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Payroll startup Gusto raises $200M

techcrunch.com

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Re: Payroll startup Gusto raises $200M

#111

Post by aksss »

thewarpaint wrote: post #105
golover721 wrote: post #92

I’m happy for them, seemed like an interesting company. Personally I had a bad experience with them as far as their recruiting went. As a very experienced candidate I was working with a senior recruiter who thought I was perfect for a position, however hearing my compensation requirements said he had to check in and get back to me. I never received a response. Perfectly fine with it not being a good match, but have t…

I've never understood this behaviour. Is it because they don't want to send any official communication stating that they don't want to/cannot match your compensation request? Is it just bad blood? No idea.

90% of the time it's just because people are busy and have a god-awful amount of crap on their plate. They figure your interest will time out gracefully.

Re: Payroll startup Gusto raises $200M

#112

Post by cassowary37 »

mbajkowski wrote: post #106

Good for them. Used them for startup a few years ago. Worked really well and super simple to use when all employees were in a single state and we only utilized their payroll services. Once we started venturing into offering health insurance to employees though and our employees spread across multiple states / countries we were not able to customize the plans to our liking (we had some very specific ideas about how we…

nope (re being sure their ability to handle health benefits has improved)... just used them for a startup and their response to questions about integration with health benefits was essentially (3 days later) - um, we don't do that, but we'd be happy to sell your name to a broker.

agree the interface is pretty, but failure to really support benefits will be a dealbreaker for many startup/small business folks.

Re: Payroll startup Gusto raises $200M

#113

Post by aksss »

edawerd wrote: post #9
jedberg wrote: post #7

Oh good! I love Gusto, and their customer service has been stellar. I hope this allows them to get into more areas of payroll that I hate dealing with, like worker's comp insurance, or just managing my insurance for employees in general. That's my biggest sticking point, especially since I have people working in multiple states.

Hi! Cofounder and CTO here. We offer workers compensation insurance in all 50 states!

Now you just need health insurance in all 50 states.. maybe build up association health plans that cross state lines by industry, etc. The lack of health insurance for small businesses is such a devil, and keeps so many people from even trying to go out on their own. Really our only options start at about the 5 employee mark, and even then the rates are often not much better than the individual market (which is more than a house payment in many states).

Re: Payroll startup Gusto raises $200M

#114

Post by lukevdp »

Meekro wrote: post #14

I love it when I don't have to think about things, and Gusto combined with Stripe (Atlas and card processing) have made it possible for me to not ever think about a whole lot of things. Now if only there was a company as good as Stripe/Gusto that did accounting+taxes, I'd really be set! I mean, "I give you access to my accounts, (almost) never think about you, and I have a proper set of books and my taxes are fully d…

In Australia, Xero is very good at the last part. I know Xero has a US presence as well that is integrated with Gusto and Stripe, have you seen that?

Re: Payroll startup Gusto raises $200M

#115

Post by [deleted] »

Meekro wrote: post #14

I love it when I don't have to think about things, and Gusto combined with Stripe (Atlas and card processing) have made it possible for me to not ever think about a whole lot of things. Now if only there was a company as good as Stripe/Gusto that did accounting+taxes, I'd really be set! I mean, "I give you access to my accounts, (almost) never think about you, and I have a proper set of books and my taxes are fully d…

[deleted]

Re: Payroll startup Gusto raises $200M

#117

Post by mbajkowski »

cassowary37 wrote: post #112
mbajkowski wrote: post #106

Good for them. Used them for startup a few years ago. Worked really well and super simple to use when all employees were in a single state and we only utilized their payroll services. Once we started venturing into offering health insurance to employees though and our employees spread across multiple states / countries we were not able to customize the plans to our liking (we had some very specific ideas about how we…

nope (re being sure their ability to handle health benefits has improved)... just used them for a startup and their response to questions about integration with health benefits was essentially (3 days later) - um, we don't do that, but we'd be happy to sell your name to a broker. agree the interface is pretty, but failure to really support benefits will be a dealbreaker for many startup/small business folks.

Thanks for the input. I was assuming things may have improved since I last used them a few years ago. My experience was similar to what you mentione above, back then. This may save me some time evaluating options for future ventures.

Re: Payroll startup Gusto raises $200M

#118

Post by CPLX »

nemo1618 wrote: post #11

I remember switching to Gusto early on in the life of my startup, and how surprised I was to realize that I was excited about payroll software. The UI and UX were 100x better than the stuck-in-the-90s software we were using previously. It made me really optimistic that starting a startup would only become easier as services like Gusto popped up to meet their needs. My only gripe is that I liked the old name (ZenPayro…

> My only gripe is that I liked the old name (ZenPayroll) better

I think you can blame the “laws, what are those” guys over at Zenefits for necessitating a rebrand.

Re: Payroll startup Gusto raises $200M

#119

Post by golover721 »

thewarpaint wrote: post #105
golover721 wrote: post #92

I’m happy for them, seemed like an interesting company. Personally I had a bad experience with them as far as their recruiting went. As a very experienced candidate I was working with a senior recruiter who thought I was perfect for a position, however hearing my compensation requirements said he had to check in and get back to me. I never received a response. Perfectly fine with it not being a good match, but have t…

I've never understood this behaviour. Is it because they don't want to send any official communication stating that they don't want to/cannot match your compensation request? Is it just bad blood? No idea.

No idea, but it is obviously rude, but also in the current “lack of engineering talent” climate a very bad business practice. I have worked for a couple of FAANG and other large companies, and been rejected by many more. But they have always responded after the interview process began.
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