Latest news with #Rippling
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Rippling spy says men have been following him, and his wife is afraid
If becoming a spy sounds like an exciting way to live like a le Carré character, let this newest affidavit from confessed Rippling spy Keith O'Brien serve as a warning. On Friday, an Irish judge granted O'Brien a restraining order against several men who have not yet been identified, according to the court order seen by TechCrunch. O'Brien testified that multiple men — two in a gray Skoda Superb on one occasion, and more often, a short-haired, heavy-set man in a black SUV, sometimes accompanied by a large dog — had repeatedly followed his car and watched his home. O'Brien's story has captured the imagination of the tech industry after his colorful confession in April, in which he alleged that he was a spy for Deel. He said he was paid €5,000 a month to steal Rippling's internal data on everything from products to customers. Rippling caught him by setting up a honeypot Slack channel. On the day he was caught, O'Brien pretended to flush his phone down the corporate toilet and later smashed it, dropping pieces down the drain at his mother-in-law's house, according to his affidavit. Now he's the star witness for Rippling in its lawsuit against Deel. Rippling is even picking up the tab for his legal and related expenses, its lawyers testified. Deel is also countersuing Rippling, claiming it was spied on too, by a Rippling employee impersonating a customer. The two HR tech companies have been bitter rivals for years after Deel — once a Rippling customer — began offering competing products. In the latest part of the saga, O'Brien testified that he tried to lose the black SUV following his car by making sudden turns and taking roundabout ways to get home, only to see it reappear in his rearview mirror. He hired a security consulting company and feared that someone was placing tracking devices on his car. O'Brien claims all of these incidents have created 'emotional and psychological' damage for himself and his wife. 'We have been experiencing anxiety at home and in public. It has affected our sleep and our concentration,' O'Brien said in his latest affidavit. They are fearful for the safety of their four children. He and his lawyer speculated that this was intended as harassment related to his role as star witness. However, O'Brien's lawyer also admitted in court that they had no evidence tying the men to Deel. Deel also denied knowing anything about the man in the black SUV. According to the Irish publication Business Post, when granting the injunction, the judge apparently said, 'As if they are in a 1970s cops and robbers' TV show. Whatever happens in the dueling court cases, O'Brien has made himself the rope in a bitter tug of war between these two well-funded HR startups. And from what he says in his testimony, it sounds painful. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
TechCrunch
19 hours ago
- Business
- TechCrunch
Rippling spy says men have been following him, and his wife is afraid
If becoming a spy sounds like an exciting way to live like a Le Carré character, let this newest affidavit from confessed Rippling spy Keith O'Brien serve as a warning. On Friday, an Irish judge granted O'Brien a restraining order against several men who have not yet been identified, according to the court order seen by TechCrunch. O'Brien testified that multiple men – two in a gray Skoda Superb on one occasion, and more often, a short-haired, heavy-set man in a black SUV, sometimes accompanied by a large dog – had repeatedly followed his car and watched his home. O'Brien's story has captured the imagination of the tech industry after his colorful confession in April, in which he alleged that he was a spy for Deel. He said he was paid €5,000 a month to steal Rippling's internal data on everything from products to customers. Rippling caught him by setting up a honeypot Slack channel. On the day he was caught, O'Brien pretended to flush his phone down the corporate toilet and later smashed it, dropping pieces down the drain at his mother-in-law's house, according to his affidavit. Now he's the star witness for Rippling in its lawsuit against Deel. Rippling is even picking up the tab for his legal and related expenses, its lawyers testified. Deel is also countersuing Rippling, claiming it was spied on too, by a Rippling employee impersonating a customer. The two HR tech companies have been bitter rivals for years after Deel – once a Rippling customer – began offering competing products. In the latest part of the saga, O'Brien testified that he tried to lose the black SUV following his car by making sudden turns and taking roundabout ways to get home, only to see it reappear in his rearview mirror. He hired a security consulting company and feared that someone was placing tracking devices on his car. O'Brien claims all of these incidents have created 'emotional and psychological' damage for himself and his wife. 'We have been experiencing anxiety at home and in public. It has affected our sleep and our concentration,' O'Brien said in his latest affidavit. They are fearful for the safety of their four children. He and his lawyer speculated that this was intended as harassment related to his role as star witness. However, O'Brien's lawyer also admitted in court that they had no evidence tying the men to Deel. Deel also denied knowing anything about the man in the black SUV. Techcrunch event Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Boston, MA | REGISTER NOW According to the Irish publication Business Post, when granting the injunction, the judge apparently said, 'As if they are in a 1970s cops and robbers' TV show. Whatever happens in the dueling court cases, O'Brien has made himself the rope in a bitter tug of war between these two well-funded HR startups. And from what he says in his testimony, it sounds painful.
Irish Independent
a day ago
- Business
- Irish Independent
Man at centre of HR firm ‘spying' row gets injunction against agents allegedly following him
Today at 13:31 The man at the centre of the "spying" row between two HR giants has been granted a High Court order restraining suspected hired agents from following and harassing him and members of his family. Keith O'Brien was formerly a payroll manager with Rippling, a US-headquartered multibillion-dollar HR software provider, until it was discovered he was passing the company's trade secrets to rival Deel Inc which is also a US-headquartered multibillion-dollar firm.
Fast Company
3 days ago
- Business
- Fast Company
Why building bigger from the start is the smarter bet
For two decades, conventional startup wisdom followed a simple mantra: Build one killer feature, win a devoted audience, and expand later. Startup luminaries like Paul Graham and Sam Altman championed this approach. They argued it was better to start small, focus narrowly, and earn the right to grow. Many of today's most iconic companies followed this path, launching with a single tool that eventually evolved into a suite. But what if the problem you're solving doesn't fit neatly into one feature? What if starting small just means setting yourself up to rebuild everything later? In an increasingly complex world, customers no longer have patience for point solutions or disconnected workflows. They expect products to understand how their systems work and to match that reality with integrated, end-to-end experiences. That's why a new model is emerging. The rise of the compound startup The 'compound startup,' a term popularized by Rippling CEO Parker Conrad, describes a company that builds multiple, deeply integrated products from day one. In a January interview with Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan, Conrad explained that the goal of a compound startup is to address systems of problems, not just isolated pain points. It is a model built for how people and businesses actually operate. Most business functions don't exist in a vacuum. In Rippling's case, payroll connects to benefits, onboarding, compliance, IT provisioning, and more. Customers don't want to piece together tools to manage each of those functions. They want a system that works together out of the box. At april, we didn't just stitch together a few tax tools. We built an entire suite of products from the ground up. Filing, forecasting, planning, optimization—all designed to work in sync, and all tailored to distinct taxpayer segments like investors, small business owners, gig workers, and everyday banking customers. We chose to build in tax, one of the most complex, fragmented, and regulated categories in fintech, because the problem demanded a compound solution. Tax laws shift constantly. Each state and jurisdiction operates differently. We could have licensed a white-label provider and shipped faster. Instead, we built our own tax engine, became the first new nationally licensed e-file provider in more than 15 years, and now operate a full-stack platform with fewer external dependencies. That decision has given us speed, adaptability, and product depth our partners can't find elsewhere. Why compound startups make more sense today The shift toward compound startups isn't just philosophical. It's practical. Today's challenges rarely sit in one lane. Managing personal finances touches tax, payroll, planning, and compliance. Running a business involves HR, inventory, scheduling, payments, and reporting—all at once. Point solutions force users to become their own system integrators. They juggle multiple tools, manage disconnected data, and learn mismatched interfaces. Compound startups flip that script. They build coherence into the product architecture itself and unlock several key advantages: Unified data: Integrated platforms break down silos and allow smarter decision making across use cases. At april, data moves with consent across workflows, powering real-time tax insights, planning simulations, and filing automation. Shared UX patterns: A consistent interface builds user trust and reduces friction. Most april users complete their return in under 23 minutes—a far cry from the 13-hour average reported by the IRS. Durable switching costs: When workflows span multiple integrated tools, the platform becomes stickier and more valuable as a whole. Platform-wide network effects: When more users adopt more of the suite, value compounds across use cases. Compound startups don't just solve tasks. They solve workflows. And that makes them more durable, more useful, and more differentiated in crowded markets. The long-term payoff Of course, this approach comes with tradeoffs. Building multiple products in parallel strains focus and burns capital faster. It forces earlier decisions around architecture, compliance, and team structure. It's not the right move for every startup. But for founders tackling systems-level problems, the risk of starting too small is greater. You can't increment your way to coherence. We've seen the payoff at april. Our compound architecture has allowed us to respond faster, deliver richer experiences, and scale without compromise. The future is compound The startup playbook is evolving because the problems we're solving have evolved. Systems are messier. Users expect more. Point solutions can't keep up. Founders shouldn't be afraid to build big from the start. The world doesn't need more single-purpose tools. It needs products that actually solve the full problem. The future isn't just compound. It's integrated, full-stack, and built to scale from day one.
Business Journals
5 days ago
- Business
- Business Journals
Manhattan tech real estate surges with best start to year since 2000
Story Highlights Manhattan tech real estate leasing reaches 1.67 million square feet so far this year. Amazon leads leasing activity with major deals in Manhattan. AI subsector's share of tech leasing increases to 19%. Manhattan tech real estate is making a comeback, according to a recent CBRE Manhattan Tech Brief. The sector saw 441,000 square feet of leasing in April, bringing its year-to-date total to 1.67 million, marking the best start to a year since 2000. This comes after a year when the tech sector accounted for 3.16 million square feet leased in 2024 — its highest annual leasing velocity since 2019. With more than 1 million square feet leased in the fourth quarter and 1.2 million square feet in Q1, the tech sector recorded its strongest back-to-back quarterly performance since Q1 of 2020. The report attributes the sector's resurgence to 'industry stalwarts coming off the sidelines to transact again, mid- and early-stage firms resuming growth, and the artificial intelligence (AI) subsector's rapid expansion.' Amazon has been behind a large swath of the leasing activity this year, logging the three biggest deals highlighted in the report with an approximately 331,200-square-foot lease at 452 Fifth Ave. and a 192,700-square-foot lease at 237 Park Ave., as well as a nearly 112,300-square-feet deal at 5 Manhattan West with WeWork. Mid- and early-stage firms have also contributed to the surge in tech leasing activity by growing their real estate footprints in New York City. Two notable deals include Rippling more than tripling its footprint by leasing around 68,700 square feet at 4 World Trade Center and Plaid Inc. growing by more than 50% with a 45,000-square-foot lease at 530 Broadway. Lastly, the AI subsector now accounts for a larger percentage of total tech leasing velocity. From 2020 to 2022, AI accounted for an 8% share of total leasing velocity, according to the report. That number increased to 19% from 2023 to year-to-date 2025 with 1.28 million square feet. The report singles out OpenAI's 90,000-square-foot lease at 295 Lafayette St. as being key to the uptick in velocity in this subsector. Sign up for the Business Journal's free daily newsletter to receive the latest business news impacting New York.
