It’s been almost 10 years since Justworks launched. The platform, founded by Isaac Oates, was yet another example of software eating the world; in this particular instance, it was the world of HR. Since, the company has raised nearly $150 million in funding.
All the way back in 2016, Bain Capital Ventures caught a whiff of Justworks’ potential for success. Partner Matt Harris led the company’s $13 million Series B round back when Justworks hadn’t even hit $1 million in annual revenue.
On the next episode of Extra Crunch Live, we’ll sit down with Oates and Harris to discuss how they met, how the deal went down, and how they’ve managed their board member/founder relationship over the last five years.
As with any episode of ECL, Oates and Harris will also give live feedback on audience-submitted pitch decks during the Pitch Deck Teardown.
Extra Crunch Live is a members-only series that goes down each Wednesday at 12pm PT/3pm ET. If you’re not yet an Extra Crunch member, you should take a hard look in the mirror and then hit up this link.
Matt Harris started his investing career at Bain Capital private equity in 1995. In 2000, he founded his own firm called Village Ventures where he spent 12 years and invested primarily in fintech startups. In 2012, he returned to Bain Capital Ventures. His portfolio includes Acorns, Finix, Ribbon, and of course, Justworks, among many others.
Oates served for 12 years in the National Guard and Army Reserve as an intelligence officer. He also served as a software engineer at Amazon before starting his first company, Adtuitive, which was acquired by Etsy. Oates led the HR and payments team at both Adtuitive and Etsy, learning first-hand the ways in which the system was fundamentally broken. Justworks was born in 2012 and has gone on to become a household name in enterprise tech.
On Wednesday’s episode, we’ll talk about why Harris felt conviction in making a bet on Justworks and why Oates went with Harris over other investors. We’ll also learn more about how they handle disagreements, build trust, and their broader thoughts on current enterprise trends.
Then, we’ll dive into the Pitch Deck Teardown. Anyone can submit a pitch deck to be featured on an episode of Extra Crunch Live, but EC members will be prioritized in the list. If you want to get in on the action, submit your deck right here.
As with just about everything we do here at TechCrunch, audience members can also ask their own questions.
Extra Crunch Live has left room for you to network (you gotta network to get work, amirite?). Networking is open starting at 2:30 p.m. EST/11:30 a.m. PST and stays open a half hour after the episode ends. Make a friend!
As a reminder, Extra Crunch Live is a members-only series that aims to give founders and tech operators actionable advice and insights from leaders across the tech industry. Here’s yet another chance for you to join.
Harris and Oates join a world-class cast of speakers on Extra Crunch Live. In February alone we spoke to Lightspeed’s Gaurav Gupta and Grafana’s Raj Dutt, Felicis’ Aydin Senkut and Guideline’s Kevin Busque, and Accel’s Steve Loughlin and Ironclad’s Jason Boehmig.
You can check out past episodes of ECL here and upcoming schedule here.
Information on how to register for the Bain + Justworks episode on Wednesday is below.
See you there!
