Founders can raise funding before launching a product

It’s possible to raise VC funding even if you haven’t built a real product, according to Charles Hudson, founder and managing partner at seed-stage firm Precursor Ventures. It’s just very, very difficult. I interviewed Hudson during TechCrunch Early Stage, our virtual event for startup founders. He gave a short talk titled “How to sell an […]

Zenefits Launches Its Own Payroll Platform

zenefits 6 Zenefits CEO Parker Conrad danced around a question about building out payroll services at Disrupt SF 2015. “I can’t announce anything about new products specifically, but you know payroll’s a very important spoke,” Conrad said at the time.
But the cloud-based HR unicorn has built a payroll product, launching out of beta today.
As Conrad tells it, a select group of… Read More

Checkr Is Raising $30M+ For Its Background Checking API, Y Combinator Investing

uber app on street As on-demand businesses like Uber and Instacart grow quickly, so too do the B2B startups that service their wider ecosystem. In the latest development, TechCrunch has learned and confirmed with several sources that Checkr — which runs background checks and vets potential hires by way of an API for the likes of Uber, Instacart and Handy, and other fast-growing startups like Zenefits… Read More

ZenPayroll Is Now Gusto, Adds Benefits To Take On Zenefits

Gusto team Payroll startup ZenPayroll changed its name to Gusto today and is moving beyond payroll, into benefits such as health insurance and workers compensation. Sound familiar? We’ve heard that cloud HR benefits company Zenefits plans to roll out a payroll service similar to the startup formerly known as ZenPayroll. In a weird twist, these cloud-based startups, once partners in offering… Read More

Zenefits Grabs Twitter’s Rita Garg To Run Business Development

Zenefits, the $4.5 billion human resources software startup, said today it hired Twitter’s (now former) director of global business development Rita Garg. It’s another executive departure for Twitter, with head of communications Gabriel Stricker and former CEO Dick Costolo recently stepping back. Twitter is not unfamiliar with executive shuffles, with the top of the company… Read More