Village Global Podcast Recall Sessions: Tomer London on Building Gusto from ZenPayroll to 400,000 Customers
Mar 3, 2026
Tomer London, co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Gusto, scaled a payroll and HR platform from a YC startup to hundreds of thousands of small businesses. He recounts cold-calling first customers, the Thai-restaurant moment that validated the idea, an early pricing mistake, why SMBs are startup-in-hard-mode, and how AI is reshaping product and support.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Hustle Landed The First Customers
- Tomer and his co-founders hunted initial customers everywhere, cold-calling businesses from Yelp and asking YC batch peers after the YC dinner.
- Their first product was tiny: California-only, under five employees, salaried-only payroll, which they and YC peers used as early customers.
Raise Prices To Signal Value
- Avoid underpricing early — price conveys value and trust, especially for high-stakes products like payroll.
- Tomer regrets charging $2 per employee/month because it signaled low value and raised trust concerns despite competitors charging ~$20.
SMB Focus Is Startup Hard Mode
- Serving very small businesses (under 50 employees) is "startup in hard mode" because many companies quickly move upmarket for easier economics.
- Gusto stayed because payroll pain was huge and generated word-of-mouth growth once solved well.