I’m excited to announce that Ian Watson has joined Gusto as our Head of Customer Experience, externally known as Chief Customer Officer.
Ian has spent his entire career focused on delivering incredible customer experience and is passionate about serving customers. He is joining Gusto at a meaningful moment, as we expand the breadth of the People Platform, and serve more small businesses.
Service at Scale for Small Businesses
Ian is a builder at heart. An architecture enthusiast (and Lego aficionado), he likes to figure out how things work, from processes and operations to complex systems and technology products. That curiosity translates to his work in customer care. Ian was most recently at Airbnb where he led customer experience strategy. He was focused on streamlining the complexities of support for online reservations, managing listings, and enabling great guest experiences, while Airbnb served millions of hosts and guests across the world. Prior to Airbnb, he led and scaled global customer experience, finance and HR operation teams at Qantas Airlines, DBS Bank, and Barclays Bank.
Like so many Gusties, Ian has deep personal connections to small business. He spent his childhood watching his mom pour her heart and soul into a sandwich shop she owned and operated in Newcastle, England. As a teenager, Ian went to work at the shop on weekends (where he developed a particular knack for making breakfast sandwiches). Seeing firsthand what it takes to successfully run a small business ignited a passion in Ian for making entrepreneurs’ lives easier and more manageable. That understanding and appreciation for small businesses, coupled with Ian’s extensive expertise, are some of the reasons why we’re excited for Ian to help Gusto scale our CX org to serve millions of small businesses on our platform.
Unlocking Opportunities for Entrepreneurs
There’s nothing small about small businesses. They have an outsized impact on society and the economy. A record-breaking 5.5 million new business applications were filed in 2023. As the Council of Economic Advisors puts it, each of these applications is an act of hope, an aspiration by an entrepreneur looking to improve their lives, their families, and their communities.
Gusto exists to help entrepreneurs turn those aspirations into reality. We level the playing field for growing businesses by addressing the most important challenges that they face — from modern payroll and benefits to global hiring offerings to financial health services and expert HR advice. We’re here to simplify business operations, enhance the lives of their teams, and provide them with the time and resources needed to build great places to work.
We’re excited about all the ways we’re growing and innovating to support the businesses we serve, and we know we have much more work to do. Entrepreneurs on G2 voted Gusto as #1 Product for Small Businesses for 2024. And we’re equally proud to be featured among Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of the Year. In our 10+ years in operation, we’ve processed more than two-thirds of a trillion dollars in payroll for hundreds of thousands of employers across the U.S. We announced a new embedded fintech partnership with Chase Payments solutions to power payroll for its many small business customers. And we’re exploring new ways to tap AI to make entrepreneurs’ lives easier — from the prevention and faster resolution of tax notices to generating job posts.
I’m thrilled to have Ian joining the team, and leading our CX org to support the ever-growing number of businesses we serve. And I’m very proud of all Gusties, what we’re building, and the impact we’ll continue to deliver.
With Gusto,
Josh Reeves
Co-Founder and Head of Gusto
