundaries By precisely defining what they do and don’t offer, they minimize legal risk while maximizing operational efficiency.
4. Market-Specific Strategy Each jurisdiction requires its own analysis and approach, rather than trying to apply a one-size-fits-all solution.

The Technology Advantage Their competitive edge comes from digitizing traditional processes. “It’s really about digitizing the work that they do. And instead of having ten immigration lawyers in the US, for example, like having one and then scaling their workflows so effectively,” Hanna explains.

For founders building in regulated markets, Localyze’s experience offers valuable lessons. Success isn’t just about compliance – it’s about finding innovative ways to scale compliant operations efficiently. By combining deep legal expertise with smart technology, they’ve created a model that can expand across jurisdictions while maintaining regulatory compliance.

The key insight? Don’t try to sidestep regulations – instead, build systems that make compliance scalable. As Localyze demonstrates, it’s possible to disrupt regulated markets while staying on the right side of the law. For founders eyeing regulated markets, this might be the playbook to follow.