Surepayroll Founder Troy Henikoff: How to Start, Grow & Sell for $115 million

Entrepreneurs, you have to see this video! Troy Henikoff, co-founder of SurePayroll, started out eleven years ago, figured out the right business to be in through trial and error, then started cranking on a very standard concept – processing payroll.  Troy and team turned the conventional approach to payroll upside down and the payoff finally came with the recent sale of SurePayroll for $115M to Paychex. Troy turned over active management to partner Michael Alter years ago, and with a passion for early stage companies, he went on to help a number of other companies while Michael kept growing the business.

My hat’s off to Troy not just for SurePayroll, but for launching the Excelerate program in Chicago, which is now nurturing ten startups that each won a beauty contest from hundreds of entrants, all seeking funding and help. Excelerate provides $25k funding, office space, legal, a large of amount of mentoring and coaching, as well as a good send-off into the world. The 2010 incubator class has raised $7.2 million in venture funding and hired 65 employees since its demo day.

Now I see on Facebook that Troy’s morning bicycle ride was…67 miles! And that 62 miles were at 30 mph. I guess Troy’s not slowing down?