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Payroll startup Gusto raises $200M

techcrunch.com

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Re: Payroll startup Gusto raises $200M

#31

Post by hollerith »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #27
tempsy wrote: post #18

It seems like a good product, though I always get very uneasy by companies that have extreme company cultures. If you work there, you can’t wear shoes in the office (to give the feeling of being at home?) and apparently you need to change your LinkedIn headline to say you “Empower” X or Y. I feel like every blog post I’ve ever seen from this company is about their “mission-driven culture.” Can we go back to a time wh…

> Can we go back to a time where employees aren’t asked to be 100% emotionally attached to their work When was this? Post-War corporations sported a common uniform. Industrial Era culture was demandingly monotonous and before that we’re talking about guilds and their customs. Broadly speaking, there are benefits at multiple levels to having a cohesive company culture (including eclectic traditions). We’re just seeing…

When I was a kid in the early 1970s, my dad took my brother and me to his workplace sometimes on Saturdays. There I interacted with machinists, electronics techs and at least one engineer. Also my dad was an engineering manager.

It was definitely common and acceptable for the machinists, techs, engineers and manager to say that they would rather be doing something else than working or that they would rather have a job more glamorous than working with machines and pieces of steel. In other words, back then, you had to do your job or risk getting fired, but AFAICT there was no risk to admitting that you didn't like doing your job. In fact, if you went around telling people you really liked your job, my guess is you probably would've been viewed as at least slightly socially inept for being unwilling to engage in the small rituals that lubricated social interactions -- or more precisely for getting one of the common rituals backwards.

This was at a large machine-tool manufacturer in Massachusetts. In something I read or heard IIIRC, this manufacturer was referred to as the IBM of machine tools. The owner of a motorcycle store (which employed many motorcycle mechanics) revealed in conversation with me that he considered being a machinist at this employer to be a particularly good job.

In contrast, does anyone reading this doubt that nowadays if a programmer in Silicon Valley tells his boss that he/she doesn't like his job or doesn't like working as a programmer, he/she risks getting fired unless he/she knows his/her boss at least reasonably well?

Re: Payroll startup Gusto raises $200M

#32

Post by toomuchtodo »

jasode wrote: post #13
toomuchtodo wrote: post #3

What R&D does a payroll provider do? (Genuine question)

>What R&D does a payroll provider do? (Genuine question) Halfway down the Techcrunch article, Joshua Reeves mentions what "R&D" in NYC intends to work on: - While Gusto’s central product is payroll, Reeves sees two other product arcs he intends to develop more in the coming years as the company scales. One arc, which we talked about last year, is fintech features like Flexible Pay, a product that allows employees to…

Appreciate the reply, don't worry about the downvotes.

Re: Payroll startup Gusto raises $200M

#33

Post by [deleted] »

tempsy wrote: post #18

It seems like a good product, though I always get very uneasy by companies that have extreme company cultures. If you work there, you can’t wear shoes in the office (to give the feeling of being at home?) and apparently you need to change your LinkedIn headline to say you “Empower” X or Y. I feel like every blog post I’ve ever seen from this company is about their “mission-driven culture.” Can we go back to a time wh…

[deleted]

Re: Payroll startup Gusto raises $200M

#34

Post by Meekro »

wmeredith wrote: post #30
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…

Can you expand on your setup?

I run a game server hosting business that does ~$600k in ARR, and I love focusing on the software side of it. I have a simple payroll with 2 recipients, and I love how Gusto is something I never have to think about. I enabled automatic payroll and muted their automatic emails, so the whole thing just runs every 2 weeks without me having to remember that it's happening.

I wish someone would do my regular tax filings in the same way that Gusto does the payroll tax filings: quietly and correctly, without making a huge show of it. Bench.co falls far short of that, for reasons I explained in an adjacent post here. They still make me go and manually classify the same transactions every month for some weird reason, and I have to double-check everything since I've seen them make plenty of simple mistakes. And they don't handle the tax filings themselves, either, which means more brain cycles on my part.

Re: Payroll startup Gusto raises $200M

#35

Post by bennylope »

tempsy wrote: post #24
stevekemp wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Finland it is common for people to remove shoes indoors - I guess walking through slush/ice/snow in winters makes that a good habit - and that often extends to company-offices. Of course outside there it would seem a little odd to many, I'm sure. Though sliding around polished floor, in your socks? Never gets old. Maybe I'm just a child..

This is in SF and I assure you no other company does this.

Given SF's reputation for feces-free streets this does seem rather odd.

Re: Payroll startup Gusto raises $200M

#36

Post by qiller »

One thing I don't like about Gusto is a platform lock-in for new features. We've been a customer since before there were health benefits available (and now have no intent to switch). Things we've been asking about like HSA contributions or prorated benefits were eventually added - but only if you use Gusto's own program. That's annoying...

Re: Payroll startup Gusto raises $200M

#37

Post by jmondi »

tempsy wrote: post #18

It seems like a good product, though I always get very uneasy by companies that have extreme company cultures. If you work there, you can’t wear shoes in the office (to give the feeling of being at home?) and apparently you need to change your LinkedIn headline to say you “Empower” X or Y. I feel like every blog post I’ve ever seen from this company is about their “mission-driven culture.” Can we go back to a time wh…

I know someone who works there for 3.5 years and going strong. I was curious about this, so I just went to look on LinkedIn, and they did not have the word "Empower" on their profile a single time. FWIW

Re: Payroll startup Gusto raises $200M

#38

Post by airstrike »

tempsy wrote: post #18

It seems like a good product, though I always get very uneasy by companies that have extreme company cultures. If you work there, you can’t wear shoes in the office (to give the feeling of being at home?) and apparently you need to change your LinkedIn headline to say you “Empower” X or Y. I feel like every blog post I’ve ever seen from this company is about their “mission-driven culture.” Can we go back to a time wh…

I once almost worked at a beer company where they would literally ask you on your interview which was your favorite beer. This was a mass-produced, cheap lager like Budweiser, so clearly it could not be anyone's favorite beer... but apparently if you didn't say their product was the best you couldn't get a job there.

I straight up lied in my interview and accepted the eventual job offer, only to renege on it after getting an offer from another company literally halfway through my first day on the job...

Re: Payroll startup Gusto raises $200M

#39

Post by EVdotIO »

tempsy wrote: post #18

It seems like a good product, though I always get very uneasy by companies that have extreme company cultures. If you work there, you can’t wear shoes in the office (to give the feeling of being at home?) and apparently you need to change your LinkedIn headline to say you “Empower” X or Y. I feel like every blog post I’ve ever seen from this company is about their “mission-driven culture.” Can we go back to a time wh…

It's what cults do. I know this as being raised in scientology. You control their actions and thoughts.

Re: Payroll startup Gusto raises $200M

#40

Post by whitepoplar »

Meekro wrote: post #29
Yabood wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I heard many good things about bench.co.

I'm actually a customer of Bench.co, but I've been somewhat frustrated and thinking about leaving. First, they are very slow-- the books for a given month are usually finalized at least a month later (so your May books won't be fully ready until July, sometimes even later). By the time they are ready, the information is "old news" and not useful for decision making. I end up running queries against my Stripe data to…

Maybe check out pilot.com? (Disclaimer: haven't used them, but have heard good things.)
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