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There are a lot of good reasons to start a new company. Maybe you discovered a solution to an annoying problem that everyone deals with; maybe you’re fed up with a certain industry’s status quo and think you could do better. Maybe you just want to get really, really rich. Whatever set you on your entrepreneurial journey, it probably wasn’t a deep-seated love for administrative tasks. So why should you spend all your time managing customer relationships, human resources, payroll, and all sorts of other backroom work? Thanks to the cornucopia of SaaS products and B2B services offered by companies on this year’s Inc. Power Partners list, you don’t have to. After all, the more administrative work you offload to your software stack, the more time you can spend on the things that actually made you want to be a founder in the first place. Take, for example, Justworks—a New York City-based HR platform that helps with onboarding, payroll, benefits, compliance, and more. Founded in 2012, the company offers a platform that puts all those services in one place, built specifically for SMBs and backed by 24/7 support. Featured Video An Inc.com Featured Presentation “We take care of everything small businesses need to maintain a workforce, so founders can focus on what they do best: their products, their customers, and their people,” says Justworks CEO Michael Seckler. With support for international hiring and payroll taxes across all 50 states, Justworks has something to offer business leaders no matter where they’re based. Cate Luzio, founder of the networking platform Luminary, says Justworks’ explanation of health and retirement benefits has been particularly useful to her employees. “They have explained everything in layman’s terms to [our] management team and provided comprehensive training for our teams,” Luzio said of Justworks’ 401(k) plan integration. Similarly, San Francisco-based Gusto helps entrepreneurs with their payroll, benefits, and HR needs. The firm caters to small-business owners—or, as co-founder Tomer London puts it, “people who are trying to do it all with limited time, limited staff, and very little margin for error.” “Founders can stop worrying about missing a tax filing or keeping up with new workforce regulations,” says London, “and instead spend their time building customer relationships, innovating, and serving their communities.” The company also recently agreed to acquire retirement plan provider Guideline, bringing the popular service in-house. Matt Weyandt, co-founder of the craft chocolate brand Xocolatl, says Gusto has kept pace with his company as it’s grown from two employees to nearly two dozen, saving him countless hours over the years thanks to its ability to help with common tasks. “I can usually run payroll in about five minutes,” Weyandt says. Empowering small businesses Zoho makes a suite of tools—including CRM, customer support, and bookkeeping services—that help businesses operate smoothly. The India-based company says it offers over 65 apps and more than 1,000 product integrations. Co-founder Tony Thomas points out that the company offers several products that are geared toward early-stage startups, including the all-in-one solopreneur toolkit Zoho Solo and the business launcher Zoho Start. Island Psychiatry, a Long Island, New York-based mental health outpatient clinic, has been using Zoho since 2017. The platform’s HR tool automatically prompts staff about licensure renewals, certifications, insurance, and mandatory trainings. Another app reminds clinicians and front desk staff about patients’ specific circumstances, which improves the quality of care and makes billing simpler. Chief people officer Jessica Miller says the company’s software enables her team of mental health professionals to spend most of their time focused on what they were hired for: clinical care. “Zoho makes it possible to create efficient systems that protect sensitive information, support staff across different locations, and keep compliance front and center,” says Miller. “It empowers small businesses like ours to build systems without having to hire full-time tech staff.” Meanwhile, for founders who want to grow their followings but don’t have big marketing budgets, companies like Pressmaster.ai can be a lifeline. The Delaware-based software firm makes a tool that identifies trending topics online, interviews the founder, and, using data culled from that interview, auto-generates relevant web and social media copy in the founder’s own voice. It’s meant to be faster than writing something by hand, says co-founder and CEO Raoul Plickat, while not sounding as generic as ChatGPT’s usual output—and can help get companies noticed on platforms like LinkedIn. “The only part the user has to bring is their actual voice, knowledge, and perspective,” says Plickat. When it’s time to scale The kitchen at Mamie Colette, an artisanal bakery based in Newtown, Pennsylvania, bakes about 500 authentic French croissants a day. A few years ago, co-owner Isabelle Noblanc recognized that the eatery’s head chef, who was starting her workday at 2:30 a.m., needed help—but the specialized sous chefs she was looking for could really be found only among French baking school grads. “Making authentic croissants from scratch requires specialized skills rarely taught in U.S. pastry art schools, where croissant instruction typically lasts just days or weeks,” says Noblanc. “French bakery schools dedicate three years to mastering bread and croissant techniques.” Noblanc spent three years searching for the right hire before she outsourced the task to Exeter, New Hampshire-based Goodwin Recruiting. The recruiting firm sources, screens, and interviews potential candidates, using AI tools as well as LinkedIn Recruiter, making it a vital tool for companies looking to grow their headcount. Two months after she hired Goodwin, Noblanc says, the firm uncovered “the perfect candidate.” They were quickly brought on board at Mamie Colette, freeing up the bakery’s head chef to spend more time interacting with customers and developing new delicacies. A business leader with more bandwidth for their passions, plus a steady stream of baked goods to keep hungry customers happy? When it comes to B2B partnerships, it’s hard to imagine a more delicious outcome.
