Assertion Partly supported AI assessment confidence: 85% certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Independent mom-and-pop providers process 50% of the US payroll market

Tate Hackert · He made his first loan at 16. Now his fintech startup does $50M+ ARR—here’s how. | Tate Hackert, ... · PMF Show · Dec 2, 2024 · at 50:15

Tate Hackert, co-founder of ZayZoon, breaks down market share distribution across the United States payroll processing industry.

0:00 / 0:12exact quote · 12.9s

▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark

“In the US, 50% of payroll is paid by the big guys, ADP, Paychecks, Paycom, these big players, right? 50% though is, is effectively mom and pop independently owned payroll companies.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

The claim, plainly

In the United States, 50% of payroll is handled by major players such as ADP, Paychex, and Paycom, while the other 50% is handled by independent mom-and-pop payroll companies.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

Tate Hackert stated as an offhand approximation that U.S. payroll is split 50/50 between major national players (such as ADP, Paychex, and Paycom) and independent/mom-and-pop payroll providers. Industry data closely mirrors this general market structure: Finch's December 2024 analysis showed that the top three SMB payroll platforms accounted for approximately 46% of U.S. SMB employers (and the top 10 held ~60%), leaving roughly 40% to 54% distributed among regional and independent providers. Similarly, Apps Run The World reported in July 2025 that the top 10 payroll applications vendors held 60.4% of revenue, with 39.6% captured by independent and regional providers. Because the actual split falls between roughly 46-60% for major players and 40-54% for independent/regional providers, the 50/50 figure is a close round estimate rather than an exact split.

Finch API's December 2024 payroll landscape guide reported that the top three SMB payroll platforms (Intuit QuickBooks, ADP Run, Paychex Flex) held ~46% of SMB employer accounts, and the top 10 held ~60%, leaving 40% to 54% to regional, specialized, and independent providers.
Apps Run The World reported in July 2025 that the top 10 global payroll software vendors accounted for 60.4% of market revenue in 2024, leaving 39.6% to independent and regional vendors.
Dataintelo and Mordor Intelligence reports (2025–2026) confirm high market fragmentation where major national players dominate enterprise volume while a long tail of regional payroll bureaus and independent CPA firms handle small/mid-market payroll.

Checked against

[1] tryfinch.com [2] dataintelo.com [3] appsruntheworld.com [4] mordorintelligence.com [5] researchandmarkets.com [6] psmarketresearch.com

US payroll processing market share major players independent mom and pop US payroll services market share ADP Paychex Paycom US payroll market share ADP Paychex Workday IBISWorld

assessed as of 2026-09-05

This assessment is an AI reading of a public statement, made against the cited references with the confidence shown. It can be wrong. The quote, the tape and the references are all on this page; if something is off, use report an error below. full disclaimer →

Mentioned

ADP Paychex Paycom

⚑ Spot an error? Report it

More from Tate Hackert

Assertion Supported

Payday lenders lose 15% of all lent capital to defaults

“Payday loans are really expensive because of three reasons. One brick and mortar. So, so just being storefront. To old school administrative practices, they have just like terrible ways of collecting data, terrible ways of processing that data. And then third,…”

Tate Hackert Dec 2, 2024 ▶ 13:54 He made his first loan at 16. Now his fintech startup does $50M+ ARR—here’s how. | Tate Hackert, ... · PMF Show

Assertion Contradicted

ZayZoon was the first to offer wage access via payroll integration

“Zayzun was first to do this with an actual payroll company using that payroll integration as a way to extend those funds.”

Tate Hackert Dec 2, 2024 ▶ 17:04 He made his first loan at 16. Now his fintech startup does $50M+ ARR—here’s how. | Tate Hackert, ... · PMF Show

Prediction Not checkable as stated

Payroll companies will bring earned wage access in-house within 5-7 years

“And what you're saying is probably going to be the re reality in, in five, seven years.”

Tate Hackert Dec 2, 2024 ▶ 24:45 He made his first loan at 16. Now his fintech startup does $50M+ ARR—here’s how. | Tate Hackert, ... · PMF Show

Disclosure

Hackert issued $250K in uncollateralized peer-to-peer loans by age 23

“Half the time or more than half the time, I didn't even take collateral. And so a lot of it was just like pure trust. And I did over a quarter million dollars of these loans for an age of Call it 16, 17 to about 23.”

Tate Hackert Dec 2, 2024 ▶ 6:33 He made his first loan at 16. Now his fintech startup does $50M+ ARR—here’s how. | Tate Hackert, ... · PMF Show

Insight

Delayed pay cycles are effectively interest-free loans to employers

“So actually that employee is effectively giving an interest-free Loan to their employer in, in a really funny roundabout way.”

Tate Hackert Dec 2, 2024 ▶ 19:01 He made his first loan at 16. Now his fintech startup does $50M+ ARR—here’s how. | Tate Hackert, ... · PMF Show

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Multiple major payroll companies failed at building in-house wage access

“We know of very large payroll companies, multiple very large payroll companies that have tried to do this themselves have, you know, failed miserably with it.”

Tate Hackert Dec 2, 2024 ▶ 25:01 He made his first loan at 16. Now his fintech startup does $50M+ ARR—here’s how. | Tate Hackert, ... · PMF Show

Independent mom-and-pop providers process 50% of the US payroll market

More from Tate Hackert

Turn any episode into a week of clips.