Simpler, a new startup that wants to disrupt employee onboarding, is launching today and announcing $1.25 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, Khosla Ventures, SV Angel, Data Collective, AngelPool, Kenny Van Zant, Alex Bard, Gary Benitt, Elad Gil, Sid Henderson and Formation8. Simpler is in private beta, and companies can sign up here.
The startup, which is the brainchild of gaming startup TinyCo co-founder (who left the company two years ago) Ian Spivey, and Ivan Kim and Bo Shi, is a solution for the new-hire paperwork problem. As Spivey explains, when he hired people at TinyCo there was always the requisite huge stack of papers that new employees had to fill out on the first day, including tax forms, health care forms, employee agreements and more. He said he wished he had an easy onboarding tool. He adds that the process is the same for startups or for Fortune 500 companies.
So when he left TinyCo he set about trying to create a cloud-based tool that managed new-hire paperwork without the paper, essentially creating paperless onboarding. Simpler, digitizes all the forms that companies need for employee onboarding.
The customer sends Simpler their current on-boarding packet and Simpler digitizes it. HR admins can then enter a new employee’s name, start date and email, and select the type of packet they’ll get (e.g. full time vs. contractor), and the employee will receive an e-mail with a link to their employee portal, which contains all the docs they need to fill out.
Employees then review the documents and sign the forms via an e-signature feature. The documents are submitted for approval, and the HR reps can see what areas where action is required or fields are missing. Administrators can also track employee progress.
Finally, completed documents are sent to third-party service providers like payroll and benefits brokers. The eventual output is a set of documents in a PDF that can be emailed, as well. The workflow as a whole is simple and easy, and doesn’t waste employee or HR time.
As Spivey explains, the company is focusing on a specific part of human capital management, which is a multi-billion dollar opportunity.
Pricing is still being determined, we’re told.