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Gusto (https://gusto.com) made payroll and HR painless for small businesses, growing into a $9.6B company along the way.
In this episode of Founder Firesides, YC Managing Partner Harj Taggar sits down with Joshua Reeves, the co-founder and CEO of Gusto (W12). The conversation touches on how they built a payroll company from scratch, their customer-first approach to product design and culture, and a number of advice areas for new founders— such as choosing a problem space, earning the trust of early customers, and dealing with competition.
Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) –
0:00 Intro
1:13 What does Gusto do?
1:43 The first idea the Gusto founders applied with to YC
5:20 Advice to founders on choosing a problem space
10:24 Earning the trust of early customers
11:34 Convincing investors
14:36 Why fun design is an important part of the Gusto product
16:02 Having a peer group to ask for advice
17:50 Keeping startup speed while launching new products at scale
19:37 Advice to founders about competition
21:28 Why all of Gusto’s cofounders are still with the company
22:43 How will AI impact Gusto?
23:50 Outro + YC Summer Fellows Grants
