Welcome to FinTech TV.
We're coming to you from Las Vegas, Nevada at Money 2020, and today I'm joined by Yu, who's from Gusto Embedded.
Yi, great to have you here.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Yeah, thanks for having me.
So tell me a little bit about your work and what brings you to Money 2020 this year?
Yeah, so I work for Gusto.
We do payroll benefits and HR for small businesses.
We serve over 400,000 small businesses today.
And for my role I'm the general manager for Gusto Embedded, which is a subset of Gusto, and what we do is we enable any third party to incorporate and add payroll to their software uh in in order to give their small business customers an all in one solution.
And so we're very familiar with embedded FinTech, and the reason why I'm here I've got Money 2020 is really to engage with all of our partners that are also in this space.
Yeah, and when we think about small businesses, we know that they are not only stretched for time but also resources.
So how are you helping these small businesses?
Yeah, so small businesses, you know, they have so many things going on and they don't want to think about the back office workflows.
What they want to do is, you know, do the thing that they started the business.
The first place be that best flower shop or be that best spa or salon owner, um, and so our goal is really to help small businesses obfuscate and, you know, remove all of that complexity from their general workflows.
And a lot of times with small businesses they have just so many different disparate software that they're working with from time tracking to payroll to payments to accounting.
And so one of the things that we are doing at Gusto Embedded is really to help connect all of those pieces and to meet small businesses where they are, to be able to give that all in one solution for them in order to, you know, have them have all of their information in one place, so things are integrated and they can really have a seamless customer experience for payments, payroll, um, accounting, etc.
And yeah, I think you're highlighting the opportunity when it comes to the small business space, but we also have to keep in mind the regulatory aspect as well.
So how are you actually balancing speed and innovation while also staying compliant?
Yeah, so Gusto does have our roots in as a fintech startup, and so we are a Y.
Combinator company, um, but we've been around for the last 1314 years and so as I mentioned earlier, we have 400,000 small businesses and regulatory, we're in the financial space we're moving money around and so that is very important to us and so we've thought a lot about how do we make sure that we are following the regulations of compliance, legal, um.
And security in order to protect the small business.
Um, as an example, we, we partnered with US Bank, and US Bank has launched US Bank payroll powered by Gusto.
And so one of the things that we do have done really well with them is figure out, OK, well, US Bank has been around for over 100 years.
They've built a lot of trust with small businesses and it's because they're in that space.
Moing money and it's very important to get that right and so we've worked with them on how do we follow their processes and best practices in order to really drive a a seamless but also secure experience for their customers.
So a little bit of we want we will move fast, but we also know that it takes time to build the right compliant product.
Yeah, and when it comes to where you see fintech actually evolving in the upcoming years, what does this mean in terms of products as well as innovation?
Yeah, so, you know, one of the biggest pain points of small businesses is cash flow management, and we're not talking about, you know, getting huge loans.
There's the majority of small businesses out there are not AI startups trying to get the AC fund.
Yeah, and so most of the small businesses, actually 1 in 3 small businesses apply for loans, but they're not applying.
Those big, you know, checks.
What they're trying to do is really hold them over on the day to day.
So from payroll, which is one of the biggest expenses of small businesses to payments and paying their vendors, um, and so they need sometimes a loan to figure out, you know, can they pay their employees this week before they can get paid by their customers next week.
Um, and so one of the things that we are thinking a lot about Augusto is how do we help solve that problem of cash flow management and really help small businesses build resilience, reduce risk, and expand their operations.
So a couple products that we just launched.
One is uh Gusto Money, um, and so that's really to help with the cash flow management aspect of things and to help them make financial decisions better.
Uh, so it includes bill pay.
Um, it also includes invoicing, which allows them to accelerate their revenue, and then lastly, it's, uh, we also have a payroll bridge product which is a a line of credit to help small businesses bridge that gap and manage their ups and downs.
Yeah, and finally, before I let you go for viewers out there who may be small business owners, and they're grappling with some of the challenges, those pain points that you mentioned, what would your simple word of advice be for them?
Yeah.
You know, I think it's, it's all about, you know, the passion that they started a small business in the first place, right?
So what they're doing is really helping the, the economy and um You know, they became entrepreneurs for Release it and so focus on that, focus on being the best small business possible, that best flower shop possible, and then let you know, companies like Gusto take care of the back end.
We're there to simplify their work streams and work flows and processes, and we just want to make it easy for them to be that best small business possible and to really grow.
Well you, great talking to you here at Money 2020 in Vegas.
Thank you so much for making time and thank you so much for sharing all of your insights with us and thank you for having me.
It's been a pleasure.
My pleasure.
