Executive Spotlight: Who Is Tomer London, Gusto's Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer? (2027)
Tomer London is the co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Gusto, the payroll, benefits and HR platform for small businesses. Product School's leader profile says he leads the development and execution of Gusto's product vision, focused on reimagining how modern payroll, benefits and compliance should work.
He co-founded the company in 2012, when it was called ZenPayroll, with Josh Reeves and Eddie Kim. This page covers public professional information only, drawn from published interviews and coverage.
Current role and company
Product School lists London as co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Gusto, and Techaviv's profile gives the same title. Gusto sells payroll, benefits, compliance and other HR tools to small businesses in the United States. Fortune reported in May 2026 that Josh Reeves is CEO and that London is a co-founder alongside Eddie Kim.
- CompanyGusto.
- TitleCo-Founder and Chief Product Officer.
- FocusProduct vision and execution across payroll, benefits and compliance.
- Co-foundersJosh Reeves (CEO) and Eddie Kim.
Career path
- Early software work. In a First Round Review podcast, London said he built inventory management software for a retail store in Haifa, Israel, as a teenager.
- Stanford. He said he came to Stanford for a PhD in electrical engineering, and met Josh Reeves and Eddie Kim early in his time there.
- Vizmo. Before Gusto, he and his co-founders ran earlier startups. London named Vizmo as the company where he learned to hire for humility, not just raw talent.
- ZenPayroll. The three started the payroll company in 2012 as part of Y Combinator. It was first called ZenPayroll and later renamed Gusto.
- Chief Product Officer. On Product School's podcast he described moving from hands-on coding to building product teams as he took on the CPO role.
What he is known for
- Starting narrow. London said the first version covered California salaried employees, and the team released monthly while aiming for a Net Promoter Score of 85 or higher before expanding.
- Hands-on early sales. He said he spent an hour a day cold-calling businesses found on Yelp and personally onboarded roughly the first 50 customers.
- Becoming a platform. Gusto added benefits as its first product beyond payroll. London said that when the team pitched 20 customers, 17 said yes, and a separate team built it over about three years.
- Compliance. He called moving too slowly on compliance his biggest regret, noting that remote work during COVID made multi-state compliance urgent for small companies. In May 2026 Gusto's announcement said an acquisition of Mosey supports a planned Gusto Business Compliance offering.
Leadership style and philosophy
From the First Round Review interview, London argues for talking to customers constantly. "It's hard to speak with strangers," he said, so founders must seek out rejection to learn. He reads strong reactions, positive or negative, as informative and lukewarm praise as not.
He also describes thinking from first principles: "Payroll is about taxes, it's not about paying the employees actually as the primary thing," which is why Gusto set out to automate the whole process. He says he looks for people who are self-critical in a constructive way, and that the three founders held weekly one-on-ones to give each other direct feedback.
On Product School's podcast (September 2024) he favored being "Data-Aware, Not Data-Dependent," balancing data with intuition built from direct customer contact, and said Gusto aims to keep a human touch as it adds AI.
Key numbers
Company-reported or company-confirmed figures for Gusto, with the period shown. They are Gusto's, not London's personal figures.
- Trailing 12-month revenueMore than $1 billion, which Gusto confirmed it passed in February 2026 (Fortune, May 7, 2026).
- CustomersMore than 500,000 small businesses, per Gusto's May 2026 announcement.
- Customer growthAbout 50,000 customers added in the most recent quarter, per the same announcement.
- Revenue mixMore than half of ARR from products beyond core payroll, per the same announcement.
- Earlier milestone400,000-plus businesses and a $9.5 billion valuation, as cited in the First Round Review podcast.
What to watch next
Worth tracking: how Gusto's AI features, including integrations with ChatGPT, Claude and Slack announced in May 2026, change payroll preparation, and how the compliance offering built around Mosey develops.
Questions people ask
Who is Tomer London?
He is the co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Gusto, the payroll, benefits and HR platform for small businesses.
Who founded Gusto with Tomer London?
Josh Reeves and Eddie Kim co-founded the company with him in 2012, when it was called ZenPayroll.
What was Gusto called originally?
It started as ZenPayroll, a payroll product for small businesses, and was later renamed Gusto as it became a multi-product platform.
What did Tomer London do before Gusto?
He came to Stanford for a PhD in electrical engineering and ran earlier startups with his co-founders, including Vizmo.
How large is Gusto?
Gusto said it passed $1 billion in trailing 12-month revenue in February 2026 and serves more than 500,000 small businesses.
What is his approach to product?
He stresses constant customer conversations, first-principles thinking and being data-aware rather than data-dependent.
Sources
- Product School: Tomer London leader profile · Title, role description, portrait
- Techaviv: Tomer London · Title and company description
- First Round Review: How Gusto built a $9.5 billion company by identifying a burning problem · Career, Gusto history, philosophy and quotes
- Product School: The Product Podcast, Gusto's product growth journey (Sept 2024) · CPO role, data-aware philosophy, AI and compliance
- Fortune: Gusto crosses $1 billion in 12-month trailing revenue (May 7, 2026) · Revenue milestone, customer count, founders
- Gusto announcement via TechIntelPro (PR Newswire, May 2026) · ARR mix, customer growth, AI integrations, Mosey
Facts were read from the linked pages on October 31, 2026, partly through a fetch tool that returns summaries, so confirm details on the original pages. The hero photo is London's portrait from Product School's leader profile. This page covers public professional information only.
Top photo: Product School (productschool.com/product-leaders/tomer-london)