Latest news with #ParkerConrad
TechCrunch
a day ago
- Business
- TechCrunch
Deel scores a lawsuit win, but not against Rippling
A Florida judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit filed against embattled HR and payroll provider Deel. And while Deel described this as a 'Rippling-aligned' and 'Rippling-supported' lawsuit, this is not the infamous lawsuit filed by its rival earlier this year that involved an alleged corporate spy. Rippling CEO Parker Conrad even went so far as to say 'This litigation has nothing to do with Rippling, we are not a party to it, did not fund it,' in a tweet. (Rippling representatives declined further comment.) Still, this is some good news for Deel. In January, a lawsuit was filed in Florida by Melanie Damian, who accused Deel of helping Russian entities sidestep U.S. sanctions by processing payments for Surge Capital Ventures. Surge had been part of a separate U.S. SEC action alleging it was involved in a Ponzi scheme that defrauded church members out of $35 million. Damian, a court-appointed receiver for Surge, was tasked with the mission to recover assets, Semafor reported at the time. She filed the class-action lawsuit on behalf of Surge, attempting to blame Deel for processing the payments. This is the case that was dismissed. Deel is attempting to tie this case to the suit filed by Rippling in part because Damian's lawyers cited the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). Rippling, who is suing Deel in California, is also claiming Deel violated RICO, as well as the Defend Trade Secrets Act, and California state law, as TechCrunch previously reported. RICO is famously the statute that was originally used to charge mobsters. Rippling's lawsuit, however, involves one of its own employees who testified in an Irish court that he had been acting as a paid corporate spy for Deel. Techcrunch event Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital, Elad Gil — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They're here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don't miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $600+ before prices rise. Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They're here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don't miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices rise. San Francisco | REGISTER NOW Deel is clearly hoping that if one court dismisses a lawsuit arguing RICO violations, another court will also dismiss. 'The ruling invites further questions on the credibility of another baseless set of RICO accusations by Rippling in California,' a Deel spokesperson told TechCrunch in an emailed statement. But as these cases involve different actions and circumstances, we'll all have to wait and see how the California court responds. Meanwhile, Deel is also suing Rippling, claiming that one of Rippling's employees was unlawfully impersonating a customer. On top of all of that, the person who confessed to being Deel's alleged corporate spy, Keith O'Brien, successfully filed a restraining order against people he said were following him and scaring his family. O'Brien is now Rippling's star witness in its case against Deel. At first, lawyers for Deel denied involvement and later they admitted the company had hired 'discrete surveillance' of O'Brien, according to court testimony seen by TechCrunch, and first reorted by the Irish Independent. 'Alex and his father can deflect and delay but they will face the music when we get our day in court,' Conrad added in his tweet, referring to Rippling's case that names Deel's founder CEO Alex Bouaziz and his father, who is chairman and CFO, Philippe Bouaziz. 'Deel will explore all its options for relief, defend itself vigorously against pending cases and continue to focus on winning in the marketplace,' a Deel spokesperson said in that statement.
Fast Company
19-06-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
Why building bigger from the start is the smarter bet
For two decades, conventional startup wisdom followed a simple mantra: Build one killer feature, win a devoted audience, and expand later. Startup luminaries like Paul Graham and Sam Altman championed this approach. They argued it was better to start small, focus narrowly, and earn the right to grow. Many of today's most iconic companies followed this path, launching with a single tool that eventually evolved into a suite. But what if the problem you're solving doesn't fit neatly into one feature? What if starting small just means setting yourself up to rebuild everything later? In an increasingly complex world, customers no longer have patience for point solutions or disconnected workflows. They expect products to understand how their systems work and to match that reality with integrated, end-to-end experiences. That's why a new model is emerging. The rise of the compound startup The 'compound startup,' a term popularized by Rippling CEO Parker Conrad, describes a company that builds multiple, deeply integrated products from day one. In a January interview with Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan, Conrad explained that the goal of a compound startup is to address systems of problems, not just isolated pain points. It is a model built for how people and businesses actually operate. Most business functions don't exist in a vacuum. In Rippling's case, payroll connects to benefits, onboarding, compliance, IT provisioning, and more. Customers don't want to piece together tools to manage each of those functions. They want a system that works together out of the box. At april, we didn't just stitch together a few tax tools. We built an entire suite of products from the ground up. Filing, forecasting, planning, optimization—all designed to work in sync, and all tailored to distinct taxpayer segments like investors, small business owners, gig workers, and everyday banking customers. We chose to build in tax, one of the most complex, fragmented, and regulated categories in fintech, because the problem demanded a compound solution. Tax laws shift constantly. Each state and jurisdiction operates differently. We could have licensed a white-label provider and shipped faster. Instead, we built our own tax engine, became the first new nationally licensed e-file provider in more than 15 years, and now operate a full-stack platform with fewer external dependencies. That decision has given us speed, adaptability, and product depth our partners can't find elsewhere. Why compound startups make more sense today The shift toward compound startups isn't just philosophical. It's practical. Today's challenges rarely sit in one lane. Managing personal finances touches tax, payroll, planning, and compliance. Running a business involves HR, inventory, scheduling, payments, and reporting—all at once. Point solutions force users to become their own system integrators. They juggle multiple tools, manage disconnected data, and learn mismatched interfaces. Compound startups flip that script. They build coherence into the product architecture itself and unlock several key advantages: Unified data: Integrated platforms break down silos and allow smarter decision making across use cases. At april, data moves with consent across workflows, powering real-time tax insights, planning simulations, and filing automation. Shared UX patterns: A consistent interface builds user trust and reduces friction. Most april users complete their return in under 23 minutes—a far cry from the 13-hour average reported by the IRS. Durable switching costs: When workflows span multiple integrated tools, the platform becomes stickier and more valuable as a whole. Platform-wide network effects: When more users adopt more of the suite, value compounds across use cases. Compound startups don't just solve tasks. They solve workflows. And that makes them more durable, more useful, and more differentiated in crowded markets. The long-term payoff Of course, this approach comes with tradeoffs. Building multiple products in parallel strains focus and burns capital faster. It forces earlier decisions around architecture, compliance, and team structure. It's not the right move for every startup. But for founders tackling systems-level problems, the risk of starting too small is greater. You can't increment your way to coherence. We've seen the payoff at april. Our compound architecture has allowed us to respond faster, deliver richer experiences, and scale without compromise. The future is compound The startup playbook is evolving because the problems we're solving have evolved. Systems are messier. Users expect more. Point solutions can't keep up. Founders shouldn't be afraid to build big from the start. The world doesn't need more single-purpose tools. It needs products that actually solve the full problem. The future isn't just compound. It's integrated, full-stack, and built to scale from day one.
CNBC
10-06-2025
- Business
- CNBC
29. Rippling
Founders: Parker Conrad (CEO), Prasanna SankarLaunched: 2016Headquarters: San FranciscoFunding: $1.8 billion (PitchBook)Valuation: $16.8 billion (PitchBook)Key Technologies: Artificial intelligence, cloud computing, low code/no code softwareIndustry: Enterprise technologyPrevious appearances on Disruptor 50 list: 1 (No. 14 in 2023) Workforce management company Rippling aims to combine the numerous systems that manage employees — everything from payroll and benefits to devices and compliance — into a single, integrated platform. With Rippling, onboarding a new employee can take less than two minutes. That includes setting up email accounts, enrolling in insurance, and issuing work devices. The company targets customers from startups to mid-sized enterprises across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, with up to 10,000 employees. Rippling has been extending the platform's employee management features over the past year. Among the most notable: Talent Signal, an AI-powered tool that analyzes new hires' work and gives managers a second opinion on how they're performing. Rippling also introduced an employee scheduling tool that can customize complicated hourly work schedules based on demand, certifications, and hundreds of other data points. That tool, launched in October, became the company's fastest product to reach $1 million in sales. But the year wasn't without controversy. In March, Rippling filed a high-profile lawsuit against Deel, a rival in the global workforce space and former Disruptor, accusing the company of corporate espionage. According to Rippling's filings, a former employee acted as a mole for Deel, accessing confidential data about customers, quotes, sales calls, demos and support requests in internal Slack repositories. The company claims he also found and downloaded Rippling's guidance on how to go up against Deel for prospective business, according to the legal filing. In response, Deel recently unleashed its own allegations of bad behavior by Rippling. Despite the legal drama, Rippling has continued to grow, with annual revenue increasing at a rate of more than 30%. The company raised $450 million in a recent fundraising round, and committed to buying an additional $200 million worth of shares from current and previous employees — a morale-boosting move amid continued layoffs in tech and many sector valuations that haven't recovered since the startup downturn of 2022-2023. Rippling has not had recent layoffs and the latest round of funding saw its valuation rise by more than $3 billion. The company also opened new offices: a new European headquarters in Dublin; its first Asia Pacific office in Sydney; and moved into a new office in San Francisco. In a market fragmented by numerous niche solutions, Rippling is betting that its all-in-one approach will allow it to outmaneuver Deel and other startups, as well as incumbents ADP and Paychex. CEO Parker Conrad told CNBC in a May interview that he thinks the legal drama with Deel may be helping it win more business. "I think it's too early to say, looking at the data, how all of this is going to evolve from a market perspective, but certainly we see some companies that have said, 'Hey, we're talking to Rippling because of this,'" Conrad said.
TechCrunch
03-06-2025
- Business
- TechCrunch
Now Deel is accusing Rippling of spying by ‘impersonating' a customer
HR tech startup Deel filed an amended complaint on Tuesday in its ongoing legal battle against its arch rival Rippling that offers surprising new details about its own corporate spying allegations. Rippling sued Deel in March after a Rippling employee testified in an Irish court that he was spying on his employer for the rival in an affidavit that reads like a Hollywood movie. Rippling's lawsuit alleges misappropriation of trade secrets, tortious interference, unfair competition, and more, largely based on the spying allegations. Deel has since countersued, attempting to get the suit dismissed for technical reasons, but also making its own allegations like that that Rippling has also been spying. This amended complaint offers more details on what Deel means by that. Specifically, it alleges that one of Rippling's employees, who holds the job title of Competitive Intelligence 'spent six months impersonating a legitimate Deel customer to gain unauthorized access to Deel's systems to meticulously analyze, record, and copy Deel's global products and the way Deel does business for Rippling's own benefit and use.' The lawsuit is also full of insults hurled at Rippling's CEO Parker Conrad and his troubles at his previous company, Zenefits. At times, the complaint ventures into psychoanalysis territory. 'To understand Conrad is to understand Rippling,' the suit claims. It then goes on to speculate that Rippling has targeted Deel because Conrad is angry at Zenefits' VC backer Andreessen Horowitz: 'Sadly, it is now apparent that Conrad has made it his life's goal to exact misguided and petty revenge on those connected with Andreessen, including Deel, in which Andreessen owns a 20% share.' And the complaint alleges that 'Rippling has planted false and misleading claims about Deel in the press and with regulators across the country.' Techcrunch event Save now through June 4 for TechCrunch Sessions: AI Save $300 on your ticket to TC Sessions: AI—and get 50% off a second. Hear from leaders at OpenAI, Anthropic, Khosla Ventures, and more during a full day of expert insights, hands-on workshops, and high-impact networking. These low-rate deals disappear when the doors open on June 5. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you've built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | REGISTER NOW This appears to stem from 2023, when U.S. Senator Adam Schiff posted a public letter asking the U.S. Department of Labor to look into how Deel was classifying workers. This after Business Insider published an investigation on the matter. Deel denied wrongdoing at the time and said a discussion with Schiff put the matter to bed. The amended complaint also provides at least one financial tidbit; Deel says it has been profitable for years and is generating over $1 billion in annual revenue. A spokesperson for Rippling says that the company is looking into the specific allegations of how the employee gathered product intelligence as described in the complaint. The spokesperson tells us that 'Rippling is unwavering in our commitment to fair competition and the highest ethical standards. We expect full compliance as described clearly in our written policies.' The spokesperson also alleges that the revised complaint 'backtracks' from some of the assertions in the original, including removing wording that implied Rippling had somehow obtained access to Deel's board-level information. While the lawsuit is an entertaining read (here's a link to it) about the level of a typical Bravo network reality TV show, Deel appears to be attempting to make a tit-for-tat case about corporate spying. But the two sets of allegations are not about the same thing. Rippling is accusing Deel of paying an employee to gather information from Rippling's internal network. The employee, who confessed to spying, has testified that he gave Deel information that included sales leads, product roadmaps, customer accounts, names of superstar employees, and whatever else was asked for. Deel is accusing Rippling of unfairly learning about its product and features from the product itself as well as the information it gives to its customers. Competitors have been buying each other's products as a way to keep tabs, one-up and sell against each other since the beginning of time. So it will be interesting to see how the courts handle Deel's lawsuit – if they rule that such tactics can go too far. In the meantime, Rippling's alleged catching of the corporate spy – which involved a trap, a smashed phone, and a honeypot – has already slipped into the tech industry's cultural lexicon. When Y Combinator grad Cotool launched an agentic security platform last month that, among other things, sets up honeypots, its ad was a spoof on how Rippling's corporate spy said he was caught.
Entrepreneur
20-05-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Rippling Doubles Down on India with Second Office in Bengaluru
Rippling, which currently employs around 1,000 people in India, aims to double its local workforce to 2,000 over the next three years. You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. Global HRtech major Rippling has expanded its footprint in India by opening a second office in Bengaluru, underscoring the country's strategic importance to the company's growth. The move comes on the heels of its massive USD 450 million Series G funding round, which pegged its valuation at USD 16.8 billion. The new 100,000-square-foot facility, located at Embassy Tech Village, will house engineering, product, sales, and customer support teams. Rippling, which currently employs around 1,000 people in India, aims to double its local workforce to 2,000 over the next three years. "Bangalore has always been a superpower for Rippling," said Matt MacInnis, Chief Operating Officer. "We grew from 450 employees last year to over 1,000 today, and we're continuing to scale rapidly. We take on some of our most important product work here, and we intend to keep expanding the autonomy and scope of this team." Founded in 2016 by Parker Conrad and Indian-origin entrepreneur Prasanna Shankar, Rippling offers an all-in-one platform that integrates HR, IT, and finance functions—streamlining operations like payroll, expenses, benefits, and device management. The company supports over 20,000 customers and boasts a growing portfolio of more than 20 products. Rippling has been steadily deepening its India presence since launching here in 2017. It has onboarded over 20 former founders and entrepreneurs, including Ajay Chandra, former co-founder of Infibeam, and Nimish Bhonsale, ex-co-founder of Elda Health. In 2024, the company appointed former Walmart executive Mrinal Chatterjee as its Country Head. With annual recurring revenue surpassing USD 100 million, Rippling is betting big on India not just as a talent hub but as a key driver of innovation and global product development. The company's robust investor lineup includes Y Combinator, Sands Capital, GIC, Goldman Sachs Growth, Coatue, Greenoaks, Founders Fund, Elad Gil, and Dragoneer—signaling strong confidence in Rippling's vision to redefine workforce management worldwide.
