/Q&A
Daivik Goel on the fintech gap no one competes for
We spoke to Shor CEO Daivik Goel on building payroll for the countries that legacy fintech leaves behind.
Shor is a global payroll platform built on stablecoin rails. Founded in 2025 by Daivik Goel and Avi Konduru, the San Francisco-based company (YC S25) helps US employers hire and pay international contractors and employees at a fraction of the cost of legacy providers like Deel or Rippling. Stablecoins settle in the backend—customers see their regular currencies—but the architecture cuts out layers of intermediary fees that have made cross-border payroll slow, expensive, and inaccessible for smaller companies.
Commenda CEO Spencer Schneier connected us with Goel to discuss what Shor is building and why stablecoins matter for traditionally underserved financial markets.
Shor uses stablecoins, digital currencies pegged to the U.S. dollar, on the backend. What does that actually buy you over the traditional way of moving money?
Fast settlement, easier access to US dollars, and the ability to plug into new financial services being built in foreign markets—services at the caliber that people in the US are accustomed to, but that you don't necessarily get in those locations. As far as our customers are concerned, they just see their regular currencies. We handle all of that in the background.
Most payroll companies outsource their fintech stack entirely. You built yours. Why?
Most payroll companies don't even realize they're sitting on a fintech opportunity. They're focused on the SaaS side—optimizing margins, customer lock-in, bundled services. They outsource the actual financial rails to other companies and never touch them. Because we have control on both the fintech and the payroll side, we can offer more integrated services within the platform. We still have some middlemen, but the stack isn't as abstracted. We can be more aggressive on pricing.
Everyone in Washington is talking about the GENIUS Act (the first federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins in the US, establishing reserve, licensing, and disclosure requirements for issuers.) You think that misses the point?
The US is the last domino. Coinbase, Circle... they're all lobbying Congress, and that's important. But people here already transact in USD. They won't fully grasp why stablecoins matter because they've never had the problem. Internationally, most jurisdictions have already adopted them. People in Nigeria, in Latin America—they're already transacting in USDC on a day-to-day basis and most Americans have no idea.
“Just imagine how it would feel if every year someone takes 15% out of your bank account. That's how most people in the world feel. In a lot of these countries, you're losing 10 to 15% annually just by leaving money in your local currency.”
Make the case. Why should an American reader care about financial services in Lagos or São Paulo?
Just imagine how it would feel if every year someone takes 15% out of your bank account. That's how most people in the world feel. In a lot of these countries, you're losing 10 to 15% annually just by leaving money in your local currency. If you want a US dollar account, the process is brutal. In traditional international finance, you actually need the physical dollar bills in the bank. That's not an easy process. We have dollar bills everywhere here in America. Other countries don't.
You tried to open a bank account in India a couple years ago. What was that like?
The most terrible experience I've ever been through. And that was just opening a local bank account—not getting into any other financial services. That gap in UX still exists everywhere.
About the author
Shreeda Segan /@Freeshreeda
Shreeda Segan is the chief editor at Commenda Media. She is also a contributing commissioning editor at Reason and has written for Arena Magazine, The Free Press, and Meridian (by Mercury). She enjoys lifting weights, throwing pottery, and sipping teas from around the world. You can find her on X at @freeshreeda.
