Fresh off a limited pilot with customers and an oversubscribed pre-seed round, the team at HR tech startup Pasito is gearing up for product development and a hiring strategy with several employee hubs.
One of those hubs is the Portland region where co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer Julie Scotland works. The other two are New York City, where co-founder and CEO Pauline Roteta is, and Santa Barbara, California, where newly hired chief technology officer Ignacio Ampuero is.
“We are remote. However, we really believe in the power of being able to build camaraderie and get together occasionally,” Scotland said. “We are focusing on creating location hotspots for the team where the leaders are.”
Pasito started in March. It started running its first pilots on its idea for market validation in June.
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The company is developing a human resources tool to help employees understand and use tax-efficient benefits. These benefits include dependent care flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts and 401(k)s, Scotland said.
Pasito’s tool gives employees a snapshot of what happens if they use these accounts. Employees can take their own financial data and, based on that information, see what plan or contribution levels make the most sense for their needs.
Pasito "can see the long-term saving scenarios,” she said. “It lifts the curtain on what tax savings are available based on employer provided benefits.”
The pilot program was a manual process and worked with 1,700 employees. The program helped employees save, on average, $1,800 and focused on dependent care flexible spending accounts. The company’s target customers are organizations with between 500 and 2,000 employees.
The startup is touting its product as a way to help with employee retention as well as compliance benchmarks.
“From a talent and retention perspective, a lot of people are struggling financially,” Scotland said. “By providing guidance and helping them set up savings, and compound savings, you can make a big difference for employees and it shows you care and are investing in employees for their future.”
Now the company, which has seven employees, is focused on building the tool into a software application. This week it hired Ampuero to lead that as CTO. He was most recently a software development manager at Amazon working on the Alexa product.
Scotland wouldn’t talk details on the funding round but said 20% of it came from Portland-area investors, including some well-known business leaders. Depending on needs, the startup might raise a seed round next year.
Currently the company is hiring for a certified public account to help with product development. By second quarter 2022 it expects to have a broader list for hiring, said Scotland.
