Founders start companies to solve problems and build something that matters. Not to become HR managers.
Yet here we are in 2025. Despite countless $10B+ ‘solutions’, founders are still drowning in back-office bullshit.
Why? Because every platform was built for HR professionals, not founders.
Today, every founder still has to: Register in multiple states. Set up workers’ comp. Categorize expenses. Decipher government letters. Pay invoices. Update addresses. Manage equity. Troubleshoot insurance. Answer PTO questions. The list never ends.
What a waste of time. But what’s worse is the constant anxiety: What am I missing? Did I do this right? Will I get fined?
What founders need isn’t another tool they have to learn and manage, but something that actually does the work. All of it.
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So we built Central
Central kills back-office work for startups. While HR/payroll platforms give you software to manage, we actually do all the work using AI agents and human experts: payroll, benefits, compliance, accounting, taxes, and more.
Today, we’re excited to announce that we’ve raised $8.6M in funding led by First Round Capital, with participation from Y Combinator, Ritual Capital, Multimodal Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Surgepoint Capital, and several prominent founders who’ve felt this pain, including Kulveer Taggar (Co-Founder & CEO at Zeus), JJ Fliegelman (Co-Founder & CTO at WayUp), and Richard Aberman (Co-Founder and CPO at WePay).
In just one year, companies including Wordware, Magic Patterns, Bitesight, Wyndly, Poseidon Aerospace, Ulysses, Diode, and hundreds more have made Central their back-office platform.
We’ve processed $80M+ in payroll, and 30% of our customers switched from Rippling, Gusto, Deel and other traditional HR/payroll platforms.
Bo Nam, founder & CEO of EightAI, put it best: “I’ve used and suffered with nearly every payroll service prior to Central, including Gusto, Rippling, Deel, and more for the past 10+ years across 2 of my own startups. Central has changed my life. I went from spending 5-10 hours every week to literally ZERO time.”
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