Deanna Shimota (00:00:05) - Welcome to The HR Tech Spotlight podcast. I'm Deanna Shimota, CEO of GrowthMode Marketing. The HR technology market is crowded, and we know it can be hard to find the best software solutions for your business in the sea of sameness. On this podcast, we shine a spotlight on some of the best up and coming technology options out there. Check it out if you are interested in learning about new, innovative solutions available in the market. And if you are with an HR tech company and interested in being considered for a guest spot. Stay tuned for details at the end of the show. Hi everybody! We are back with another episode of the HR Tech Spotlight, and this time we are shining a spotlight on Friday, a simple payroll and team management platform that allows small businesses with up to 50 employees to easily track employee time and process payroll. Here to talk about the Friday platform is co-founder and CMO of the company, Pincus Schiff. Hello, and welcome to the show, Pincus.
Pincus Schiff (00:01:11) - Hi, Deanna. Thank you so much for having me. And it's a pleasure being here.
Deanna Shimota (00:01:15) - It is a pleasure to have you. And I'd like to start with the first question I always have for everybody on the show is, tell us about your background in the HR tech space.
Pincus Schiff (00:01:24) - Sure. I started out in HR when I was 21. A couple of years ago. I so my background is a special ed. That's what I started. That was my first job. I did a BA applied Behavioral analysis. It really helped me a lot later on when I went into sales, understanding people's behaviors and really helped me in sales. I joined a local payroll company. I think it was in 2017. Started out of sales. Started out like everyone else, like a beginner. And I left two and a half years later, I've been signed. I signed up over 600 clients, most of them small businesses. The two and a half years, it was two and a half years in time, but I can say I had I probably got five or 6 or 10 years experience in HR just because every time I had an opportunity to learn something about HR.
Pincus Schiff (00:02:13) - Every time a client had a problem or a question, I used to do a lot of research. I would spend 2 or 3 hours a day just at research between government websites, talking to people, connecting with licensed HR professionals. And then with time, I really got the hang of payroll nature. And I can say I don't know why, but they say 70% of people who start and start out on air will stay there for the rest of their lives. I can see I can really see why air is a very unique part of its very unique side of the business. I did sales for that company was a service based company. I did sales for two and a half years. And then I realized there's a hole in the market when it comes to small business with software. Apparently over 50% of small businesses still don't use payroll and HR software for their companies. One of the main reasons is it's too complicated. They're frustrated. They don't know how to use it. And most of all, they don't have time to learn new platforms.
Pincus Schiff (00:03:11) - Think about a small business owner. They have 510 employees. They're busy running around. Sometimes they don't even have an office. Right. Construction companies and stuff like that. And learning a new platform or figuring out a platform, especially with that one. I have a background in HR or payroll can be very complicated. So that's why we started about Friday. The Friday is a simple team management apparel platform designed specifically for small businesses, which 1 to 50 employees. And the reason we don't take bigger clients is the features that a big company needs. Think about a corporate company versus the needs of a small business are completely different. You can't have the same platform for both of them. By narrowing it down to people, to 1 to 50 employees, we can focus on the features, the process, the product that small businesses need. while really cutting out all the unnecessary features designed for bigger companies.
Deanna Shimota (00:04:02) - I totally get what you're saying there, Pincus, because yes, as a small business owner myself, like a lot of times you wear many hats and you're not necessarily an HR specialist or a payroll specialist, but you've got to figure it out for the organization.
Deanna Shimota (00:04:16) - And there are a lot of solutions out there to do that. But a lot of them are very complex and they're, you know, quite honestly designed for companies that are much bigger, that have people that specialize in those areas. So I know you are one of the co-founders of Friday. Tell us a little bit about the story behind the founding of the company.
Pincus Schiff (00:04:39) - So back in 2020, I met my co-founder, Hershey, the CEO of the company has a background of HR. He worked for an HR tech company for over ten years. He started out as, I think, the first or second employee. He left as head of operations. Then 11 years later, they built very they built a very robust product, completely different on Friday. And we were when we met, we spoke a lot about payroll and we realized he asked me, you work for a service company? How come you have 30, 40 new clients a month? Why don't people utilize technology these days, especially small businesses? And then I said, most of my clients that I would ask that question, but say I'm just too small to start with a platform.
Pincus Schiff (00:05:19) - I don't know where to start. I don't have 6 or 7 months to learn a platform. and over time we develop this concept of how about we create something so simple, so stupidly simple that even a small business owner would. One employee with no background of payroll can figure it out on its own. And I would say today most of our clients process their first payroll on their own without any training needed, and the average time of processing paid on Friday is less than 50s.
Deanna Shimota (00:05:45) - That's awesome. What is a big challenge or problem that you see facing small businesses today that Friday can really help them with?
Pincus Schiff (00:05:56) - So the problem that Friday really solves for small businesses is when you have two employees and you join a big company. Think about a corporate payroll software. You're just a drought on the bucket. No one really cares about you. Starting from the product is not really designed for you. And number two, you're not a big you're not a revenue stream for the company versus Friday. Being that we only focus on small customers, small businesses, the client feels like he's in a place that really cares for him, and he's in a place that we want him as a client.
Pincus Schiff (00:06:30) - We're not doing him a favor by onboarding him. That's what clients really want. And I would say over, over the time I use used many lawyers, accountants because people that I worked with, I would always try to find there's this big CPA focusing on clients with $10 billion of revenue. Then he might take you on as a client. But would you be his priority? Absolutely not. Unless you're in the billion dollar, $1 billion company. So when I if I were to look for an accountant today, I would try to find an accountant that specializes in companies that are in my space, and the same as when it comes to software. You can get a software that's designed for someone completely different than your company doesn't have the needs. They don't feel it that you are an asset to their company versus joining a company that's just focused on you. Our bread and butter is people, 250 employees, and I would say more than 25% of our clients have just 1 to 5 employees.
Deanna Shimota (00:07:20) - Okay. So obviously there are other solutions out on the market specifically for tracking payroll and time that are designed for small companies like you target.
Deanna Shimota (00:07:32) - What would you say is different about Friday versus some of the competitors out there?
Pincus Schiff (00:07:39) - First of all, we're not always different. And to be honest, when I talk to clients and they would ask me, what is it that makes you better than company X? And I would say, I'm not even sure that we are. It depends on the group. So every client has their own needs. Usually when we're going to talk with the client, we can we discuss their needs because and I tell clients all the time, I don't think we're the best fit for your company. If this is your problem, you might have a better solution. And I recommend kind of different variables. So for us all the time I don't think it's a comp. I think that built me and my team a very a good name. and people really trust the company. We put the client's interest first. So, to be honest, it depends when you compete. When you compare Friday to a competitor, you'll have to know which competitor it is.
Pincus Schiff (00:08:22) - is there, for example, hourly employees. Most payroll softwares designed for smaller clients don't have, time tracking and paid time off tracking. like we do. So we're combining we're focusing not just on payroll and HR. We're focusing on team management from messaging, PTO, time off, time tracking for example. Sometimes it's basic features like geofencing, having employees clocking in from specific locations, having employees clocking in from specific IP addresses, notes, collecting notes. It's the minor stuff that make a big difference when it comes to small businesses. Again, if they only need payroll, sometimes they have. There's a lot of solutions out there but if they want a full time management platform that's geared towards for small businesses, that would be a better fit.
Deanna Shimota (00:09:10) - Gotcha. And it's very clear in talking to you that this solution is designed for small businesses that have 50 or less employees. Can you tell us a bit more about what type of companies really are a perfect fit to work with Friday?
Pincus Schiff (00:09:23) - Interesting. We're trying to narrow it down to a specific industry.
Pincus Schiff (00:09:27) - It's been hard, but we see I think there's three industries that we really if we go through all our clients, there's specifically three industries that stand out. Brick and mortar, just old fashioned stores, mom and pop shops, small businesses in general, real estate and construction. That's very big, a big percentage of our clientele. People that have multiple irons, supers, construction, people on the go. and then I would say in the medical space, drug rehab, doctor offices, doctors offices, smaller facilities, people that, like you walk into a typical doctor in the Bronx or Manhattan, a doctor's office, 5 to 10 people. We have a lot of fun.
Deanna Shimota (00:10:08) - Okay. And what type of impact have you seen these organizations that are working with Friday Experience, like what are the results in the ROI that they can recognize?
Pincus Schiff (00:10:19) - It's two things. I think it's simplicity that they really get when they sign up with Friday. And people think, hey, simplicity. Everyone says it's simple, it's easy.
Pincus Schiff (00:10:29) - But when payroll and team management is really simplified, it gives the business owners so much more time and headspace to take care of other stuff. Number two customer support. Even if an employee has an issue or they want to know something, they can call chat on the web or on the app and get someone to talk to you right away. And people really like no one is interested in waiting ten days for a response time. Payroll HR can be very stressful. Think about getting an IRS notice. No matter what it says, even if it says you want $1 million, it will stress out some people. So it's peace of mind. simplicity and having the team happy that they can log in, see everything they want. They will check stubs. They can, even if you allow them to change their time sheets, the updated and stuff like that. So people may enjoy the simplicity of it. And also it's a vibe. Friday built a very happy brand when people really connect with them.
Deanna Shimota (00:11:23) - What is your team's future vision for Friday and the company.
Pincus Schiff (00:11:29) - Vision or goal?
Deanna Shimota (00:11:32) - Both.
Pincus Schiff (00:11:33) - So the goal is to simplify the management of payroll for 100,000 small businesses in the United States over the next 12 years. That's our goal. Our mission is really to simplify. So we're not a feature driven company. Obviously, we don't want to be a cookie cutter platform, but being that we really focus on small businesses, we can narrow down every single feature request that we get. And we talk to clients every single day. Every single feature you'll see on Friday is because it's been requested by at least five small businesses. And sometimes when a client will say, I have 60 employees, I like your platform. I would like to sign up, can I? And I would say, absolutely. But you have to know one thing before we're not going to build a single feature for you. And the reason for that is being that we're focused on small businesses. We want to keep it that way. The second we take 100 employee company and they have different needs and we start adding the features, it becomes less and less easy as simple for small businesses to use.
Pincus Schiff (00:12:22) - So the mission is to simplify for 100,000 small businesses over the next 12 years. And we're past we're just 17 months and we're past 1%, thank God. So slowly. Yeah, 1% at a time.
Deanna Shimota (00:12:36) - Yeah. That's awesome. And I think it's that you guys have that mission at heart to keep it simple, because the reality is those small business owners, they need a simple solution, right? And there's so many options out on the market that get pretty complex and have all these advanced features, and that works great for bigger organizations. It just creates more challenges for those really small organizations that are trying to be nimble and just need to make sure, like, we have this covered and we're able to do this well for our employees, but it's not going to take all day for us to figure it out.
Pincus Schiff (00:13:12) - Interesting story we had about eight months ago. A client canceled. Our target is less than 1.5%, which is pretty good. And the industry especially. Think about it. We're starting our business plan we put into the first 100 clients will probably leave us within the first year.
Pincus Schiff (00:13:26) - Just because we launched so early. Our first MVP was literally three months. Three weeks into development, we already had our first client and we started out just with we started out just with timesheets. And I remember a week after signing up, the client called me. They said, how can I edit the hours? I said, give me just two hours. And I went back to the team. We built an edit option. That's how we can tell you that. We took on another two clients, another five clients, and slowly we built out the product for the clients. But interesting story, a client, we saw cancellation. Obviously the first thing to do when a client cancels. I always call not to get that back. Just as an exit interview. I think the few clients that canceled really gave us so much insights and building the product better, and almost every single client that left we had built or fixed something afterwards, which I'm very proud of. People always show off their wins. I think losing sometimes can put you in such a good place.
Pincus Schiff (00:14:16) - So the client canceled. I call out the guy said, I love the platform, but I'll tell you one thing. I have commission-based salespeople. All I want is an integration with X with specific software that will bring in automatically the commission amounts for employees, and that system will calculated. Bring it into Friday. And the guy had 2 or 3 salespeople. And I said, if you have the numbers, it takes literally 15 seconds to type in it, but I get you. He canceled. He left him one of the big guys that has that integration. Four weeks later, I see this client. We activated their subscription. I call the client and I ask him. I said, nice to meet you again, but I know you left because of this reason. And can you explain me why you left? Why you came back? And the client said, it's true that I set up the integration. I spent a few hours setting it up and it brings in everything. But processing payroll went from just 1 minute to 20 minutes every week, and I'm just wasting more time.
Pincus Schiff (00:15:11) - So I'm back at Friday. I'll put it in manually. Yeah, we're launching his API. That guy wanted his API integration. We're going to be launching integrations, I think, in the fourth quarter of the first quarter of 2025. It's something that we put in the pipeline. It's been requested, I think, 1 or 2 more times, but it gave me like it was an eye opener for me. Sometimes you think you need more features, you think you want something, but at the end of the game, it's all about how much time will you spend? How simple will it be for you? And sometimes having more features, you just make it more work and you end up spending more time.
Deanna Shimota (00:15:41) - So yeah, that's a great story. A person probably didn't think when they asked for that feature that adding that in with everything else that went with that new platform that they jumped on was going to basically make their time commitment tenfold. But it might only be 20 minutes a week. But that adds up over the course of a year.
Deanna Shimota (00:16:03) - And every minute that a small business owner can save, I think the better, because it's something else they can focus on to move their business forward. Right?
Pincus Schiff (00:16:12) - Correct. Going from 1 minute to 20 minutes, it's 2,000% increase. It's a lot.
Deanna Shimota (00:16:17) - Yeah, it's a lot for sure. So I know your area of specialty is sales and marketing. What are some of the biggest hesitations that you see companies have when they're looking at implementing a solution like Friday?
Pincus Schiff (00:16:36) - So I think the first impression makes a huge difference. People are most afraid of the transition. they have no idea when they go into it how much time they're going to end up spending just for the transition itself. And unless they really see how the new platform will really change their lives and make their life so much easier, they're not ready to make that transition. But thank God, onboarding with Friday is literally 50 minutes. in the beginning, it used to take us days to onboard a client. Everything was manual. Over time, the process became so much better.
Pincus Schiff (00:17:08) - I think it takes around 15 minutes from the client. Set up an account to get everything up to life, and if they're switching media, we bring in all the priors. Obviously, we built out APIs, which brings out everything. And another thing that we with every single client that transitions to Friday after bringing in the priors, we'll audit it. So like this will make sure if throughout the year there was a discrepancy and the actual paywall or their missing payments or if they overpaid, we'll make sure that that the client knows about it. And if something needs to be done, we'll fix it and then take it going forward. And it's something that clients really appreciated. We just got a client that came from. I'm not going to say names, but I would say the number one payroll software in America. The client processed two checks in one payroll, and they were about to reach the threshold for, they reached a limit for unemployment insurance. And being that it was two checks and one payroll, it took off unemployment insurance from both checks.
Pincus Schiff (00:18:01) - For example, if the first check was thousand check, the second check was 1000. After 800,000. This check, they were supposed to stop paying unemployment insurance. But being that it was two checks and one payroll, they paid twice 800 on the first check and then the tax after the second check, which is an overpayment. We made the client aware and made sure to deduct this amount from future taxes to make sure everything runs smoothly. So sometimes the tiny details that matter. I think first impression means everything to small business.
Deanna Shimota (00:18:29) - Yeah for sure. So as we get to the conclusion of this discussion, Pincus, what final thoughts do you want to leave our audience with.
Pincus Schiff (00:18:39) - You’re a small business owner? I can say you're going to go through and you are going through a rough time. It's not easy to build a small business. I've been there myself. I built myself up as a salesperson first and then building up a company, and by dealing with a lot of small business owners. So first of all, you're not alone.
Pincus Schiff (00:18:55) - Every single business owner struggles, and the successful ones are the ones who never give up and never quit. You're the one driving the economy. You're the one driving. America's the greatest country at. Keep on going. It's not. No one got lucky unless they put in the work. And you got to continue to go and never give up until you reach your dreams. So my message to you is you got this. Keep on going. And if there's any way I can help out or anyone, there's a lot of good people out there. You'll be surprised how many good friends you have that really care for you. So many business owners that went through the same exact struggles as you went through, and they would be happy to help. And I can say I would not have been here without my friends, clients, and just random people that were just kind enough to share their experience advice, and I try to do the same. I spend around almost an hour per day guiding new salespeople. Call me or new business owners technology tech founders.
Pincus Schiff (00:19:55) - I don't have that much of experience. I have my own set about whatever I got. I try to share, and there's thousands of people that are ready to help you. Sometimes it's just worth paying someone to get someone to really help you out to build your business. But in most cases, you're not alone. Never give up.
Deanna Shimota (00:20:10) - Well said. So where can our listeners go to learn more about Friday.
Pincus Schiff (00:20:14) - So you can visit us on the web at Fridayapp.com. You can check us out on LinkedIn. You can check out my personal page, Pincus Schiff on LinkedIn. We're on all social media platforms Facebook, Instagram. and if you're having issues with your paywall, I'm not sure we can be a good fit. But if we have a conversation, you never know what's going to end up happening. It might simplify your life to reach out.
Deanna Shimota (00:20:38) - Yeah, I will put the show links in the notes. So if anyone is interested in reaching out to Pincus or looking at Friday, definitely click on those links.
Deanna Shimota (00:20:46) - That does it for this episode. Thanks so much for joining me on the show, Pincus.
Pincus Schiff (00:20:51) - Deanna, it's been my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.
Deanna Shimota (00:20:59) - Thanks for listening to this episode of The HR Tech Spotlight podcast, where we showcase some of the best up and coming air technology options in the market. If you are an HR tech company leader who would like to be considered for a guest spot on this program. Please contact me via GrowthModeMarketing.Com or reach out to me Deanna Shimota on LinkedIn. And if you found this show informative, subscribe. Connect with us on social media and leave a review. This is Deanna with GrowthMode Marketing signing off. Thanks for listening. We hope you'll tune in again next time.