I agree with your thoughts on the strategy, but it really makes me hope there had been better execution.
I have used rippling for over a year, and it is the worst service our company uses in our opinion. I have been deeply disappointed with the operations and execution - there are glitches that persist for months on end, a lack of customer support and what we perceive as unethical billing practices.
I competed against Rippling in the HRIS / PEO space since their founding in 2016, and from a fundamental service and functional perspective, they are simply not the same company that they were even one year ago.
One year ago they had 300 or so people, now they have 1,700 or so to dial in product and service. A product needs time to settle, and they will continue to polish and improve. IMO, that's scary for folks who choose to continue to compete against them.
So according to this logic Oracle and SAP have the best product in the world, 10x better than Rippling because they have 10x the amount of people. Right?
Worth mentioning that Rippling is hiring aggressively in India, with sign boards in Bengaluru — India's SV (home to Atlassian, Google, Twitter, Amazon). This might've something to do what you've mentioned in passing: this intense culture could lead to talent attrition
Great article. Glad to see you back at it. You mention Unity, as middleware, and what you end up describing is essentially the main benefit of a platform play. Will be interesting to see if they open to the platform to external (i.e. customer) development to better serve employees and unlock new insights. Will be on the lookout.
Hi John, this is one of the clearest articulations of the company-building philosophy we have read. Your core thesis is that true, non-incremental value is created by building a new "system of record", not just another point solution that solves symptoms instead of root causes. 1Ledger is a Zero-to-one and "few beacons of ambition in an increasingly incremental world" that you described. Solving the root cause of B2B invoicing.
- The Parallel: What Rippling did for the "employee record," we are doing for "B2B invoicing". We are building the foundational, trusted source of truth for B2B invoicing, a market plagued by disconnected systems with a patchwork of incremental apps, causing a $3T administrative drag.
- The Compound Product: Our architecture is designed exactly as you illustrated. We have built the core infrastructure—a network that connects siloed accounting systems and an AI that verifies every transaction. This is our "middleware". Our first "application" running on this infrastructure is a net settlement engine that guarantees cash flow, automates 99% of administrative tasks and eliminates invoice fraud & errors.
- The Ambition: This is a capital-intensive, ambitious approach that rejects SaaS playbooks. But like Rippling, it rewires all B2Bs invoicing globally.
To sum it up, I have tremendous respect for the work. By transcending traditional point solutions and integrating various aspects of employee management, this model leads the way in revolutionizing people management for businesses across the globe.
Well written. deeply useful, meaningful content. Thank you
I agree with your thoughts on the strategy, but it really makes me hope there had been better execution.
I have used rippling for over a year, and it is the worst service our company uses in our opinion. I have been deeply disappointed with the operations and execution - there are glitches that persist for months on end, a lack of customer support and what we perceive as unethical billing practices.
I competed against Rippling in the HRIS / PEO space since their founding in 2016, and from a fundamental service and functional perspective, they are simply not the same company that they were even one year ago.
One year ago they had 300 or so people, now they have 1,700 or so to dial in product and service. A product needs time to settle, and they will continue to polish and improve. IMO, that's scary for folks who choose to continue to compete against them.
So according to this logic Oracle and SAP have the best product in the world, 10x better than Rippling because they have 10x the amount of people. Right?
Absolutely epic.
Worth mentioning that Rippling is hiring aggressively in India, with sign boards in Bengaluru — India's SV (home to Atlassian, Google, Twitter, Amazon). This might've something to do what you've mentioned in passing: this intense culture could lead to talent attrition
Incredible work John⭐
I wonder if there are any other Fintech examples who follow a similar path?
Great article. Glad to see you back at it. You mention Unity, as middleware, and what you end up describing is essentially the main benefit of a platform play. Will be interesting to see if they open to the platform to external (i.e. customer) development to better serve employees and unlock new insights. Will be on the lookout.
Exceptional article! Re-read it many times, so many things to learn from Rippling
Hi John, this is one of the clearest articulations of the company-building philosophy we have read. Your core thesis is that true, non-incremental value is created by building a new "system of record", not just another point solution that solves symptoms instead of root causes. 1Ledger is a Zero-to-one and "few beacons of ambition in an increasingly incremental world" that you described. Solving the root cause of B2B invoicing.
- The Parallel: What Rippling did for the "employee record," we are doing for "B2B invoicing". We are building the foundational, trusted source of truth for B2B invoicing, a market plagued by disconnected systems with a patchwork of incremental apps, causing a $3T administrative drag.
- The Compound Product: Our architecture is designed exactly as you illustrated. We have built the core infrastructure—a network that connects siloed accounting systems and an AI that verifies every transaction. This is our "middleware". Our first "application" running on this infrastructure is a net settlement engine that guarantees cash flow, automates 99% of administrative tasks and eliminates invoice fraud & errors.
- The Ambition: This is a capital-intensive, ambitious approach that rejects SaaS playbooks. But like Rippling, it rewires all B2Bs invoicing globally.
All the best
Howie
Thank you for the master class
To sum it up, I have tremendous respect for the work. By transcending traditional point solutions and integrating various aspects of employee management, this model leads the way in revolutionizing people management for businesses across the globe.