A Silicon Valley startup founder drove 3,000 miles across America in an RV — here's what he learned

Gusto

Driving across the US to meet with everyday Americans is becoming a popular pastime — or marketing stunt — for tech executives living in the Silicon Valley bubble.

Joshua Reeves, the cofounder and CEO of the human-resources software startup Gusto, joined the likes of Mark Zuckerberg and top investor Sam Altman when he visited 11 cities in 10 states, meeting Gusto customers and learning about their businesses, goals, and values.

We talked to Reeves about what he learned from his whirlwind tour.

Joshua Reeves is about as Silicon Valley as they come. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, he got a master's degree from Stanford while juggling a product-manager gig.

He sold his first startup and launched Gusto, which makes software that puts payroll, benefits, and other HR needs in the cloud. It serves more than 40,000 small businesses.

Gusto's mission is to create tools that simplify work and empower users. According to company data, over 40% of small businesses get fined annually for making an error on payroll tax forms.

Reeves got the idea for a road trip when he ran an experiment inspired by the reality-TV show "Undercover Boss." Over a few months, he shadowed members of each of the 37 teams at Gusto and learned their job. He wanted to know his customers as well as his employees.

Reeves hypothesized that connecting with his customers might help him escape the Silicon Valley bubble. When you're embedded in the tech scene, he said, it's easy to get caught up in the numbers game. Founders worry about company valuations and employee head count.

This is problematic because being in the bubble doesn't help him understand his customers any better. He won't know how their software affects their lives or the ways it could be better.

"If a tech company wants to scale, be mainstream, serve customers around the country and around the world, it is imperative for founders to go meet and see those customers," Reeves said. "A tech business is no different from any business. We exist to serve our customers."