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What are the competitive dynamics of cross-selling against integrated products like Gusto with their R&D tax credits?

Pete Belknap

Former Engineering Manager at Pilot

I'm a big believer that companies like to buy things from fewer vendors. All things being equal, if they already buy things from you and they need to buy the next thing, they'd rather buy it from you or one of their other vendors than start a relationship with a new vendor.

Then, the question is, why should I get my R&D tax credit from Pilot when I could get it from Gusto? The way we thought about that at Pilot was that, it'd be about your relationship. As a dumb example, Google is probably somebody you would not go to get your R&D tax credit from, even if they offered it because you would be like, "Why should I believe Google will do a good job of that?" 

I assume that Gusto's in-rows is payroll-oriented, and Pilot's is tax-oriented. So it's like, do I believe that someone will be more likely to buy R&D credit from their tax professional than from their payroll company? I do, but I'm biased.

Find this answer in Pete Belknap, ex-engineering manager at Pilot, on gross margin in software-enabled services
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