Guideline's flat-fee 401(k) bet ends inside Gusto after 2025 acquisition

Guideline is a fintech that helps small and medium businesses set up and manage 401(k) retirement plans online, charging a flat per-employee fee instead of a percentage of assets under management, and distributing through payroll partners that include Gusto, ADP, Intuit, Paylocity, TriNet, Block and Rippling.

That small employers would adopt 401(k)s if a software platform made setup and administration simple and charged a flat per-employee fee, not percentage-of-assets fees.

Guideline was founded in 2015 by Kevin Busque, previously a co-founder of Taskrabbit, on the observation that most small employers offered no 401(k) because traditional plans were sold by advisors and priced as a percentage of assets under management, which made small plans uneconomical. Guideline instead offered software-only setup and administration at a flat per-employee fee. From 2016, Gusto — the payroll and HR platform for the same small-business customers — offered Guideline's plans through a partnership, and Guideline also connected to other payroll providers.

Guideline grew to more than 400 employees and $140M in annualized revenue by January 2025, after raising $340M since founding; investors valued it at $1.15B in its 2021 Series D. As U.S. states began mandating that employers offer retirement plans, 401(k) coverage became a feature payroll platforms wanted to own outright: Gusto (400,000+ customers, $9.3B valuation) agreed to acquire Guideline on 2025-08-27. TechCrunch reported in October that sources put the price near $600M — below Guideline's last private valuation — and that Gusto planned to divest accounts tied to rival payroll providers; Guideline disputed both the price and the divestiture plan.

The acquisition went through: by 2025-11-03 customers were receiving emailed notices with options about the move, and Guideline's help center published a joining-Gusto FAQ that promised the service would keep working the same — same accounts, investments, statements and fees — while adding single sign-on through Gusto credentials. Guideline no longer exists as an independent company; its flat-fee 401(k) platform became the retirement layer of Gusto's payroll, benefits and HR bundle for small businesses.

The founding wedge was structural: flat per-employee pricing and software administration attacked the advisor-sold, percentage-of-assets model that made small plans uneconomical.

Guideline grew through someone else's distribution — payroll partners, above all Gusto — so the company that made it successful was also the natural acquirer once 401(k)s became a bundled feature.

State mandates moved retirement coverage from a product sold to a feature platforms competed on, favoring whoever owned the payroll relationship with the small employer.

The reported ~$600M price sat below the $1.15B 2021 valuation — proof a profitable, growing point solution can still sell at a discount as the category consolidates into platforms.

A point solution that wins through a platform's distribution may end up sold to that platform: once the channel decides retirement plans are a bundled feature, the partner becomes the acquirer.

As of 2026-09-05 Guideline operates as part of Gusto. Participants log in through Gusto single sign-on; contributions, investments, statements and transactions continue as before, no pricing changes are planned, and the support teams and mobile app remain in place. The help center now brands itself the Gusto Retirement Help Center and its related articles introduce Gusto Retirement Pro. What ended is the startup: Guideline no longer exists as an independent company, and its 401(k) business is being folded into Gusto's payroll, benefits and HR offering for small businesses.