Bench with Ian Crosby (CEO) | E57

Summary: Ian Crosby, co-founder and CEO of Bench Accounting gives an overview of his accounting company and how it takes care of its customers. Bench helps entrepreneurs with their bookkeeping needs by making it simple, affordable, and easy. Crosby discusses the innovative approach of Bench, gives advice to entrepreneurs, and talks about wanting to help people with their accounting needs. Show Notes: ● 0:25 - Ian Crosby is the co-founder and CEO of Bench Accounting, an accounting company that fully handles entrepreneurs’ accounting needs. ● 1:10 - How Bench Accounting was founded ● 2:42 - Services Bench Accounting offers ● 4:37 - How Bench Accounting is helpful for entrepreneurs ● 5:30 - Why the Bench mission and messaging is different than those of other companies ● 8:05 - Why Bench accounting focuses on bookkeeping and considers it the foundational piece of accounting ● 10:20 - Provides confidence and reliability that there are no mistakes in the books ● 12:05 - The Checklist Manifesto,a book about emergency checklists and how Bench accounting uses it ● 13:44 - The advantages of charging a fixed price ● 16:05 - Manual versus automated bookkeeping - which is better? ● 20:00 - Why the government shut-down was a big problem ● 20:45 - The biggest challenges to starting and running an innovative company ● 22:09 - Why Crosby avoids surface-level efficiency ● 23:30 - Crosby’s motivations - solving problems and making a contribution to society 3 Key Points: 1. Bench Accounting takes full responsibility for entrepreneurs’’ bookkeeping needs. 2. Companies need to find the balance between manual and automated bookkeeping. 3. Bench is focused on helping people solve their accounting problems. Tweetable Quotes: - “There must be a different way to do business. We must be able to create these institutions that really make a difference in people’s lives.” - Ian - “No one's really taking responsibility on a massive scale that it’s done right.” - Ian - “No one has gone out and built with the kind of philosophy that we have.” - Ian Resources Mentioned: ● bench.co ● The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande