Our purpose at Gusto is to make entrepreneurship easier and more accessible by providing services like payroll, health benefits, and tools for managing hourly workforces.

When we started Gusto, we realized that payroll was a broken system that needed a better solution, and we focused on building a functioning payroll system from the ground up.

We wanted to tackle a problem that wasn't just for Silicon Valley, but something that affected small businesses across the country and the world, specifically making payroll easier and simpler.

40% of companies in the US were making mistakes with payroll and getting penalized every year, which highlighted the pain points we could address for small business owners.

To gain the trust of early customers, we initially targeted fellow companies in Y Combinator who were also new and had never paid themselves, which was a strategic move to build our initial customer base.

We didn't launch our product publicly until December 2012, several months after our demo day, to ensure we had a reliable system in place before opening it up to strangers.

We stood out to investors because we weren't like everyone else; we had a straightforward business model and were addressing a real pain point in a fragmented market dominated by big incumbents.

The payroll industry was ripe for disruption due to the combination of big incumbents and a fragmented market, allowing us to leverage technology trends like cloud computing and mobile access, while small businesses are finally starting to receive amazing software solutions thanks to recent technology and distribution changes that favor disruptors over incumbents.

Investors are generally excited about large markets with clear business models, and they often have hypotheses on how to capture those markets.

Gusto raised funds from over 20 angel investors, including CEOs and founders from notable companies like PayPal, Stripe, and Instagram, rather than traditional VC firms.

The design of Gusto's product incorporates fun and whimsy, which is not typically associated with payroll companies, making it stand out in the industry.

Gusto aims to bring warmth and humanity into the payroll process, viewing it as a critical business task that should be navigated with care and support.

Building a company requires long-term relationships, good communication, and a shared passion for solving meaningful problems among co-founders.

AI will enable Gusto to become a more opinionated partner for small businesses, providing personalized solutions and proactive support rather than just being a tool.

Gusto's vision for the next decade includes increasing the number of new employers and improving the retention rate of those businesses beyond five years.

Gusto is developing a compliance hub to serve as a one-stop shop for small businesses, addressing various compliance tasks and pain points.