Fintech Impact

Summary:

In this second episode, Jason Pereira, award-winning financial planner, university lecturer, writer, and host interviews Kevin Kliman, CEO and Founder of Humi – an HR software company. Kevin shares the highlights of his journey, what his company Humi is seeking to accomplish, and Humi’s impact on the financial space.

Show Notes

00:41 – Humi is a fintech company because in addition to its subscriber model, they

                    introduced payroll and becoming the group insurance broker for the

                    companies that they deal with.

●     01:24 – Humi acknowledges that Zenefits – a SAS company - created their

                    business model: give away software and make money off of insurance

                    sales.

●     01:41 – Zenefits rose to a valuation of over $1 billion.

●     01:46 – Kevin Kliman and Humi graduated from Y Combinator – one of the

                    biggest incubators in the United States.

●     02:42 – Kevin explains Humi as a cloud-based benefits, payroll and HR software,

                    trying to solve the problem of time being wasted reconciling multiple

                    isolated systems instead of running their business.

●     04:54 – Humi is Kevin’s first tech start-up and he is not from the world of insurance

                    and benefits. He is a licensed dentist and has experience building

                    businesses and soft-ware based companies on the side.

●     06:42 – Kevin Kliman became excited by the business model of Humi and met his

                    partners: Matt Loszak the technical lead, Simon Bourgeois the COO, and

                    Drew Millington the head of sales.

●     09:16 – The payroll application stemmed from merging with a company that was

                    already building it and it was attractive in its simplicity and being

                    web-based.

●     11:54 – Pricing model for companies coming on their is a SAS license fee with a

                    nominal cost per employee per month. Companies that choose to

                    make Humi their insurance broker will not be charged for the software.

●     13:05 – The partner route is attractive to Humi, which has 30+ people, but it comes

                    down to bandwidth.

●     15:12 – Humi sees a lot of promise in being an end-to-end solution for both

                    employers and employees.

●     18:00 – The goal is becoming a leader in the HR, payroll, and benefits space, and

                    revamping performance management for companies.

●     20:05 – Humi’s team went from zero to 30 in 2-3 years.

●     22:41 – Humi’s target customer has changed significantly from companies that are

                    10-30 people from companies that are 50-200. Bamboo HR has been a

                    competitor.

●     27:30 – Interaction with the broker space is still early and how to support them

                    properly. Humi has been able to give quotes in 80% less time.

●     30:51 – Put your client first and satisfy their needs. Embrace the future.

●     32:40 – Integrations with Zero and Quickbooks, Group RSP providers are goals of

                    the company.

●     36:59 – For employees that use Humi every month – 50% log in every day.

3 Key Points:

1. Humi graduated from Y Combinator – one of the biggest incubators in the United States.

2. Companies using Humi pay a base fee to use the software and a nominal cost per employee per month. Companies that choose to make Humi their insurance broker will not be charged for the software.

3. For employees that use Humi every month, an astounding 50% log in every day.

Tweetable Quotes:

-   “Humi is cloud-based payroll, benefits, and HR software.” – Kevin Kliman.

-   “Payroll is its own beast. It has to have connections to all of the banks…which is tough to do.” – Kevin Kliman.

-   “If you think about the best way to service your client, you are going to win in the long run. .” – Kevin Kliman. 

-   “In general we (Canada) are about four years behind the states when it comes to technology…mostly because we are 1/10th of the size.” – Kevin Kliman. 

Resources Mentioned:

● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook

● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn

● Humi – Website for Humi

● Woodgate Financial – Sponsor of Fintech Impact podcast