State of the Union SMBs

Michael Mendenhall: So, it's so great to be here with you guys today. Some of you have been to PeopleForce in the past, and we love that. And some of you are new for the very first time and we welcome you. We have an incredible, incredible three days in store for you with conversations from Ashley Judd, Ronan Farrow, Oliver Hudson, Goldie Hawn, Ryan Reynolds, and so many, many more.

We're going to cover a lot of ground and we're going to talk about the macroeconomics that are challenging society, as well as the micro challenges that we're seeing in small to medium size businesses, the very challenges and issues that are going to be facing your businesses will be addressed and what a year it certainly has been since 2022.

And as we all know, a lot has happened and many of us, at this point, have never uttered the word ChatGPT, OpenAI, right? We're all trying to figure that out. The world is sort of ever-changing. And one example that you may have heard about, just yesterday, was a boy who was 17 years old, went to 17 doctors for chronic pain over three years. They could not find the exact cause of what the issue was. His mom decided to take all the records and all the data and go onto ChatGPT, and they found the right diagnosis, which is simply amazing and that was broadcast nationally yesterday.

So we're gonna talk a lot about that. We're also gonna talk about right-sizing, downsizing, scaling up to meet the ever-looming, maybe, hopefully not, recession, fingers crossed on that. And we're going to talk a lot about growth opportunities for small to medium-size businesses today. So throughout the next three days, you're going to hear a common theme and that's the theme and message of our gathering this year: People for people.

Each of us, at the end of day, is in the people business, the business of serving people, the business of finding people and the right talent to power our businesses and the business of in some way, making the world a better place for people.

To explore that theme and shed more light on the state of our businesses, it gives me great pleasure to welcome our first speaker and our host, TriNet's president and CEO, Burton Goldfield.

(Music)

Michael: Hello, good to see you.

Burton Goldfield: Welcome everybody. The next three days are about a celebration of the small and medium businesses, the backbone of our country. We will talk about the challenges and opportunities and I'm so excited because I have a message for every one of you. There's never been a better time to start a company than right now. So let's talk about that, Michael. Let's do that.

Michael: So Burton, we were saying that a lot has changed since 2022 for sure going into ‘23, going into ‘24. You had certainly inflation, some of the highest we've seen in so many decades. You've seen interest rates the highest they've been in 22 years. You've seen a constrained labor force. We have aging population, which is, you know, constraining the labor base.

We've seen salaries increase relative to trying to attract talent. So there's so many of these sort of macro issues that are taking effect right now. We saw a banking crisis, right? And we'll talk a lot more about all this as we go. Where do you think this really winds up when we say now's the best time to start a business?

Burton: So there is so many narratives out there, Michael. And as you said, you can take all this data and it becomes confusing, but I boil it down to three fundamental issues. Number one is—the access to talent has never been better. Not only are there great people leaving large companies, but there's also now a global workforce, and we have figured out how to collaborate effectively with people all over the world.

So if you are starting a company, to me, the number one thing is the people that you have access to, and it's never been better. Number two is, and you mentioned it, AI and technology. We have come so far. Coming out of technology used to take us 90 days just to get an environment that we could develop software in.

You can go to a cloud software company and get an editor, get a configurator, and you can build software in 24 hours. You can leverage AI technology to build your next company and that didn't exist a few years ago. And third is that the problems are real. As you said, much has changed since 2022. Much has changed since 2021.

But the fact is the dislocation of the supply chain, the need for new drugs, the need to provide food to people around the world—all of these things are creating opportunities to set up net new companies, and I am seeing new company formation. I am seeing great ideas. I'm seeing patents being utilized to solve problems like solving—there's 300 people who have hepatitis B, and there's companies now working on that issue.

Michael: So, you’re talking AI there?

Burton: I am talking AI. I am talking about the fact that as a CEO, we are an optimistic lot and as you sort through that data, there is so many opportunities for companies.

Michael: 78% of small business owners are optimistic as well. They do believe there may be some sort of an economic downturn, not recession. They're prepared for that. They feel very good about that. So that really confirms what you're saying, that there is this optimism that is out there. I want to go back to the AI piece that you brought up. You know, AI and machine learning has been around for well over a decade.

Now we're just seeing an iteration of this that has come to market, you know, that has to do with algorithms now that allow people to participate. You know, it was generally in a B2B world. Now it's a B2C world that we're living in with it as well. You know, there's a lot of concerns about protecting IP, protecting patents, protecting, you know, sort of any of your content.

Where do you see this playing out? Like, is this going to be something that just sits within a firewall in a company? Or are people going to participate in the broader open AI environment?

Burton: So it depends on the application. It is exactly like software. What software is common and what is proprietary?

We have been using bots and AI for years. We're using AI as it relates to recruiting. We're using AI as it relates to marketing. You know that very well. We have been using bots as it relates to treasury for many years. This evolution is very fast and somewhat jarring. I am glad that it's part of the national discussion, but I am looking at the opportunities and believe that we'll face the challenges, the proprietary challenges and so forth, and solve them just like we solve other problems. And it will be solved by passionate entrepreneurs figuring out how to contain the technology but also make it work.

Specifically to your point, at TriNet, we are building our own models. We are not using public models. Why? Because we trust our own data. We trust our own answers. So it's a little slower to do that. It's not the quick start, but it gives us information that's relevant to our customers. It gives us information that's legally accurate and allows our customers to pursue their business.

Michael: They used to say content is king. Are you sort of saying content and data are king?

Burton: I am saying that content and data are king, but it is the creative proprietary ideas that address customer problems that build great companies. And it comes back to having great people. There's no AI that's going to replace having a passionate, engaged team with our customers that solve real business problems.

Michael: Yeah, because we heard when all these sort of new technologies came out that would replace people and people would be out of work. And in fact, when you look at it, it actually created more jobs, but just in a different level of experience that was needed.

Burton: Absolutely. And companies shifted so dramatically during the pandemic to deliver their solutions. And lo and behold, those changes have taken hold to make products and services even better post pandemic.

Michael: Where does ethics play a role with AI?

Burton: Ethics is a key part of protecting and securing people's intellectual property. Ethics plays an important role in how this technology is used and how people are treated. But at the end of the day, technology can always be used for good and for evil, and I choose good.

Michael: Yeah, when you look at the speed or the velocity at which this has come, you know, AI into the open market, when you go back and you really think about when we didn't have email, we didn't have the World Wide Web, we didn't have a lot of these tools, and all of a sudden it was, we felt, that this was rapidly being accelerated and had to adjust. Are we in that same position with AI or is the velocity even faster now?

Burton: I think the velocity is faster, but the trends are similar. I remember before fax machines. I've been around that long. I remember the original Qwip machine, I believe it was called. It took four minutes to scan one page. We have come so far and we will go a lot further and faster with the help of entrepreneurs and people that are deeply engaged in the problems both in the public and the nonprofit sector, in the private sector to solve great problems.

I believe that the issues around the environment will be solved by technology. Admittedly, I'm a devout technologist. I believe that we will solve the problems of feeding the world, providing water and food and we will do that through innovation. Innovation will come through things like AI and other core technology, but at the end of the day, you need leadership, you need vision and you need passion.

Michael: You're a CEO of a major company. You have founders and CEOs that are in the audience and are senior executives. You know, where do they play a role in bringing AI into the organization, managing it so that it doesn't get out of control?

Burton: You are going to hear from some amazing people over the next couple days.

So, my optimism comes from talking to our customers and our prospects about what they're doing. I'll give you a great example. A company you'll hear from over the next few days is Talkspace. They are using AI technology to monitor chats. And in these chats, they're able to tell whether someone has suicidal tendencies.

Now, that amazes me. It amazes me and it alerts the therapist to where somebody may be as it relates to a very, very critical issue. The issues that we are solving with this technology, with AI, are only limited by the creativity, the optimism and the results of these companies that are being formed. And Talkspace is a great example.

Michael: That's awesome. Will we see efficiency and productivity through AI? We're hearing a lot about that.

Burton: I think that we'll see efficiency and productivity, but for me, it's more about results. It's about solving big, hard problems, whether it be the environment, whether it be predicting weather patterns, which have been so challenging over the years.

How do you aggregate all this data? We have the data. It's just reading the patterns and being more accurate is the way things go. In our business, the amount of new laws and regulations, the ability to assimilate at the federal, state and local level, every single change in employment law, and apply it immediately to our customers is critically important.

Michael: That's become probably more complicated when you think about the work environment today. So, you know, through COVID, you know, we now see 60% are still in small to medium-size businesses remote completely. There's another 20% that are going into the office and the rest are sort of hybrid.

Where do you see that sort of affecting business culture and then the progress relative to these small businesses and the technology that could be used to improve?

Burton: It's all about adapting to change. This is about change. The environment is not going to change back. As I said, the good news is I don't have to look for 10 PhDs in Peoria.

I can get the 10 PhDs anywhere I need to get them. The bad news is—how do I collaborate effectively? How do I build a culture? How do I communicate? We have remote workers all over. As you know, you had me build a giant studio, 4K studio, which I can go in and I can do five or 10 minute videos. I can communicate to 4, 000 people effectively.

Michael: Is it better than this? Is it better?

Burton: Well, you know, at the time I was skeptical when I saw the bill for the studio. I can tell you right now, I am grateful to be able to communicate. So you're shifting. You can get great people, but you need to communicate with those folks because if you're not united around an idea, you're not going to solve the problem whether you have AI, whether you have ChatGPT. It is about focus. It is about passion.

Michael: 32% I believe have increased salaries. And we talked a little bit about this as well as you think of your workforce and the culture you're building that you just spoke about. You know, that sort of affects inflation. It also starts to build an even more competitive environment for talent. So one of the bigger things is—how do I retain talent and how do I find good talent with the right skill sets? So, many of these small businesses are in that predicament. What is your opinion about that?

And will salaries continue, or will they level out or will they continue to grow as you think of a shrinking labor base?

Burton: So, I have a very specific perspective on that. I would rather have a smaller team of engaged and passionate people and pay and compensate those folks right because you don't determine compensation; the market determines the compensation.

And yes, inflation is a challenge right now. But I can tell you this, when I got involved with my first company, the prime rate in the U. S. was 11% in the ‘80s and I was borrowing money at 23% from a lockbox factor.

Michael: And I think you got a deal on that.

Burton: I did, but the issue is—I was thrilled with my lender because they took a chance on me.

At 6% interest, which I am not minimizing, there is still money available, you need to have quicker time to market. You need to have a focused team and you need to deliver profitability quicker. I don't see that as an overall problem. I see it as a challenge, one of the many challenges that CEOs face.

So as it relates to inflation and salaries, you have to keep up with it, salaries, but there's a lot more to that, which is the benefits. There's a lot more involved and there is the mission and there's the communication and who else you're working with. So you can't gain the salaries and that is obviously driven partially about inflation.

When you talk about access to capital, you have to look yourself in the mirror and say, "if I can't get a return on 6% money, I shouldn't be borrowing it or taking it as part of my company."

Michael: I want to come back to, you know, the capital environment because that has shifted dramatically too overnight relative to the banking crisis, but we did have a poll. You know, we have thousands of people that are watching this online and I thought if you can pull that poll back up, it does play into what you had said earlier in your statement about now's the best time to start a business and it was where they were asking about how positive people were relative to the economy and the number was pretty outstandingly positive, about where the economy is relative to small businesses. So that's good to hear that the folks that are online—right here it is, you know; 30% some are still unsure but not so many pessimistic so that's a good sign.

Burton: And that's what keeps me going every day. It is the optimistic entrepreneurs. This is my 16th year as CEO of TriNet and every day I get the honor.

Michael: Okay, we have to get the unsures because that just notched up.

Burton: Well, all right.

Michael: We're gonna convince you for the three days.

Burton: The unsure should be going down.

Michael: Yes, correct. Correct. Correct.

Burton: We talked through this discussion. I'm hoping we can move that.

Michael: Oh, no. The pessimistic just went down. That's a good thing.

Burton: There you go.

Michael: I wanted to talk about the capital environment.

Burton: Yes.

Michael: Because the capital environment is more constrained, but what we know is through the VCs that now what they're looking for is very different. It's not growth at all costs.

Burton: Right.

Michael: It's now—we want to see the bottom line. We're not going to wait 10 years to see profitability. We want you to have three months free cash flow on hand.

What is your opinion about that space, because if we're starting a new business and even businesses that are out there that exist today—they may need more capital. Now, where does that sit?

Burton: I've lived through the dot-com boom and bust, web van doesn't exist, pets dot com doesn't exist, but there is groceries that are available to be delivered to your house.

There is DoorDash and other ways to get products delivered. There is people that are flourishing and delivering pet food. So, the incarnation of companies that did not have an eye towards profitability ceased to exist. I hope we don't go through a dot-com bust, because I think there's more value today.

But you also have to have the time to profitability. You have to have a focus on a very specific market. And at the end of the day, you have to execute. A vision doesn't matter without the execution.

Michael: Do you think some of these small businesses are refocusing back to what the core business value proposition was?

Burton: I think the business…

Michael: …or maybe got distracted or distracted by competitors, added a bunch of new products that probably weren't as important as what their core product was when they launched?

Burton: I think the companies that have survived the last couple years have a better chance of having a dramatic impact on our economy and the world than the companies that existed prior to that. I'm seeing the private equity firms have stashes of cash for the right companies. I'm seeing innovation from great entrepreneurs that are finding ways to keep going, either from additional friends and family rounds, from grants, from companies that are looking at them and saying, "they have a future impact on my company, so I'm willing to give them a grant." And I'm seeing people borrow money, which is very challenging because of the time to profitability and the ability to pay it back. But it is not a barrier for somebody who has the right idea, the right market and the right time to value. I just don't see that.

Michael: So, I want to come back to people. Because it really is, then, about people as you think about, you know, your products and services, your focus, staying focused and staying very dedicated to that purpose. We want to cover retention because, you know, competitive, we talked about salary, we talked about all of these things that make up a company and its success—and it is the people.

How do you retain people today? You know, we talked about the hiring and the opportunities to go global and I want to come back then to some of the issues that surround a global workforce.

Burton: Right.

Michael: But let's talk about how do you retain? Is it the benefits? What are you seeing that retains a customer within a company? Because we've seen that every two years, some of these different demographic groups are jumping companies. And by the time you've invested in training them and getting them to produce, they leave. So what is it that you see?

Burton: I see today's workforce more mission-oriented than any time in my 30-year history. I see the ability to bring people together around a mission and a vision that's focused on the customer. I keep saying that for me, I'm so excited to talk to our customers because they give me energy. If you build a culture around your customers, you let in that energy to your organization. But having that culture requires communications.

Having that culture requires having key goals and being very specific about the goals and objectives. And I think the most important thing for a CEO to do is not wake up one morning and say, "go there," and then the next morning say, "go there." I believe that I've tried to keep the mission and vision steady, expanding it slightly over the 15 years.

So consistency, allowing people to partake in that and feeling like they make a difference is a critical part of it. We already talked about compensation. Compensation is driven by the market. It's not driven by your company. However, the intersection between the organization and the compensation varies widely by vertical, and we're verticalized by industries in our nonprofit space that the compensation, the salaries are lower, but they also value the benefits and you get into a very different discussion about how benefits are valued in your organization. And that's not only the health care, which is a huge issue, but also the ancillary benefits and the ability to take advantage of them.

Michael: What are some of those?

Burton: Oh, everything from FMLA and mental health benefits and ancillary benefits as far as PTO goes and being able to take time off to pursue charity and education benefits. There's a whole group of these things which are valued differently by different organizations and frankly, by different people.

Michael: How important is 401(k) in that?

Burton: 401(k) has become, and I'm thrilled about that, has become very important. Again, when I was involved in my first startup, I got a whole bunch of options. I didn't get medical. I didn't get dental and I was on my own for everything else and we didn't even talk about PTO because we were expected to work seven by 24. It did not succeed, by the way, but I learned a lot.

Today, people and entrepreneurs are much more sophisticated. I'm not going to move because of those situations. I forget, I think I had 2 million options, which were worth absolutely zero then. And they're worth zero today. Forty years later, people are more sophisticated because they did have situations where they did not succeed in those opportunities, so having the right benefits up front are very important to protect them and their family. Having the right culture, the culture of saying, "no, we're going to lock down and we're going to build this product and get it to market. Katy barred the door. There's no such thing as benefits." That doesn't play in today's world and that's a good thing.

Michael: But I want to bring up one piece of that because you mentioned health care, which for the management of these small to medium-size businesses becomes incredibly important. And so much of that has to do with what you're providing your employee base and the costs associated.

And that continues to rise. I mean, we know that there's, you know, a nursing shortage. This is going to increase. We know that there's more chronic illness that's been developing that's going to increase. So there's all these factors, the pharmaceuticals, the increases in some of the drugs that people are taking. All of this sort of piles up to six to 10% every year, and this just continues at some point. What is your perspective on giving some advice around how they should think about managing healthcare and those benefits for their employees?

Burton: So there's two very different issues going on right now.

One is, I believe, an existential problem here in the U.S. as far as spiraling medical costs and pharmaceutical costs. And that is its own issue that needs to be dealt with, needs to be dealt with by leaders, by government and other factors to slow down that inflationary cost. The second is—if you're running a small business, how do you get access to the benefits that your people value?

And by the way, it's different by different areas. At TriNet, what we do is break it down into three areas. There's price, which is very important. There's choice. How many plans are offered? What do your people value? Is it high deductible plans? Is it out of network coverage? And then the all-important aspect of user experience, meaning how are you accessing those benefits?

What type of help do you have in making decisions? So for us, optimizing around price choice and user experience gives our customers access to a huge variety of medical plans. We have over 300 medical plans and over a dozen insurance company providers that give us network access to those plans. That may be too much, it may be too little, but it's very specific because medical care is local.

Medical care is local. If you're in Boston, there's many people who love the Tufts plan. If you're in New York, you're not talking so much about Tufts because it's not available. There are local networks, there are national networks. So as a CEO, as a group of people, of entrepreneurs trying to build on an idea, you want to deliver the healthcare that you can afford, that has value to your employees and that they have the help they need to choose those plans.

Michael: So it's interesting, we have another poll online that jumped back one topic about what are your top priorities and/or issues. And one of their top priorities is culture and engagement, and the second is retention. So as we think about, you know, healthcare being a big piece of this, and we've sort of seen that where you can actually retain employees, but actually attract new employees based on what you offer.

We've certainly seen that with women's healthcare and your ability to provide the right care for women. That becomes a big advantage as well. Are some of these things a competitive advantage?

Burton: They're absolutely a competitive advantage if they're valued by your employees. The issue is you don't want to just go out there and throw a bunch of stuff out there because it's cool or it's the in thing to do. I had a colleague in the last 30 days come up to me and talk about how much she coveted the fertility benefits and this was why she's so excited that she has the opportunity through TriNet to have those benefits.

Michael: And didn't TriNet actually address some of this very quickly? I think it was like 48 hours in providing women's healthcare?

Burton: So you're talking about a year ago, yeah, access. So you're talking about women's health care access, which is different than fertility after the Supreme Court decision. And it really does highlight the problem, whether you agree or disagree with the Supreme Court decision, it now bifurcates healthcare to the states.

So with the remote work, with the fact that even small companies have people in multiple states, the complexity of access to healthcare becomes much greater. And we have disintermediated that issue. And yes, we move quickly. And I pride, even in a company that's 4, 000 people, we have leadership in the company that can jump on problems and solve them very quickly.

So it wasn't 48. We were on the problem in 48 hours. It took us 30 days to get the product to market. But what we were able to do is allow people to get access to women's healthcare. But at the end of the day, all of these things are interesting. But the important thing is, what does your team need? What do your customers need?

And are you focused and delivering with a small team of people that understand what the goal is, what the KPIs are and they deliver.

Michael: Let's go back to people for people.

Burton: Okay.

Michael: Because we're going back to the people in the organization. And we talked about remote work. Many of these people moved to various states. Because we just talked about healthcare being very local. Now they're in multiple states. At one point, maybe you were all concentrated in a state. What are the issues that small to medium-size businesses have to consider relative to compliance and tax?

Burton: Right. Every state has now diverged, not only on healthcare, but as far as employment laws and tax laws, definitions of overtime, and many other things related to employment.

And that's where TriNet comes in. I was talking to a client recently, a company called NatureServe in the non-profit space. They have PhDs all over the country. They are passionate about treating all of those people as equally as possible. So with that, they need access to benefits that, although different, are equal in all 50 states.

That's some of the challenges that entrepreneurs face.

Michael: That's the choice you talk about.

Burton: That's the choice part. And that gives us the ability to help them hire and retain great people. What I said earlier, you don't have to have all those people in the same place. You don't have to be in the same office. So, they can pick the best people.

And by the way, in their organization, having people in the field as it relates to the environment, it's actually an advantage than having them all in Boston or Washington, et cetera.

Michael: So that's really about the employee and the employee base relative to taxes. Now you have the corporate taxes and some of these companies have moved around based on that. But some of them also don't take advantage of credits. Talk to us about, because this is a big, big opportunity for small to medium-size businesses, and I don't know, and you can sort of talk the numbers, I mean, it's millions and millions and millions of dollars that sit on the table that small businesses are not taking advantage of.

Burton: The best example of that were the PPP loans—the ability for us to help customers get the PPP loans. Not only that, then track the hours so that they could apply for forgiveness of those loans. That was probably one of the most emotional times in my life because business could stay in business because of accessing those loans. I agreed with the idea, but if you didn't have access, it's just an idea. It's just a concept. You have the ERTC tax credits. Most people don't take advantage of them.

Michael: Talk a little bit about some of that.

Burton: There's all types of ways to access government money and government programs, the ability to invest in your business. And by the way, people think about credits when you have proprietary information, meaning technology-proprietary, but there's a lot of other areas around proprietary information. It doesn't have to be software. Most people think it's software. We have proprietary data in the AI models we're building. That is not software. That is IP that we've created that we are investing in. Small companies are investing in IP.

Michael: So, talk a little bit about then. Why did you acquire Claris? What was the whole purpose for trying to acquire Claris and what does it offer to these small businesses?

Burton: So, we've acquired, I believe, nine companies over the last 10 years.

Acquiring companies, there's different reasons. And with Claris, great people and the ability to help our customer base. What I would say we get a good grade on is—we haven't tried to look outside of where we are focused. And we understand that those tax credits are important to our customers and the folks at Claris had a workflow engine, a focus and a passion around doing that and by bringing in a company like that, they're part of TriNet and now they're doing many other things that our customers need.

Michael: What do they provide to the customers?

Burton: Now they're providing all types of capabilities, including a model for our payroll customers to provide what they call an ASO solution that we're testing so that we can provide more support with payroll, taxes, etcetera, which is a key area for small business.

Michael: That's terrific. So, we're going to be almost out of time, so I want to have you sort of talk to this audience about why again, the passion around and the optimism around starting a small business, knowing that there's multiple challenges? We have sort of an uncertain economy. Different economists are saying different things about where the interest rates go.

Do they hold and will we ever see inflation? There's a lot of skepticism in all this because people are still hiring. We're still fully employed as a nation. We still have nine million jobs that need to be filled. And yet jobs are starting to slow, hiring is starting to slow a bit, but yet in certain segments we see hiring on fire.

So is this by industry? Where's your perspective on that?

Burton: So I'll tell you a little story. First of all, now is the best time to start a business in America. We, TriNet, bought a company called Gevity, a public company that was four times our size right after the crash of Lehman Brothers in the worst economy in my lifetime. I had the opportunity to talk to a class, the Stanford Business School class that year. It was June of 2009. We hadn't closed a deal and they were gathering information that was public about this acquisition. And I was being grilled and basically saying, "What type of idiot are you as a CEO to be buying a company in an economy that is devastated?"

And my answer was simple. I couldn't afford this company if the economy was good. And I think CEOs can take any of the narratives out there and guess what? They'll probably be right. But looking for the opportunity, and by the way, it was the best economic acquisition I've ever done. It expanded TriNet to be a nationally known company and it brought in talent that is still here today, over 20 years later.

It was phenomenal. Did I lose a lot of sleep? Yes. Feeling grounded with what you're doing and why you're doing it as a leader, as a CEO believing in your team and yourself doesn't change in good economies or bad economies. And I believe that number one reason with a bullet is—the best people are out there and accessible to you right now, the best people, and I have never seen a great company built without great people. I just haven't.

Michael: It looks like 60% are going to be hiring. This is a great poll, but it sort of does go to the polls that we've seen about 60 to 63% of small businesses are hiring.

Burton: If you follow popular sentiment, it is really hard to do great things. That's what I believe. And I do admit that that Stanford class got me a little bit nervous, but they absolutely believe that I should hunker down, keep my money in the bank, hide the money and wait ‘til things got better. And it may have been the right "down the road" choice, but it wasn't the right choice for me and it did not turn out to be the right choice for TriNet.

Michael: How important is speed, velocity and agility today versus five years ago?

Burton: I believe taking advantage of AI but staying focused on the mission. See, the key is agility in a frenetic way doesn't work. Velocity without focus doesn't work. At the end of the day, leveraging your knowledge of your customer base, applying technology with great people will give you a good chance of being successful. And I'm here today saying, "I am blessed every day to have a six billion dollar company that started as a tiny little company with a great idea, but it took over 15 years, it's not an overnight success and the journey is as important as the outcome.” But I'm working with better people, better customers, better technology than I was 15 years ago and it's gratifying to me.

Michael: One last question on that because you'll hear from Dr. John Adler and he's one of our customers who developed the CyberKnife. You probably, if you're in New York, you hear all about that being promoted by NYU Langone. He talked about when he started the company, he had these really go-getter, driven, working incredibly hard, long hours and very entrepreneurial, the spirit with the entire base.

And he said he got to a point where he had to change course because of the maturity of what was needed in the business to take it to the next level. And the people knew that because these were people that have that skill set about, "get it done, get it done quickly, move it, drive it to market." And now he said, "I had to transition the type of employee."

Have you seen that in the course of the 15 years with TriNet? And have you seen that with other customers or companies that we have experienced with?

Burton: I'm not sure you would've come to work for me when we were $90 million. And I certainly wouldn't have built the studio, so I do believe that it is the objectives over the next 12 months, 18 months, and you need people focused on that.

Certainly, different people flourish in different environments with a different set of goals. So, this is a very different team than 15 years ago for me. It's a wonderful team and it motivates me to come to work every day and do a good job to keep up with you guys.

Michael: So there is an evolution to these businesses that are starting up.

Burton: Yes.

Michael: Perfect. Well, we're out of time and I want to thank you very much for setting the course for the next three days. You're going to hear a lot more in detail about what Burton has talked about and given you guidance on. So I really appreciate it.

Burton: And I appreciate you.

Michael: Yeah, it was awesome. Thank you.