Although the team has zero employees based in the D.C. metro area, Justworks says the HR platform has still seen its D.C. customer base grow 10 times in the 18 months since it launched in the region. (Justworks declined to share its exact customer numbers.)
The New York-based startup has a sales team based at its headquarters solely dedicated to the D.C. market, and the team has focused mostly on trying to get to know the people and companies who make up the region.
"D.C. has been an exciting market for us," said Isaac Oates, chief executive of Justworks. "Because of everything we're working on, it's far and away our fastest growing expansion market. We've seen a lot of growth there."
That angle makes sense given what Justworks does. Founded in 2012, Justworks' tech platform aims to create a more intuitive process for employees to access their benefits, bringing everything from medical insurance and payroll to commuter benefits and 401(k) accounts into one central location. Competitors include Zenefits, ADP and Paychex.
In an effort to get the name out, Justworks has done paid advertising in the D.C. market, such as WMATA campaigns in the Metro and on buses, and they've sponsored and hosted a few events, like its quarterly Justwomen networking meetups.
Oates has seen a flurry of different kinds of companies come to the platform: from startups and entrepreneurs, to not-for-profit companies that work with or adjacent to the federal government.
"We are a compliance-oriented product, and I thinks that's of particular interest to business that either do business with the government today or anticipate doing business with the government in the future," Oates said.
To launch in D.C. in late 2016, the company partnered with startups inDinero and LawTrades, which provides accounting and legal services, respectively, to small businesses. This way if any of Justworks' clients called with a legal or accounting issue, representatives would be prepared with information from its partner companies. And to meet the demand and requests of D.C. clientele, Justworks has added more partnerships to its roster, including an integration with TSheets, a time and attendance tracking application.
If anything, the biggest hurdle to obtain its high-growth numbers came in just trying to understand the regulations surrounding the local human resources market. Laws vary from region to region in the D.C. metro area, meaning a company in Northern Virginia has to meet a different set of standards than those in Maryland or the District.
"What we saw coming into D.C. was really quite different than New York is this orientation around compliance," Oates said. "There were a few features that we didn't have in the beginning that customers wanted."
Moving forward, Oates wants to see Justworks become a household brand for business owners not only in the region, but everywhere.
"We're still in a getting to know you phase, and that takes years," Oates said. "This doesn't happen overnight. Where we're really excited to be is a place where everyone knows about Justworks."
