What Does Every Gusto All-hands Start With?

Tomer London says every Gusto all-hands opens with a customer. The company holds an all-hands every two weeks, and each meeting starts with a live conversation or a recorded video of a customer talking about their business.

The point is to learn how customers use the product and also how they live, what matters to them, the big challenges they face, and how they feel about the economy, so the team can stand in their shoes. Hiring follows the same idea. Everyone already has a tie to a small business: someone they know who runs one or works at one, a family member, or a favorite shop down the street where they get coffee. Gusto looks for people who are genuinely interested in small businesses, the entrepreneurial journey, and the day-to-day of that customer. The hires are missionaries. They care about the mission and want to help small businesses succeed in the US, and the company does not want mercenaries. Keeping that standard is part of how the culture holds over a long time.