Gusto Co-Founder is designed to automate recurring work such as running payroll, approving time off, and reminding staff to submit timesheets. Kim says it can also handle tasks beyond Gusto, such as checking the weather and notifying customers of a tour business when rain is forecast. Its suggested automations build on payroll, HR, and scheduling tasks customers already do, addressing the blank canvas problem of open-ended AI tools.
Solving the Blank Canvas Problem: Gusto's AI Co-Founder
Speaker
Eddie Kim, Gusto co-founder and head of technology, discusses Gusto Co-Founder and how it automates small business work with Y Combinator.
After setting up OpenClaw, Kim found it useful to text an AI but struggled to decide what to ask it to do. During a five-hour layover, he used Claude Code to prototype a prompt-based tool that built custom web apps in Gusto’s design system. The idea shifted toward automating recurring workflows, using Gusto’s customer and industry data to suggest relevant tasks that run on a regular heartbeat or schedule.
Customers readily understand automation when it addresses work they do every week. Kim describes a massage spa that moves data from Mindbody into Google Sheets to calculate commissions, tips, and hours before running payroll. Gusto Co-Founder can send a summary for approval by text or Slack, and Kim says the product had 500 customers at launch after feedback from a 20-customer Small Business Council.
Kim sees saved time helping owners focus on growth, and wants Co-Founder to flag tasks businesses may be missing. He gives the example of identifying a possible R&D tax credit and preparing forms for review; Gusto found $50,000 in credits for Cabana Pools. The roadmap includes more messaging channels and industry connectors, and eventually support for people starting a business before they have a Gusto account.
A team of five, including Kim, built the product over 10 weeks using AI coding tools; a designer and engineers shared coding and design work. The team minimized meetings, documents, and planning rituals, and often built prototypes before discussing them, even when the code was later discarded. Kim says fast experimentation still requires discipline about which features reach customers.
Takeaways
- Start AI products with recurring tasks customers already understand, rather than an empty prompt.
- Use customer data and industry context to suggest useful automations.
- Offer dependable schedules for tasks that need precise timing, alongside flexible AI triggers.
- Prototype quickly to learn from working software, then be selective about what you ship.
- Let designers and engineers cross into each other’s work when AI tools make that practical.
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What was claimed 22
- metric
Gusto: Serves over 500,000 small businesses in the US“serves over 500,000 small businesses in the US”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- metricGusto: Crossed $1 billion in annual revenue
“recently crossed a billion dollars in annual revenue”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- role at
“Gusto's co-founder and head of technology”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- metricGusto: Participated in YC's Winter 2012 batch
“in YC's Winter 2012 batch”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- feature
Cofounder: Automates payroll, time-off approvals, timesheet reminders, and other business processes“it will automate most of their business processes”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- builtinitial prototype
“used Claude Code, and built a prototype”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- featureCofounder: Uses customer and industry data to suggest and run business-process automations
“we leverage a prompt plus the data we have about our customers to build them an automation”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- uses
“talk to it through SMS or ... Slack”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- usesits heartbeat and cron automation designs were inspired by OpenClaw
“technical designs of Co-Founder were heavily inspired by tools I started using personally”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- featureCofounder: Supports heartbeat-triggered and scheduled cron jobs
“you can also schedule a job via regular cron”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- integrates with
“They export data from Mindbody into Google Sheets”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- metricCofounder: 500 customers added at launch
“added 500 customers to Gusto Co-Founder”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- launched
“We just launched it”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- usescustomers can run payroll and make contractor payments through text message
“they can run payroll or make contractor payments through text message”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- metricCofounder: Pre-launch feedback group of about 20 customers
“a really small group of about 20 customers early access”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- featureCofounder: Planned support for Telegram and WhatsApp channels
“I want to add a lot more channels. I'd like to add Telegram”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- integrates withCofounder integrates with Google Workspace
“Today, we have things like ... Google Workspace”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- integrates with
“Today, we have things like ... Notion”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- integrates withCofounder integrates with QuickBooks
“Today, we have things like QuickBooks”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- featureCofounder: Planned availability for people without a company or EIN
“open it up to people who don’t necessarily have a company today”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- metricCofounder: Built by five people over 10 weeks
“built by five AI builders over the course of 10 weeks”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
- usesCofounder uses
Claude Codeused by a five-person team during development“built by five AI builders over the course of 10 weeks”
YouTube Unverified1 source· Talk
