“What I discovered was that business owners, especially SMEs, are petrified of employing people. It’s a huge problem that we wanted to solve.” Benjamin Thompson, Co-Founder and CEO of Employment Hero.

In this episode of Open For Business, we explore Employment Hero’s journey from a simple HR platform to becoming a “fully-autonomous” HR tech solution for SMEs. We dive into why Employment Hero is striving to build the first employment operating system (OS) to simplify hiring, retention, and firing for SMEs, and why it’s raised US$411 million to achieve this goal.

Joining us is Benjamin Thompson, Co-Founder and CEO of Employment Hero, who shares the company's origins, how it has evolved over the last 10 years, and the conviction behind his bold vision and why he believes Employment Hero is on track to become bigger than Atlassian.

In this conversation, you’ll learn:

- The personal motivation behind starting Employment Hero and how it evolved from Ben’s experience as an employment lawyer.

- How Employment Hero turned its HR platform into a comprehensive solution for SMEs.

- Why Employment Hero is confident it will one day surpass Atlassian, and how its total addressable market is driving this vision.

- Insights into the company’s US$411 million fundraising journey and how the funds are being deployed to fuel international growth and AI-driven recruitment solutions.

- The challenges of scaling a SaaS business, why it’s so capital-intensive, and how Employment Hero is navigating a path to profitability.

- How Employment Hero plans to leverage AI to disrupt traditional recruitment practices with their "SmartMatch" tool, creating a real-time talent pool for businesses.

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