Josh Reeves, co-founder and CEO of Gusto, discusses the baseline statistics of US small business creation and survival rates.
Prediction Open · timeframe Jan 2030
Gusto will eventually go public, says CEO Josh Reeves
“At some point, Gusto, you know, will be a public company.”
Assertion Supported
In 2011, 40% of US companies did payroll manually, risking massive fines
“When we started Gusto, you had close to 40% of companies in the U.S. Doing payroll by hand. You had close to that same percentage, you know, 30 to 40% getting fined, penalized by the government for making mistakes. You had billions and billions of dollars of p…”
Insight
Reeves views payroll as the ultimate non-optional employee system of record
“We chose payroll to start because it is the de facto system of record for employee data, and it's the least optional part of the stack. Another way to think of it is, like, if you don't pay someone, they quit, and so it is the medicine, not the vitamin”
Insight
Reeves: Organic growth must be the lifeblood for SMB software
“With smaller business, you're going to have a lower ACV. Like, organic has to be the lifeblood of your growth engine.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Gusto will eventually serve companies of all sizes globally, says Reeves
“That means eventually Augusta will be serving all size companies in all countries around the world with, you know, all pain points tied to running a business.”
Insight
Reeves: Essential SMB software can build $100B+ companies
“Companies like Shopify, Square, Intuit have proven that you can build, like, hundred billion dollar plus companies if the numbers are working right, if you're medicine, not vitamin for a small business customer”