While James Bond and 007 captured the hearts of many individuals over its decades-spanning movie universe, very few people thought they would wake up to what I consider a very off-brand version of the superspy. This will be a deep dive into what might be considered in the business world as one of the only interesting things to happen within HR software.
On March 17, 2025, Rippling’s CEO and Founder, Parker Conrad, took to social media app X (formerly Twitter). to share the introductory portion of Rippling’s claim that Deel, a rival HR software company, hired a corporate spy to embed themselves within Rippling’s firm to collect valuable information on the company. Now, as a reader, I wondered how this seemingly normal employee managed to get caught.
The legal filings stated that the employee had checked Rippling’s system for titles involving Deel an average of 23 times a day over a four-month period. As someone reviewing this lawsuit, I wondered, why on Earth was that the method of choice? The claim states that the information gathered was to help Deel gain access to Rippling’s pricing information, phone list, and sales and marketing tactics. Once suspicion of the spy was established, Rippling created a slack line channel as a honey pot tactic to try and catch the spy. The honey pot is essentially a tactic used to trap an individual who is in some way causing harm to a company — often by putting something they would look for right in front of their face.
Rippling head executives informed the Deel executives that there was a Slack channel created that had compromising information on Deel’s corporate practices. This Slack line was entitled d-defectors, as the letter implied. Rippling monitored the slack line’s user entry to confirm suspicions. This trap implicated the Deel executives of having knowledge of the spy, as they were more than likely the ones to direct the spy to check.
Conrad posted again on March 17, documenting what the spy did when the court appointed solicitor entered the premises. The employee was ordered to give up his cell phone and all data records. The employee was deceptive at first, then proceeded to hide in the bathroom, finally fleeing the scene.
On April 2, there was finally an update on the situation, as the ongoing case records had been sealed by the Northern District of California. The CEO of Rippling posted the testimony of the spy after a friend convinced them to finally spread the truth. He continued posting the testimony of the individual who stated that CEO, Alex Bouaziz, of Deel paid him to continue working at Rippling. He was told to give information to Deel after Bouaziz discussed future career plans. The spy wanted to move on from Rippling to do consulting work. Instead, he consulted Deel while still working at Rippling. He agreed to be the spy under the pseudonym ‘’The Watchman.’’
The spy went on to discuss all the documents that he had stolen and shared with Deel, which did include a product roadmap that was confidential. The Deel executives offered more money to be funneled into the spy’s start up consulting company so that he would continue to work for them for longer and find more information.
The end of the information given at this time is that when the legal court order was received, Deel’s counsel allegedly told the spy that he should delete his telegram and destroy his phone. He was allegedly offered to relocate his family and himself to Dubai as repayment for what ensued. As a way for Deel to cover for themselves, they allegedly coached the spy on how to communicate with the lawyers and say that Rippling’s whistleblower was due to a Russian payment.
As someone who has kept up with all the legal case documents that have been shared, it is clear to me that if this did occur, we need a reality TV show about Silicon Valley focused on business. It speaks to the length CEOs will go to try to be the best company, whether the claims are true or false.