The idea behind Rippling was to manage employee data across all business systems, making it easier to onboard employees across various platforms like payroll, email, and project management tools.

The opportunity for Rippling lies in the fact that employee data is widely distributed across organizations, and we can solve the problems created by this fragmentation.

The approach behind Rippling is to build business software with a data layer and abstracted platform capabilities, creating a Lego-like system for applications.

The key insight behind Rippling is that businesses benefit from a suite of interoperable applications rather than narrow point solutions, which allows for better product development.

At Rippling, I handle a lot of the administrative work around HR personally, including running payroll and managing payroll and employee benefits for 2,000 employees across a dozen countries, while we also have a strong HR team for compliance and other functions.

At Rippling, we build multiple products in parallel, which goes against conventional wisdom that suggests focusing on one narrow area.

We took a different approach with Rippling, focusing on building software for two years before scaling, unlike my previous experience with Zenefits.

The founder of Rippling had prior experience and deep product insight from his previous startup, which justified the longer development time before launch.

I'm Parker Conrad, the CEO and co-founder of Rippling, and my story is intertwined with Zenefits, the company I started before that.