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The Current

Incididunt Sed Ut

Transcript
00:00

Introduction

Host: Welcome back to the show. Today we’re talking about building ecosystems, not just products. Our guest helped lead product at ADP during a time when the company transformed from a payroll provider into a broader platform for HR and workforce management.

Guest: Thanks for having me. I’m excited to dig into this.

01:18

From Product Suite to Ecosystem

Host: Let’s start with the big picture. ADP has been around for decades, but at some point the strategy shifted from selling individual software products to building a full ecosystem.

Guest: For a long time ADP was known primarily for payroll. But payroll is just one part of the workforce infrastructure. Customers wanted hiring, benefits, analytics, compliance, and integrations with the rest of their stack.That’s when we realized we needed to build a platform, not just more features.

03:05

Thinking Like a Platform

Host: When you say platform, what did that mean internally?

Guest: It meant shifting our mindset. Instead of building everything ourselves, we focused on building core infrastructure that others could build on.That meant APIs, developer tools, integration frameworks, and strong governance.

05:12

The Three Pillars of the Ecosystem

Guest: There were three major pillars:

  1. Core platform infrastructure
    • Reliable payroll systems, HR data models, and compliance frameworks.
  2. Developer accessibility
    • Great APIs, documentation, and testing environments.
  3. Distribution
    • An app marketplace where customers could discover integrations.
07:45

Why Marketplaces Matter

Host: The marketplace seems like a turning point for most ecosystems.

Guest: Exactly. Customers could find tools they already loved, and partners suddenly had access to thousands of ADP clients.That’s when ecosystems start to compound.

10:02

Challenges of the Platform Model

Host: What were the hardest parts of making the transition?

Guest: The hardest part wasn’t technical — it was organizational.Teams had to think about shared infrastructure instead of isolated features. That requires strong governance and coordination across product teams.

12:30

Advice for Product Leaders

Guest: If you want to build an ecosystem, start by asking where your product sits in the customer’s workflow.Then focus on four things:

  1. Build a strong core product
  2. Invest in APIs early
  3. Make integrations easy
  4. Give partners distribution
15:00

The Future of Ecosystems

Guest: We’ll see fewer standalone products and more interconnected platforms. Companies want their tools to share data and work together.The companies that win will become the central infrastructure in their category.

Table of Contents

Show notes

ADP opened its marketplace to its own competitors. The reason was simple—and it's the same principle every platform builder should steal.

In this inaugural episode of The Current, Finch co-founder Ansel Parikh sits down with Don Weinstein, former Chief Product & Technology Officer and Chief Strategy Officer at ADP, to unpack how he built one of the most successful platform ecosystems in HCM. Don shares why he borrowed from consumer tech companies like Apple, Google, and Meta to rethink enterprise software—and why ADP's decision to open its marketplace to competitors became its biggest long-term advantage. You'll walk away with a framework for thinking differently about ecosystem strategy, customer-first decision-making, and what the rise of AI agents means for the future of work.

Listen to this episode to learn:

  • Why ADP let competitors onto its own marketplace-and how it paid off How studying consumer technology leaders like Google, Apple, and Meta shaped ADP's enterprise UX
  • The three phases every enterprise goes through when adopting new technology
  • How ADP's Al ethics framework got ahead of the industry standard
  • Don's #1 hiring rule for fast-growing startups
  • Where Al agents fit into the future of the workforce-and what still needs to be figured out

Meet the expert

Don Weinstein
Chief Product & Technology Officer & Chief Strategy Officer, ADP

Don Weinstein spent 17 years at ADP, serving as both Chief Product & Technology Officer and Chief Strategy Officer. He helped build ADP Marketplace from the ground up, borrowing ideas from consumer tech to reshape how the HCM industry thinks about connectivity and ecosystem design. Since retiring from ADP, he advises venture capital and private equity firms and works hands-on with startups across the employment ecosystem.

About The Current

The Current is a bi-monthly podcast that explores the intersection of people, finance, and data, featuring conversations with the operators, builders, and leaders shaping the employment ecosystem.

About the host

Ansel Parikh
Co-founder & COO, Finch

Ansel Parikh is the co-founder and COO of Finch, the leading API platform for payroll, HR, and benefits connectivity. He’s spent the last six years building the infrastructure that enables secure, permissioned access to HR and payroll data for a broad ecosystem of software companies serving employers, employees, and service providers.

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