The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

20VC: Rippling’s Parker Conrad on Why The VC/Founder Marriage Analogy is Weird, Why The Notion of Focus, Focus, Focus is Overrated, Why Narrow Point Solutions Are Not Best in Class Products & The Rise of the “Compound Startup”

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Apr 26, 2021

Parker Conrad, Founder and CEO of Rippling, shares insights from his entrepreneurial journey and the evolution of employee management. He argues that the traditional focus on specialization is outdated and introduces the concept of 'compound startups,' which leverages integrated data for broader offerings. Parker discusses effective pricing strategies and the dynamics between founders and investors, emphasizing the importance of relationships in entrepreneurship. His reflections include the changing nature of wealth and a vision for impactful civic involvement.

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INSIGHT

Distributed Employee Data

Employee data is more distributed than people realize, extending beyond HR.
It's the foundation for a broader business systems management platform.

ANECDOTE

Learning from Failure

Parker Conrad hasn't changed much as a leader despite ups and downs.
He learned from failures mainly how much they suck.

INSIGHT

Compound Startup Approach

The traditional "focus, focus, focus" advice can be detrimental.
Building integrated tools ("compound startup") is key to solving complex business problems.

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Parker Conrad is the Founder and CEO @ Rippling, the employee management platform allowing you to manage your employees' payroll, benefits, devices and more—in one place. To date, Parker has raised over $197M for Rippling from the likes of Founders Fund, Kleiner Perkins, Initialized, Bedrock, Greenoaks and Coatue. Prior to founding Rippling, Parker was the Co-Founder and CEO @ Zenefits and if that was not enough, Parker is also a prominent angel having invested in the likes of Census, Pulley and then also AgentSync and TrueNorth, alongside 20VC Fund.

In Today’s Episode with Parker Conrad You Will Learn:

1.) How did Parker make his way into the world of technology and startups? What was the founding a-ha moment for Parker with Rippling? How did his journey with Zenefits change or alter his leadership style today with Rippling?

2.) Why does Parker believe that the conventional advice of focus, focus, focus is BS? What does Parker mean when he states, "The Compound Startup"? How does the approach of the compound startup differ from traditional approaches of product and company building? What are the core benefits of using the compound startup approach?

3.) How does Parker think about providing sufficient product quality with an increasing breadth of product offering, entailed within a compound startup? In what way does pricing differ when comparing compound startups to traditional startups? How can compound startups optimise their pricing on a bundle basis? What has Slack and Microsoft taught us about this?

4.) Why does Parker disagree with the conventional analogy of the VC founder relationship being a marriage? Why does Parker refer to it more as a "General Contractor" relationship for a house? What can founders do to sufficiently protect themselves from overarching VCs? What can VCs do to be the very best partners to the founders they work with?

5.) How does Parker evaluate his relationship to money today? How has it changed over time? What does Parker know now that he wishes he had known at the start of his founding of Rippling? What have been Parker's biggest lessons on talent acquisition? Why did Parker decide to bring on a COO when he did? How has it changed his role?

Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Parker Conrad

Parker’s Favourite Book: Matilda by Roald Dahl

As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here!