Our growth rate at Zenefits was remarkable, going from $1 million to $20 million in revenue in just one year, which was an incredible pace for a startup.

Zenefits handled payroll, health insurance, and employee benefits for businesses, growing rapidly and becoming a media darling.

When we had product-market fit at Zenefits, we found that our ideas worked exceptionally well, leading to rapid growth and a strong market pull for our product.

The mistake we made at Zenefits was focusing on grabbing market share early without automating our processes, which we did differently at Rippling by building everything in software from the start.

I went from having $600 million in the bank and 1,500 employees to starting over from zero, but I was determined to rebuild what we had started at Zenefits.

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

When I left Zenefits, I believed the company would resolve its compliance issues, but the situation changed drastically after my departure.

By the time I left Zenefits, compliance with out-of-state licensing rules exceeded 95%, and obtaining licenses in other states was straightforward and inexpensive.

Gusto, originally Zen Payroll, focused solely on payroll services before expanding into a comprehensive HR tool, demonstrating the importance of starting simple.