Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Watch on YouTube Subscribe to SGP

‍

Daivik Goel is Co-founder & CEO of Shor, a global payroll platform for startups. Traditional EOR providers charge around $7,000 per year to manage an employee earning $20,000 per year. Shor uses automation to reduce costs and embeds payroll actions into Slack and WhatsApp through AI agents, so founders can request tax documents or payment updates without opening another dashboard.

Daivik and co-founder Avi Konduru submitted their YC application at 7:59 PM, one minute before the deadline. After multiple prior rejections, they got an interview, then a follow-up call, then acceptance. They started YC with a crypto payment idea, pivoted five weeks before demo day to global payroll—a problem they'd worked on two years earlier—and shipped contractor payroll within a week. They've since raised funding and are scaling.

‍

Key Topics Covered:

• What Shor is: global payroll/EOR rebuilt for startups; automation handles ops, AI teammates deliver docs/actions in Slack/WhatsApp.

• From clever to sellable: pivoted inside YC from crypto/fiat rails to payroll where they had access and clear pain.

• Cost math that breaks: why legacy EORs charging ~$7k/yr on a $20k salary fail SMB/unit economics—and how Shor attacks the middle.

• Ship speed as strategy: prior fintech muscle let them launch contractor payroll in one week (KYC/KYB, payouts, tax flows).

• Design →  dashboards: move work to the user (chat interfaces), keep humans making decisions, let AI do the background jobs.

• Distribution as a moat: serve the massive long tail priced out by incumbents; win on affordability + responsiveness.

• YC pragmatism: plain-English interviews beat pitch theater; momentum over mockups.

• Execution after Demo Day: demand first, fundraising next, delivery always—scaling compliance/country coverage without losing speed.

• Founder operating cadence: daily inches over hype cycles; embrace “pivot hell,” but pick battles you can actually win with customers.

• Finance stack mindset: reliability and support matter most when back-office tools fail—opt for vendors who show up.

‍

Chapters

(00:00) Cold open — the 7:59 PM YC submission
(00:37) Intro — Davik & what Shor is (affordable global payroll)
(02:51) Waterloo → founder mindset and process discipline
(06:05) YC journey and batch dynamics
(08:26) First leap without an idea + early GTM lessons
(11:56) Marketplaces are hard — takeaways that shaped Shor
(14:56) The last-day YC rush & the crypto/fiat idea
(24:49) Pivot hell inside YC → choosing global payroll
(27:28) Shipping contractor payroll in one week + why now (AI/stablecoins)
(29:33) Fundraising wrapped; AI teammates over dashboards; what’s next

‍

Where to find Daivik Goel:

‍
Multilink: https://bento.me/daivik
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daivikg
X: https://x.com/DaivikGoel
Instagram: https://instagram.com/daivikgoel
YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCzkRfrCXIrW1v60Wyasgq7Q
Substack: https://daivikgoel.substack.com
TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@daivikgoel

‍

Where to find Shor:

‍
Website: https://tryshor.com
X: https://x.com/shor_pay
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/shorpay
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shor.pay/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF1m1H0arYY

‍

Brought to you by:

Fondo — All-in-one accounting for startups: https://fondo.com