Tonight I visited Gusto‘s brand new office space in downtown Denver during Built in Brew‘s monthly start-up focused happy hour/meetup. It was an awesome time to see a thriving start-up at it’s next phase in the start-up life cycle. From a firm of 20 employees a couple of years ago to a firm over 300 and growing, this is the entrepreneurship Israel Kirzner would be proud of.
Entrepreneurship means “to do something”. Gusto’s founders discovered something they could do. They saw the market (small to midsize companies with 1-100 employees/busy business owners not wanting to get stuck in the minutiae of payroll) and they grabbed a hold of it.
Business owners focus on building their passion, but no business can operate without dealing with a web of government protocol (at least for now). Gusto saw the headaches owners were having dealing with poorly filed state and federal tax returns. They were able to develop the skills to deal with these issues and gained trust in their customers. With those skills they created a platform to replicate the process and expand to over 30,000 customers and growing.
Companies don’t grow from 20 employees to 300 in two years without tenacity and development. The entrepreneurial spirit is apparent from a visit to Gusto’s office. They approach the mundane task of payroll with ferocity. It’s not a job, it’s a means to make their client’s life easier. Instead of the coffee roaster wondering how to file a sales/use tax form for the city of Denver, they can focus on the arabica beans from Colombia that just arrived. This is what Gusto thrives on. They’re inspired by the business owners who can now do their passions.
Another aspect of entrepreneurship is developing the skills necessary to fill the market void. Becoming experts in payroll tax filings allows Gusto to provide a service to customers and create a means to the end for themselves. Skill development in this area is no easy task. Payroll laws are dense, vary federally and by state, and don’t provide much leeway for mistakes. Becoming an expert in such a tedious trade has allowed the owners, and employees, of Gusto to, in the words of Dr. Thomas Rustici, “Do what they do best and trade for the rest”!
Stepping into the world of start-ups gives a fresh breath of life to what it means to be humans. These are people who want to make a difference, saw the opportunity in the market, and are improving the lives of others with a profit-creating business. Entrepreneurship is beautiful and it’s good to see it alive and well in the heart of the place I call home.