Two-year old human-resources startup Zenefits has gotten into a very public brawl with 60-year-old human resources company, ADP.
Zenefits CEO believes the real reason for the shut down has more to do with ADP recognizing the little upstart as a threat. He believes the recent $500 million funding round and $4.5 billion valuation was an “oh shit” moment for the corporate incumbent.
ADP shut off Zenefits access to its servers on June 4th, due to what ADP said was a spike in user traffic and a security risk from Zenefits. “They gained access to our systems by convincing clients to give them administrative access to our platform. Despite having many legitimate ways to integrate with ADP properly, Zenefits chose an unsecure and indirect approach,” an ADP company statement read. Conrad came back swinging, saying the two were partners and had an understanding. While ADP claims there was no relationship between the two, Conrad claims Zenefits and ADP were on friendly terms and that ADP helped set things up for Zenefits customers using ADP for payroll.