Paul Sinaï knows where the cloud breaks. 

Blaxel is Paul’s third startup. After selling his last company to OVHcloud, Europe’s largest cloud provider, he saw firsthand how today’s cloud was built for a different era.

“All the cloud providers were designed 17 years ago for software as a service, where software was designed by humans and consumed by humans,” Paul says. “Now we’re entering a new era where machines are generating software, and software is mainly consumed by other machines.” 

That shift is why he started Blaxel: a cloud built for billions of AI agents, rather than millions of human users.

Paul co-founded the company with five longtime collaborators across the U.S. and France. Just one month after Y Combinator (X25), they raised $7.3M to revolutionize AI agent infrastructure.

Problem

Compliance derails founders

The last thing Paul wanted to do again was handle compliance.

After two startups in France, he knew exactly how painful it could get.

“In France, compliance and payroll are pretty complicated,” Paul says. “You can’t really do it yourself. Even a small mistake can become a nightmare very fast.”

He’d seen how easy it is to land in hot water: how a small retirement plan error could cause problems decades later.

So he built a rule: 

“As a founder, you have to focus on one thing: customers. Getting new customers, taking care of your existing customers. Anything that distracts you from that, you have to take off your plate.”

When Blaxel launched across France and the U.S., Paul needed HR, payroll, and compliance handled from day one, without slowing him down.

Solution

One call, zero headaches

Paul discovered Central through Y Combinator. He was comparing options but didn’t want to overcomplicate things.

"I was evaluating Rippling and Central. Rippling people were nice, but definitely salespeople,” Paul recalls. “I felt like I needed to read everything, compare packages, schedule more meetings. And I said, ‘I just want an HR tool to solve my problem now. We’ll see later if we need something bigger’.”

Then he spoke to Central.

“I had one call with Albrey from Central. Definitely, first thing is Albrey was great,” he says. “Not pushy, just honest about what Central does. It was like founder’s sales mode.”

Paul wasn’t looking for a massive platform. He wanted something fast, human, and built for founders like him.

“Where I was convinced is when Albrey told me, ‘You’ll see, the onboarding will be just 20-30 minutes. And we’ll handle everything for you.’”

That promise held up. That simplicity, and the Slack-native experience, was a game-changer for Paul’s team.

“Having everything integrated in Slack was perfect,” he says. “You just ask a question and get an answer. It fits the way we work.”

He also appreciated how Central handled the inevitable edge cases with speed and care.

“With HR, there are always specific cases,” Paul explains. “It’s the kind of thing that, if you work with a massive company who has no personal interaction, it takes forever. With Central, I just ask and get an answer.”

It’s that responsiveness, and focus, that gave Paul confidence he’d made the right call.

Results

More focus, less friction

With Central, HR just runs. No fines, no missed filings, no wondering if something slipped through the cracks.

“Each time I had to ask a question, everyone’s been super helpful,” Paul says. “As a founder, time is of the essence, especially in the early stages. You don’t want to waste that.”

And the time he got back? It mattered.

More time talking to customers. More time building the product that will power billions of AI agents. And, in one of the busiest seasons of his life, more time with his newborn.

“I could spend more time building my product, talking with customers, and personally saved time to spend with my newborn,” he says. “I literally onboarded myself as an employee with one hand holding the nursing bottle and the other one filling out the form on Central at 2:00 am.”

HR no longer interrupts product sprints or fundraising prep. New hires are onboarded fast, compliance handled quietly.

“We’re building the foundation for billions of AI agents,” Paul says. “It’s good to have our own foundation just as solid."