Chad Richison learned payroll as a salesman for ADP. In 1998 he started his own payroll company in Oklahoma City, and he built it to run online from the start. Paycom kept every part of a worker's record in one database, from the job application to the last paycheck. By 2013 it had 840 employees and $107.6 million in revenue. In April 2014 it went public on the New York Stock Exchange.

One Database, One Paycheck

Richison began his career in sales at ADP and then moved to another payroll firm, Payroll 1, before founding Paycom. His bet was that businesses wanted one system for everything to do with their workers: hiring, time, pay, benefits and HR. Most rivals stitched separate programs together. Paycom built a single database and sold the whole thing as a subscription. Its own trained sales force sold it directly to mid-sized companies.

The Bell in New York

Paycom priced 6.645 million shares at $15 in April 2014 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange as PAYC. Private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe was its largest outside owner. Paycom kept growing as a public company and later launched Beti, a tool that lets employees check and approve their own paychecks. It remains public on the NYSE under PAYC.

Cover: Earning their money, from the series "The Camera's Story of Raftman's Life on the Wisonsin", Henry Hamilton Bennett. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for raftsmen earning their pay (payroll).