Gusto's first prototype hotline drew calls for astrology and relationship advice
Josh Reeves · From A Pivot To Building A $9.6 Billion Payroll Company · Y Combinator · Mar 18, 2025 · at 3:13
Joshua Reeves, CEO of Gusto, describes the online expert advice platform he and his co-founders tested in late 2011 prior to pivoting to small business payroll.
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“Within, like, a week we had a prototype where you could basically Call a number. It would ping us. We'd have it route effectively. You could just buy some keywords on Google, and then all of a sudden start, you know, getting real people calling you with questions they have that they want expert advice on, and what we realized within a week or two was, ah, the questions were not related to the things we really were interested in helping people with. It was a lot of questions around astrology and relationship advice,”
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