What about DailyPay motivated you to join the company?
I joined DailyPay because of its focus on supporting the needs of hard-working Americans. At DailyPay, we believe that success looks different for everyone, and we are committed to helping workers everywhere achieve their goals at work and in their daily lives. So much of the company’s values have reminded me of my childhood, working in my parents’ grocery store in Omaha, Nebraska, where I learned an invaluable lesson about putting customers first. My parents always insisted that we park at the back of the lot, leaving the best spots for our customers. This simple act taught me the importance of prioritizing those we serve – a principle at the core of DailyPay’s values today.
What inspired you to pursue a career in the tech industry and how did you get started in this field?
Attending Iowa State University, I majored in aerospace engineering. During my time there, I interned for a professor of computer science. This professor helped me broaden my career perspective. He showed me how the skills I had gained gave me opportunities outside of just the aerospace industry — opening doors to software development in Silicon Valley – something that I never thought was possible. I have spent my career applying technology to different industries to simplify how things work. I found homes at many tech companies including IBM, Cisco, and now in my current role as CEO of DailyPay.
How is DailyPay differentiated in their market today?
DailyPay is not just an earned wage access provider. It is much more than that. DailyPay is a WorkTech company that has created a powerful platform that companies offer their employees as an integral part of their financial benefits.
Companies leverage DailyPay to hire faster and retain employees longer. The company’s award-winning earned wage access solution is a powerful financial wellness tool. Leading employers across the country from Target to Hilton offer it to their employees as a financial wellness resource.
DailyPay is not just about getting paid quicker. It is a powerful platform for managing money, tracking expenses, and planning – all in one place. This improves the worker-employer relationship because it goes beyond money; it is about peace of mind. We are not just another earned wage access provider. We apply a unique approach to funding, personalize client support, and continuously improve tools. As a strategic partner, we help businesses tackle the challenges of today’s workforce head-on.
What impact has DailyPay had on working Americans?
DailyPay brought much-needed innovation to an archaic, inefficient biweekly (or monthly) payroll system. DailyPay’s industry-defining earned wage access solution empowers workers with choice and control over their earned pay so that they can pay bills, spend, save, or invest on their own schedule.
DailyPay is focused on bringing earned wage access to everyone, everywhere. As the leader in the earned wage access industry, DailyPay is delivering meaningful and impactful results for both workers and employers.
DailyPay can play a vital role in the financial well-being of workers regardless of the fluctuations in the economy. Think about this - for the 60% of Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck, the biweekly pay cycle often does not neatly align with bills and unforeseen costs. This can lead to detrimental financial outcomes like missed or late payments, overdrafts, and payday loans. By leveraging DailyPay, employees can tap into their earned pay immediately as they earn it, empowering them to pay their bills on time.
What is DailyPay seeing in terms of work trends right now? What challenges and opportunities are on the horizon?
The world of work is changing dramatically. AI, Robotics, remote working, and other innovations are creating a more dynamic workplace, one that we often describe as the gig economy.
While work is speeding-up and opening-up for some, hourly workers are still being held back by fundamental barriers. They might not have enough gas money to get to work, have trouble switching shifts with a coworker, or have bad credit so they cannot rent an apartment. This has helped contribute to today’s broken relationship between workers and employers - where it often feels like they are out of sync with each other. To us, this seems like a crisis of wasted potential, and nearly $8 trillion in lost productivity. Our vision for DailyPay is about addressing these issues. We want to do more than just help Daily Workers access their pay; we want to help them access more opportunities in a whole range of ways. We want to put DailyPay right at the heart of the relationship between workers and their employers, creating a new interface between them that unlocks more opportunities.
What is your vision for DailyPay as CEO moving into the future?
There are more than 150 million Americans living paycheck to paycheck. The needs and expectations of today’s workforce have changed dramatically in the last decade. In the past, traditional HR Tech supported the HR function and processes at work, but today’s workforce requires more. We see this new evolved space as WorkTech as opposed to HR Tech. It goes well beyond HR processes to truly support the day-to-day needs of the workforce. WorkTech encompasses employee experience, engagement, and wellbeing in and out of the office. That is the driving reason we are expanding our relationship with the Daily Worker and finding new, exciting ways to serve them. We plan to build a powerful update to our WorkTech platform. All the innovation we roll out is grounded in Daily Workers’ needs so we can meet their needs where they are and arm them with the tools they need to succeed.
What advice do you have for other women pursuing leadership roles in the tech industry?
As we rise in our leadership roles, it is important to remember you do not need to be an expert in everything. My advice is to believe in yourself and your abilities. A good leader does not necessarily need to be the smartest person in the room — they do need to surround themselves with team members who bring the expertise that complements their capabilities, creating a team that is unstoppable.
What is your advice for other growing businesses considering private equity?
There tends to be some fear among growing companies about taking investment from PE firms, which is not necessarily fair. Growing businesses should be aware that there are a wide range of investment philosophies among the PE investor community, which includes many firms that are willing to take minority positions and offer growth capital to businesses with high potential.
My advice for businesses considering these investments is to think critically about what you are looking for in a financial partner. Outside investment can obviously help your business grow faster, but you want to ensure that any investor you bring into your cap table has the relationships, connections, brand, and field expertise to be a valuable partner to your business during the next stage of growth.
What are the benefits of working with a group like Carrick Capital Partners?
Carrick understands the space in which our business operates and has been able to provide strategic advice and guidance, while making impactful introductions and connections. The team at Carrick is always extremely responsive and has been particularly helpful through a variety of cycles and challenges, where their experience was especially valuable.
