Sarowitz Steven I

About Sarowitz Steven I

Steven I. Sarowitz is best known as the founder of Paylocity, a U.S.-listed human capital and payroll technology company. He founded Paylocity in 1997 and helped grow it from a small entrepreneurial startup into a recognized player in the American payroll and HR software market. In company filings and investor materials, he is identified as Chairman of Paylocity Holding Corp., reflecting his long-standing role in guiding the organization at the board level after its early growth phase. Sarowitz built his career in payroll services before launching Paylocity. Public company and investor communications indicate that he had worked in sales for other payroll companies, giving him firsthand exposure to customer pain points, service gaps, and the competitive dynamics of the industry. That background appears to have shaped his business philosophy: practical customer support, operational reliability, and the use of technology to simplify payroll administration. From the beginning, he emphasized responsiveness and efficiency as key differentiators. His most notable contributions are closely tied to Paylocity’s early expansion and product strategy. Under his leadership, the company developed web-based payroll and HR offerings such as WebPay, helping move payroll processing toward online delivery and employee self-service. Company materials also describe strategic technology decisions during his tenure, including the adoption of Linux and other open-source tools in parts of the development and infrastructure stack, which were framed as cost-saving and efficiency-enhancing measures. These decisions suggest a hands-on executive style focused on innovation, scalability, and disciplined execution. Sarowitz’s broader legacy is that of a founder who identified a traditional industry ripe for modernization and built a company around service quality and technology-driven workflow improvement. While recent public materials emphasize his board-level role rather than day-to-day management, his name remains strongly associated with Paylocity’s origin story, its early product evolution, and its rise as a significant U.S. payroll and HR technology provider.