Chad Richison

Chad Richison founded Paycom Software in 1998 in Oklahoma City, bootstrapping the company with personal savings and growing it over two decades into a publicly traded HCM platform with over $1.8 billion in annual revenue. Richison's founding thesis was that payroll and HR software should be built on a single database — eliminating the data synchronization problems that plague platforms assembled through acquisitions (as many larger competitors are). Paycom's single-database architecture allows seamless data flow between payroll, time tracking, talent management, benefits administration, and compliance — a genuine technical advantage that customers experience as fewer errors, less manual intervention, and better reporting. Richison personally drove much of the product vision, insisting on building rather than buying capabilities, which gave Paycom an unusually cohesive platform. Richison's most consequential decision was the 2023 full rollout of "Beti" (Better Employee Transaction Interface), which shifts paycheck verification and error correction directly to employees rather than HR administrators. While transformational for the employee experience, Beti initially caused Paycom's revenue growth to decelerate — because by reducing errors and support tickets, it also reduced some of the ancillary fees that had been part of the revenue model. Wall Street reacted harshly, sending the stock down significantly. Richison's bet is that Beti's superior user experience will accelerate new client acquisition and improve retention, eventually more than compensating for the near-term revenue impact. His decisions on product development, go-to-market strategy, international expansion, and the Beti adoption trajectory are the central drivers of Paycom's stock.