In this interview, Andy Karuza speaks with Ayush Sharma, the founder and CEO of Warp, an AI-native employee management platform designed for high-growth startups. The discussion explores how Warp is disrupting the legacy payroll and HR industry by replacing manual, tedious paperwork with automated AI systems. Sharma shares insights on his background as an MIT-trained engineer, the importance of maintaining an in-person company culture, and how AI-native tools are empowering founders to focus on strategy and innovation rather than compliance and administration.

Key Takeaways:

AI-Native Automation vs. Legacy Systems: Warp differentiates itself from "dinosaur" incumbents by using AI to automate the underlying manual work of tax compliance and payroll, rather than just providing a digital user interface for manual tasks.

The "Engineering CEO" Advantage: Modern AI tools like Cursor allow technical founders to remain active in the codebase even as they scale, bridging the gap between high-level strategy and product execution.

Strategic Feature Prioritization: For fast-growing startups, it is vital to treat early product versions as experiments and focus on solving one core "pain point"—such as complex multi-state tax compliance—before expanding into a full-suite platform.

Streamlining Operations: Sharma advises founders to avoid complex legal changes, such as renaming a company entity, which can cause years of bureaucratic friction; instead, simple solutions like a "Doing Business As" (DBA) status are more efficient.

The Value of In-Person Culture: While remote work is popular, Sharma argues that a high-quality, intentional office space fosters better camaraderie and faster iteration for ambitious teams.