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San Francisco Startup ZenPayroll Raises $20M, Finds Novel Ways to Lure Workers

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Re: San Francisco Startup ZenPayroll Raises $20M, Finds Novel Ways to Lure Workers

#31

Post by mcintyre1994 »

slg wrote: post #17
pkfrank wrote: post #3

The "Novel Ways:" 1) Housing stipend of $500/mo if employees live within a 10-minute walk of the office 2) A semi-annual retreat / hackathon where employees cook meals, hang out, bond, code, and present their projects 3) Plane ticket anywhere in the world that must be used between their 1 and 2-year anniversary at the company. I know of many companies that already do #1 and #2, but I suppose I haven't heard of this c…

The $500 per month housing stipend seems a little disingenuous. If the concern was truly about employees and rising real estate prices, why not raise wages by $6000 across the board? It isn't like real estate magically drops in value half a mile away or commuting longer distances is free. Is the policy an attempt to remove an excuse why an employee can't be in the office? Do they want the ability to call an employee…

My cynical guess was that it makes it harder to leave, you're in an expensive area and can only justify being there because of their perk. I definitely appreciate the less cynical reasons though.

Re: San Francisco Startup ZenPayroll Raises $20M, Finds Novel Ways to Lure Workers

#32

Post by jaredsohn »

physcab wrote: post #19
pkfrank wrote: post #3

The "Novel Ways:" 1) Housing stipend of $500/mo if employees live within a 10-minute walk of the office 2) A semi-annual retreat / hackathon where employees cook meals, hang out, bond, code, and present their projects 3) Plane ticket anywhere in the world that must be used between their 1 and 2-year anniversary at the company. I know of many companies that already do #1 and #2, but I suppose I haven't heard of this c…

I've heard Palantir does #1. I live in SF and my office is in SOMA- still takes me about 45 minutes to get to work on Muni. Living in SOMA would be more expensive but palatable with the stipend. That would be very convenient.

I think I heard about this perk during the earlier days of Facebook.

Re: San Francisco Startup ZenPayroll Raises $20M, Finds Novel Ways to Lure Workers

#34

Post by NDizzle »

seancoleman wrote: post #10

I can't emphasize enough the severity of pain that ZenPayroll is solving. While running a startup in 2012 with multiple W-2 employees and contractors, the industry standard small business payroll solution was QuickBooks Online Payroll. Although it certainly abstracted many local and federal legal & tax complexities into something a first-timer could work with, I still spent at least 10 hours a month running payroll,…

We've used paychex for years. It's not great, but it's not quickbooks.

http://www.paychex.com/

Re: San Francisco Startup ZenPayroll Raises $20M, Finds Novel Ways to Lure Workers

#35

Post by nerfhammer »

JonFish85 wrote: post #22
slg wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The $500 per month housing stipend seems a little disingenuous. If the concern was truly about employees and rising real estate prices, why not raise wages by $6000 across the board? It isn't like real estate magically drops in value half a mile away or commuting longer distances is free. Is the policy an attempt to remove an excuse why an employee can't be in the office? Do they want the ability to call an employee…

How long does it take for landlords in the area to realize that there's an extra $500/mo to be had?

Assuming there's more than one landlord they will capture some of the value but not all of it.

E.g., they would be incentivized to raise rents $500, but then one of then could get more business by only raising it to $450 letting the employee capture $50 a month, and so on and so forth.

Re: San Francisco Startup ZenPayroll Raises $20M, Finds Novel Ways to Lure Workers

#36

Post by tyre »

xauronx wrote: post #27
nathan_f77 wrote: post #4

ZenPayroll is hiring: https://zenpayroll.com/careers I'm a software engineer at ZenPayroll, and it's truly an awesome place to work. The founders and team have taken great care to build an amazing company culture, and I'm really excited to see us grow over the next few years.

How elitist is the hiring process? I'm always really hesitant to apply to places like that. I'm consistently one of the best developers at my job, I'm really good at getting shit done, and have a ton of faith in my ability. However, as soon as I think about applying at a "trendy" start up, I envision someone grilling me for hours to hand write sorting algorithms on a white board. I have no interest in that, and I fee…

My name is Chris, also an engineer at ZenPayroll.

We're not interested in a candidate's ability to write sorting algorithms, because those aren't the kind of problems we're solving. Our technical interviews are working on a problem with an engineer. We care a hell of a lot more about how you think than regurgitating Big O notation.

We work in Ruby and CoffeeScript, but we've hired engineers without direct experience in either because we knew they could translate their ample programming knowledge. We're looking for smart people that want to do the best work of their lives. That sounds like bullshit, but we're pretty serious about that. Turns out you can hire smart, passionate people and they'll naturally do awesome things.

For a more in depth look at how we think about hiring, you can check out:

ZenPayroll Is Not Hiring Hackers https://zenpayroll.com/blog/zenpayroll-is-not-hiring-hackers...

The Value of Cultural Interviews https://maddo.xxx/thoughts/how-to-conduct-cultural-interview...

If you have any questions, shoot me an email. I'm chris@

Re: San Francisco Startup ZenPayroll Raises $20M, Finds Novel Ways to Lure Workers

#37

Post by [deleted] »

afterburner wrote: post #28
paulbaumgart wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"in this type of culture its expected that you earn less" Serious question: is there any other for-profit industry where candidates wouldn't laugh in your face for saying something like this?

Some parts of aerospace, specifically the higher profile projects where people will feel like they have bragging rights for working there. Also, maybe the game industry? Basically any industry where people people are dying to be on the inside, despite what the job may entail or their long term prospects.

[deleted]

Re: San Francisco Startup ZenPayroll Raises $20M, Finds Novel Ways to Lure Workers

#38

Post by binxbolling »

NDizzle wrote: post #30
slg wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The $500 per month housing stipend seems a little disingenuous. If the concern was truly about employees and rising real estate prices, why not raise wages by $6000 across the board? It isn't like real estate magically drops in value half a mile away or commuting longer distances is free. Is the policy an attempt to remove an excuse why an employee can't be in the office? Do they want the ability to call an employee…

If they wanted people closer to the office it would have made so much more sense to NOT be in SF itself. $500 doesn't go very far in that neighborhood. That's roughly a walk in closet.

I'm very confident that $500 was not meant to even remotely cover the rent. It's just a small stipend to help.

Re: San Francisco Startup ZenPayroll Raises $20M, Finds Novel Ways to Lure Workers

#39

Post by breakinggood »

xauronx wrote: post #24
paulbaumgart wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"in this type of culture its expected that you earn less" Serious question: is there any other for-profit industry where candidates wouldn't laugh in your face for saying something like this?

Personally, I am totally ok with this. If "start-up culture" means 20 days of PTO, free meals, free gym, a ton of other perks, I would care less about the year end dollar amount. Perhaps that's just me though.

Famous last words. After seeing several SF startups implode, I'll never make the mistake of taking under market pay. I would much rather choose how my compensation gets spent rather than an employer make that decision for me.

It's easy to get lured into the excitement of working in a "start-up culture" but you will recognize the red flags after one has sucked you dry without adding much to your finances.

Re: San Francisco Startup ZenPayroll Raises $20M, Finds Novel Ways to Lure Workers

#40

Post by grinich »

xauronx wrote: post #27
nathan_f77 wrote: post #4

ZenPayroll is hiring: https://zenpayroll.com/careers I'm a software engineer at ZenPayroll, and it's truly an awesome place to work. The founders and team have taken great care to build an amazing company culture, and I'm really excited to see us grow over the next few years.

How elitist is the hiring process? I'm always really hesitant to apply to places like that. I'm consistently one of the best developers at my job, I'm really good at getting shit done, and have a ton of faith in my ability. However, as soon as I think about applying at a "trendy" start up, I envision someone grilling me for hours to hand write sorting algorithms on a white board. I have no interest in that, and I fee…

This is like complaining that you need to write an application essay to get into college. "But I'm not going to be a writer..."

If the company is awesome, just suck it up for a day. Once you join you can try to change the interviewing process.

I think the thing most people don't realize is that these traditional "interviewing" techniques (like whiteboard coding) are just what gets you in the door. Your real interview starts on day 1, and if you don't perform at the real task, you'll be asked to leave.

Writing sorting algorithms is like tuning a guitar. It's true there exist people who are good at tuning but actually terrible at playing (ie: good at puzzles, but lousy programmers).

But there are few, if any, amazing guitarists who can't quickly tune an instrument. It's a signal.

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