HR software is big, big business. And no one understands that better than this week’s guest, Parker Conrad the CEO and co-founder of Rippling, a global HR company that offers global payroll, onboarding, time tracking, benefits management and more. In this episode he talks about what goes into building a leading HR tech company—from what it’s like building out features companies love, to dealing with fierce competition in this ever growing landscape. Conrad also gets into the power imbalance that can arise between VCs and founders and the drama at his previous company that inspired him to build Rippling.

(0:00) Introduction

(2:48) Parker’s previous startups

(6:09) Leaving Zenefits and starting Rippling

(9:08) Horizontal integration in HR software

(11:57) AI skepticism for software

(20:58) Managing the competition

(26:34) Growth marketing strategy

(29:36) What a founder should focus on

(35:02) VC-founder power imbalance

(40:23) Host discussion

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