After six startups and one unicorn, Michael Suswal, COO & Co-founder at Generation Lab, can spot operational drag a mile away. 

At Generation Lab, he wanted to stay focused on people and execution.

But as they expanded to 18 employees across 5 states, HR and compliance work exploded. He found himself buried in rules, filings, and employee questions instead of driving the mission forward.

And it hit him: HR was the thing slowing down a team trying to extend human lifespan.

Problem

Compliance chaos & constant pings

As COO, Michael runs GTM strategy while also owning HR end-to-end: payroll, benefits, taxes, accounting, compliance, and weekly check-ins with every employee.

“We're a pretty flat organization and so I get to have 1:1s with everyone in the company. I feel pretty passionate about doing that and maintaining that,” says Michael.

For him, HR wasn’t about forms and admin: it was about people.

“How I think of human resources is really, if you're managing the resources of your humans, then you're doing your job right,” explains Michael. “And before I wasn't, I was just processing paperwork for them. And that's not the same thing.”

Before Central, the work didn’t let him be the kind of leader he wanted to be.

Michael managed HR through Gusto (after stints with Rippling and ADP). The experience left him drowning in paperwork, guessing at compliance, and getting little to no guidance when something was wrong.

As the team expanded across states, the administrative load spiked. His days started filling up with:

• Employee questions about pay, taxes, and insurance

• Hours spent Googling state rules

• Long support transfers

• Bots that couldn’t help

• Re-explaining his situation every time he called

“Constantly fielding employee questions is disruptive to any chunk of time I get for deeper work. But they’re urgent because it's their money, and employee happiness is my job. I have to respond,” says Michael.

But beneath the questions was the real problem: multi-state compliance was getting more complex, and he was navigating it blind.

“I didn’t know if I was being legal. Turns out I wasn’t. I didn’t have worker’s comp in a few states where I had remote workers. Gusto never told me I was breaking the law, they just let me do it.”

The interruptions were draining, and the HR systems he relied on weren’t keeping up with how fast the company was growing.

Solution

A partner who rolls up their sleeves

Michael took a call with Central expecting a standard vendor pitch. Instead, he got a reality check.

“Pranav looked through my stuff, pointed out all these things I was doing wrong. He said, ‘I just can’t bear to look at this. Whether or not you work with us, I need to fix this for you.’ That was it,” says Michael.

Instead of just hand him a list of issues, Central stepped in and fixed them:

• Called states directly

• Cleaned up registrations

• Resolved compliance gaps

• Negotiated fines down

“Pranav and team found the fines, called the state, and actually negotiated them down. I don’t even know if it was worth their time, but it was awesome,” recalls Michael.

“I probably still wouldn’t have known about those issues. Central paid a lot of fines for me. I would’ve been dinged at tax season or sued later,” says Michael.

That’s when he realized HR didn’t have to be painful.

“It was like having an HR department without them getting in the way of my employee relationships,” explains Michael.

No portals, no tickets, just Slack

As COO, Michael can’t afford context switching. If it doesn’t happen in Slack, it’s a distraction. 

Central’s Slack-first workflow (and a Bot that actually works) became a game changer.

“I want everything done in Slack, I hate portals. That’s why I love the Central Bot,” says Michael.

The Bot handles what it can, and when it can’t, it routes instantly to a human.

“When it gets stuck, it says, ‘Let me loop someone in,’ and a few minutes later someone responds. It’s the fastest vendor response I’ve ever seen, period. No one responds that fast,” says Michael.

All-in-one platform for HR, Payroll, and Accounting

Generation Lab also uses Central for Accounting, which means payroll, compliance, taxes, and books all run through the same system, and the same Slack channel.

“Payroll impacts accounting, accounting impacts taxes; it’s all one workflow,” explains Michael. “Central owning the full chain means fewer mistakes, and way less time spent managing it,” he says.

Central handles the work end-to-end with AI agents and human experts, so Michael isn’t juggling who owns what. When something comes up, he pings one place, gets an answer in minutes, and moves on.

Results

Multi-state compliance handled; HR becomes human again

Michael went from spending 8+ hours a week on state compliance and paperwork to just 20 minutes.

“At this point, I’m saving six to eight hours a week. Sometimes more. That’s basically a full workday.”

And that day goes exactly where he wants it: his team.

With the HR noise gone, his 1:1s changed completely.

“It's not that I spend less time with people, I spend much more quality time with people,” says Michael.

“My 1:1s generate real work items, real development. Before, everything was cold and transactional since I was so busy. Now it’s human,” he explains.

No longer "the bottleneck"

The Central Bot now absorbs the paystub, tax, and insurance questions that used to hit Michael first.

“Employees can now just ping the Central bot if they have a question, and they don't have to wait for me,” says Michael.

And the unexpected benefit?

“Central's made me more popular in the company, but it's not a joke,” Michael laughs. 

“They like me more because I'm not the bottleneck in their life and that changes our dynamic. Instead of asking me for those things, they tell me, ‘Michael, I want to develop my skillset in this area.’ Our conversations are much more productive, for them and for the company."

Growth without operational drag

Generation Lab is entering its most ambitious chapter yet: a new lab, expanded hiring across science and sales, and preparing to put their therapies into humans within the next few months.

Michael’s time is focused exactly where it should be: leading his team and pushing the science forward, not wrestling with HR workflows.

The level of support still surprises him.

“For what I’m paying, like a thousand bucks a month, it feels like I’m robbing you guys blind,” Michael jokes. “It’s like I hired a junior HR person, which would cost me about $120k a year. That’s what I feel like I got by working with Central.”

And for Michael, it’s now part of the company-building playbook.

“I would never start another company without Central,” he adds.

His advice to other founders is simple:

“You don’t need to think about anything else. Just go get Central. All the bullshit you don’t have time to think about as a founder, Central handles for you and keeps you legal so you can sleep at night,” says Michael.