The partners knew at the outset that software for bookkeeping already existed. The partners had a network back where they'd started, Crosby says, which made it easier to find the right people.Īs tech companies go, Bench needs a lot of people. "But it was such a hot market it was hard to hire anyone, and we had no connections." "We could have made it work," says Crosby. Afterward, there was the question of where to set up shop, with New York an obvious possibility, especially as their nascent product was geared to the U.S. They moved to New York for a 13-week program, renting a single apartment and putting up paper partitions between their beds. In 2012, the four were accepted into Techstars, a mentor-driven start-up accelerator. "I'd wake up in the morning and find that he'd built exactly what I'd described." "He was literally on the other side of the world," says Crosby. Crosby found him via a network for online collaboration between businesses and freelancers. The fourth partner would be Pavel Rodionov, now chief technical officer but back in 2009 a resident of deepest Siberia. "He goes, 'You're pitching me on bookkeeping?'"īut showing remarkable prescience, Menashy departed RIM to sign on as Bench's co-founder and VP marketing, soon joined by Crosby's oldest friend, Adam Saint, who is now VP design. "He's at the sexiest Canadian tech company," recalls Crosby. The first person Crosby approached with the germ of an idea for bringing bookkeeping into the 21st century was an old friend, Jordan Menashy, who was working at Research In Motion. "Markets are efficient," he found himself thinking. But he couldn't shake the memory of his bookkeeping stint and the pain people and companies endured as they tried to fulfill the deeply unloved function. Just four years old, the company employs more than 200 people, has been almost tripling its revenues annually and boasts a CEO – Crosby – who was named to Forbes's 30 Under 30 list.īench happened because Crosby quickly moved on from the game company to Bain & Co., where he shone as perhaps one of the youngest management consultants ever. Those lessons would stand Crosby in good stead a few years later when he and three partners set about creating Bench Accounting, which automates basic bookkeeping functions for small businesses. And, why are you hiring a 19-year-old in such a critical position?" "If there is a problem, you can build a solution. But bookkeeping proved to be tedious, so Crosby enlisted the support of the programmers who surrounded him to help automate the system. Before graduating from the University of British Columbia, Ian Crosby decided that he desperately wanted to work in the video game industry, regardless of how few skills he had to offer.Īfter many interviews, he nabbed a position at a video game company as a bookkeeper, even though his only training had been pitching in at his dad's small business and as treasurer of a student club.
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