Grade: Performance based Payroll
Lotanna and James here, co-founders at Grade (YC W26).
Grade is performance based payroll. We help companies pay workers based on results.
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Our Launch Video 🎥
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbNeaDNaQKY>
The Problem ❌
Payroll is huge. About $50T a year goes to worker pay worldwide. But most payroll systems still pay people for hours worked, even when hours do not match real output.
When companies try to pay on performance, it gets messy fast:
- The rules live in spreadsheets
- Approvals are manual
- Payouts are slow and mistakes happen
Our Unique Insight 💡
Before Grade, we built, scaled, and exited 4 mobile AI apps. Creators were our main growth channel, and they helped us reach millions of users.
Paying creators was always a gamble. We paid a flat fee up front and hoped a video went viral. When we switched to paying for views instead, scaling got easy, but the tools were still spreadsheets. There was no payroll system for performance pay.
The Solution ✅
Grade makes performance pay run like real payroll, starting with creators.
- Pay creators any way you want (flat fees, performance pay, bonused)
- We track performance and calculate payouts automatically
- Approve and pay out in bulk, we deal with all the invoices and tax complaince
Traction 📊
In the last 30 days, companies used Grade to pay out $380k+ to creators, up 120% MoM
Our ask 📣
If your company is paying creators at scale and you want pay tied to results without the spreadsheet mess, we would love to talk.