Ousted Zenefits CEO Plans New Startup

Months after he resigned under fire from Zenefits, the health-benefits company he founded, Parker Conrad is working on another startup idea, according to a help-wanted ad posted briefly on Wednesday.

The advertisement, on the technology-industry website Hacker News, said Mr. Conrad and a partner are looking to hire their first engineer for a new company it doesn't name. A person familiar with the matter confirmed the ad's authenticity.

The ad didn't say anything about what the company plans to do, but indicated ambitious plans, promising the potential recruit that "you have a (small) shot at building a FB scale company." "FB" is the ticker symbol for Facebook Inc.

The ad was later removed on Wednesday.

Mr. Conrad resigned from Zenefits in February amid slowing growth and questions about regulatory compliance. The company installed a new leader and has since been cutting staff. On Tuesday, the new chief executive, David Sacks, told employees that the company plans to lay off another 9% of itsÂ employees.

The ad posted Wednesday gave an email address for Prasanna Sankar, previously a director of engineering at Zenefits. It also listed Mr. Conrad's email address.

Mr. Sankar says on his LinkedIn profile that he is the co-founder and chief technical officer of a "stealth startup."

"I've started a company with Parker Conrad (ex-CEO of Zenefits)," he writes on the profile. "We are looking to hire engineer #1; It's a very unique risk-reward opportunity."

In recent weeks some Zenefits employees have discussed possibly joining the new business, a person familiar with the matter said.

The ad said Messrs. Conrad and Sankar "know the space very well, so unlike other early stage startups we are not trying to figure out what to build. We have a map. Unlike most startups shooting for a $1B business, the opportunity size here is also really massive."

Write to Rolfe Winkler at rolfe.winkler@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 15, 2016 21:45 ET (01:45 GMT)

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