Inside Guideline's mission to modernize 401(k)s | Building from first principles, finding strategic edges, and rewiring retirement | Kevin Busque (Co-founder and CEO)
Description
Kevin Busque is the co-founder and CEO of Guideline, a 401(k) management company revolutionizing the retirement space for small and medium-sized businesses. Prior to Guideline, Kevin co-founded Taskrabbit, where he encountered firsthand the complexity and low participation rates of traditional 401(k) plans—largely due to confusing fee structures.
After launching Guideline to address those problems head-on, the company has seen remarkable growth, hitting $120 million in ARR by June 2024. In this conversation, Kevin shares pivotal moments that shaped Guideline’s trajectory, including a strategic partnership with Gusto. He also explains how his “Do the hard thing first” mindset helped the team build an industry-leading platform and disrupt an entrenched market.
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Referenced:
- ADP: https://www.adp.com/
- Aydin Senkut: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aydins/
- CalSavers: https://www.calsavers.com/
- DoorDash: https://www.doordash.com/
- Fidelity: https://www.fidelity.com/
- Guideline: https://www.guideline.com/
- Gusto: https://gusto.com/
- Intuit: https://www.intuit.com/
- Jeremy Caballero: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremycaballero/
- John Zimmer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnzimmer11/
- Josh Reeves: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuareeves/
- Mike Nelson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mnelsonio/
- Leah Solivan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leahsolivan/
- Paychex: https://www.paychex.com/
- Plaid: https://plaid.com/
- Taskrabbit: https://www.taskrabbit.com/
- Tomer London: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomerlondon/
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Where to find Kevin:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbusque/
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Where to find Brett:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson
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Where to find First Round Capital:
- Website: https://firstround.com/
- First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/firstround
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital
- This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast
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Timestamps:
(00:00 ) Teaser: “I don’t believe in stealth mode”
(02:51 ) Inspiration behind Guideline
(07:56 ) Lessons from a year’s research before Guideline
(10:44 ) Identifying market pull for Guideline
(14:28 ) What Kevin learnt before shipping their first product
(19:10 ) How Guideline set their fees up
(27:51 ) The surprising range of Guideline’s early customers
(31:48 ) Kevin’s insights from the Gusto integration
(39:48 ) Guideline’s first year
(44:44 ) Working with Plaid as Guideline’s first customer
(53:28 ) Guideline’s auto-enrollment feature
(57:53 ) Lucky 8: Kevin’s unexpected pricing strategy
(62:04 ) Franchise opportunities
(64:49 ) Kevin’s reflections on Taskrabbit
(71:36 ) Will Guideline ever go multi-product?
(72:37 ) Kevin’s take on product-market fit
(73:30 ) Guideline’s compounding advantage
(78:51 ) The challenges faced by introverted leaders
United States
