Ian Crosby
@ianwcrosby
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Let’s build great things and win. Head of Accounting Products @mercury. Fmr CEO and Co-founder of https://t.co/Yz8nzQJGYm and https://t.co/MjxNGUhHYi. Ex-Shopify.
Vancouver, Canada 🇨🇦
Joined August 2011
1/8 I’m very sad today to see that @Bench has shut down. I’ve avoided speaking publicly about Bench since just over 3 years ago when I was fired from the company I co-founded. I still don’t have a lot of appetite to talk about it tbh, but think at least a short statement is.
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@Bench 8/8 I hope the story of Bench goes on to become a warning for VCs that think they can “upgrade” a company by replacing the founder. It never works.
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@Bench 7/8 So I moved on. I started off fresh and built a new company (Teal). Earlier this year we successfully exited to Mercury. Things are going well and I’m excited for what we’re up to.
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@Bench 5/8 Rather than continuing to fight with me, they opted just to just replace me, thinking that they could run the company better themselves. I was totally convinced that their approach would destroy the company. I opted to resign rather than fight. Because on the off-chance that.
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@Bench 6/8 I reasoned that if they were right and I’m just a wrong-headed founder who won’t listen, then I should just fully get out of the way so they can see their vision through. And on a personal level, I just didn’t think I could stand to watch them dismantle the company I had.
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@Bench 4/8 I had been battling with some of the board members over strategy. They wanted me to take the company in a new direction that I thought was a very bad idea. I wanted to continue with what was working and with what our partners had signed on to distribute. I was intransigent.
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@Bench 2/8 In November 2021 I went out for what I thought would be a regular lunch with one of my board members. We had just raised a Series C and turned down a highly lucrative acquisition offer. We had budding partnerships with companies like Shopify that were interested in the.
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@Bench 3/8 The board member thanked me for bringing the company to this point, but that they would be hiring a new professional CEO to “take the company to the next level.”.
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@whileonefork I’m an EWOK type, I don’t get along with ATST but I love JEDI. Anyone who laughs at this tweet is a NERD.
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I'm excited to share that I've joined @Shopify to lead Product for Balance! I'm looking forward to making Balance not just a massively successful product, but a very special one in the lives of our merchants. We're hiring UX/Product/Eng - DM me!.
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Today I'm excited to announce that Teal has been acquired by @mercury! We're very excited to make banking and accounting seamless for accountants and entrepreneurs.
Excited to make our first acquisition and make great things with @ianwcrosby and team!.
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Two huge announcements @Bench! . 1. Today, Bench re-launches as an all-in-one financial platform with banking, bookkeeping, taxes, and advice, all designed to work together beautifully. 2. Bench has raised a $60M Series C from Contour, Altos, iNovia, BMO T&I, Sage, and Shopify.
Shopify invests in Vancouver’s Bench Accounting
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I’m a @LambdaSchool contrarian. I think it’s going to be way bigger than even you @Austen realize right now. It is so rare in life to be able to make a real difference in one person’s quality of life. @LambdaSchool is mass producing changed lives. This tweet is on track:.
People are going to wake up one morning in about 10 years and realize @AustenAllred and @LambdaSchool have solved education, eradicated student debt, reversed growing inequality, and ultimately saved liberal democracy.
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People are going to wake up one morning in about 10 years and realize @AustenAllred and @LambdaSchool have solved education, eradicated student debt, reversed growing inequality, and ultimately saved liberal democracy.
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Manager's guide to success:.1. Hire smart people. 2. Give them the right tools. 3. Get out of the way.
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It's been an incredible year working again with my close friend @adamjsaint to launch our 2nd startup, Teal. Today we're announcing our $8M seed round led by Katie Reiner at @torch, with participation from General Advance, @BasisSet and Dash Fund. With a first set of incredible.
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Good management is brilliant people looking at high quality data and having honest conversations. Bad management is ethically flexible people manipulating arbitrary data to push an agenda. If you find the former, join the team and hang on tight. They are rare and powerful.
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@tobi @CanadaKaz Thanks to you and Kaz again for giving me a place to land and get back on my feet. 🙏.
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@Samirkaji I’m on the opposite end of the spectrum. I ignore scripted behaviours and look only for whether they will (1) care about the mission, (2) do a good job and (3) be great to work with. Teammates don’t send me thank you emails after meetings so candidates don’t need to either!.
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When I was in business school, Porter's 5 Forces was held up as the epitome of business strategy. A decade into my career, it's painful obvious that's wrong. The real 5 forces are: . 1. Culture. 2. Culture. 3. Culture. 4. Culture, and.5. Luck.
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I thought my daughter was playing games on the iPad this morning, but it turned out she was checking her P&L.
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My business goals have been so chickenshit. My new customer survey question is going to be “Have we made a profound difference in your quality of life?”. Then I’m going to build like hell until my team has gotten “yes” from a million people. #GoBig.
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Justin Trudeau thinks he can allocate capital better than entrepreneurs.
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Spent some time working with @adamjsaint today on a new startup. I forgot how great it was to work with highly competent friends. Such a joy.
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Here's what people don't understand about vertical saas. Shopify, Toast, Service Titan - they are each just getting started. And there are still so, so many untouched verticals. We need 100x more Shopify's. 99.99% of vertical saas market cap is yet to be created.
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In absence of good data, most people will create strongly held beliefs based on unrepresentative anecdotes and wishful thinking.
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It’s pretty clear at this point that has hit on something big. If you want to join a team of competent people focussed on winning, we’re hiring our first PM role:
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When I was growing up, my family constantly warned me that starting a business was “risky.” . “Look at your great uncle, he lost his shirt in business. Far better to study a profession.”. Why do we reflexively feel that sending an invoice is riskier than $100k in student debt?.
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We’re hiring over 200 people. But before people join @Bench, I wanted to share an unvarnished view of what it's really like. It's hard and messy. But incredibly worthwhile. Thank you @DailyHiveVan and @darcynews for the honest story.
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2006: Yahoo offers $1B to buy Facebook. 2016: Facebook offers $1B to buy Yahoo.
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Welcome cards for me to sign for our new March customers. The tiny monthly stack has grown!
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Hey #Vancouver @bench is growing and we’re hiring 100+ people by Christmas. Everything from engineering to account support, entry-level to senior. Come look at what we’ve got!
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Big day at @Bench today, we just released a massive expansion to our service: Pulse. From today, all Bench customers now have a real-time view of cash in and cash out, across all their cards and institutions.
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Thanks @hainsworthtv for having me on the show today! We're excited to solve bookkeeping for Canadian small businesses! @bench @BNN
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Signatures are an anachronistic, insecure way to “verify“ identity in 2020. Moving to e-signatures feels like “well we have no idea why we’re doing this but let’s at least do it online.”.
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My latest article via @VancityBuzz #VanTech. Our governments need to stop playing tech dress-up and start graduating more software engineers.
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We just lowered our lowest price from $115/mo to $95/mo. Medium-term plan is to price in the $40-60/mo range and pack the entry package with even more service and value. Goal is to be *ridiculously* valuable to entrepreneurs.
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I used to have to go skydiving to have the experience of plummeting to Earth. Now I just need to hold bitcoin.
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My favourite moments as an entrepreneur: people falling in love with @Bench and deciding they need to tell the world about it. Thanks for the shout out @TMFproject!!
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VC: have you considered increasing customer retention by removing the “cancel” button and instead making people call into an obscure support line and torturing them for an hour?. Me: 🤦🏼♂️.
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"It has saved me, it has saved my business and my sanity, and heaven forbid, my marriage" - @fbombchic and @KevinPricePOB, I'm so humbled that @Bench could have this effect on your life and I wish you the best with your business!
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Fintechs like @Bench @Square and @Plaid are standing by to help quickly and at massive scale. @stevenmnuchin1 @USTreasury you don't need to rely on intransigent banks. We are ready to help *today*. @zachperret @jack.
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Good morning to all the builders out there. This is your year to shine!.
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Love @Calendly but would be 10x better if it went from: “Here’s some of Sarah’s open time slots, now open your own GCal in another window and reconcile some times that work for you both”. To: “Login with your GCal and we’ll only propose times that work based on both calendars”.
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@bryan_johnson You want to align us with ourselves, so we can understand how to align with AI. Did I get it?.
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The more I lead, the more I learn that leadership isn’t what I thought it was.
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The tech conventional wisdom is to figure out how to charge your customers more. It’s what I hear every time I walk out of a VC meeting. But I want to figure out how to charge customers *less* and *give* them more.
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Every time I read about kids taken from their parents at the Mexican border, I imagine my own kids being taken from me, put in a facility, terrified and helpless. How can we as human beings allow this to happen on our watch?.
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Standing desks are so last year. I just bought a standing bed because sleeping is the new smoking.
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Staying at a hotel in SF, which has just informed me that the bill for my stay will be $NaN dollars, including $syntax error in taxes. Turns out there still a ton of opportunity in software.
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Be polite. It costs you nothing, and people will appreciate it.
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Today (and every day, really) I recognize all the intelligent women in my life and at Bench. Thank you ♀️.
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Bad Product Management -> "What can we add?". Good Product Management -> "What can we simplify?".
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@Austen 3 systems for quality at scale:. (1) objective measures of quality at a unit level for (a) customer (b) team member (c) a unit of work. (2) a training program that doesn’t let new employees serve customers until they demonstrate hitting quality measures in (1).
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Are you giving your friends and family the best side of you? Or the bookkeeping side of you?. We launched our latest creative campaign today here at @Bench! Thanks to everyone in the marketing team at Bench who helped bring this one to life! #smallbusiness
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1) Most mature F500 companies are social status games that are only loosely mapped to markets. These companies persist only because of moats that keep challengers at bay. But the moat in retail banking has just been crossed, and banks are in for a shock. 🧵.
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Business isn’t risky. Personal debt is risky. Whether it’s to finance education, personal consumption, or starting a business. Find ways to avoid personal debt and you will avoid so much anxiety and misery. There are a million ways to start in business without debt.
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Asking "What is more important to making decisions: data or intuition?" is like asking "What is more important to walking: your left or your right leg?". You are only as strong as your weakest muscle.
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100,000 generations of our families were lucky to live to 30. They spent their lives trying to not to starve. We tap a magic screen and food happens. What's possible for humanity now, even during our short lifetimes, is beyond imagining. Go imagine something and build it! Go!.
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2020 update:. Step 2) You are now a bank*. *powered by @stripe.
Startup Playbook:. Step 1) Whatever you were doing before.Step 2) You are now a bank.
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It’s amazing what a team can accomplish when it has clear, simple, unambiguous goals. It’s amazing how little they can get done when they don’t. This is another difference between good/bad management.
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Crypto will never go mainstream so long as regular people continue having their holdings exploded by fraud. Rampant fraud will continue until there is strong and consistent regulation. The entire point of crypto is to avoid government regulation. Therefore. .
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Hire for ability. Not experience, education, or credentials. Those are bad proxies.
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Password requirements:.2005: Must contain 8+ characters.2010: Must contain an upper and lowercase letter.2015: Must contain a symbol.2020: Must contain an emoji.2025: Must contain a limerick.2030: Must contain a stargate rune.2035: Maybe the problem isn't password complexity.
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It’s surprising to me that most companies still rely on debunked traditions in hiring / promoting / performance managing employees rather than focussing on being thoughtful and effective. Are we building for the future or the past?. The best companies go their own way.
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Now that I’m back into the product world, I’m looking forward to my assigned reading from @adamjsaint
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In 2018, if it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck, it's probably BitDuck, the world's most revolutionary distributed Mallard-based block chain enabled platform for global impact.
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Don't bother reducing the number of people that dislike your product. Just stoke the fervour of the people that love it.
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There's a special circle of hell reserved for people that design customer service for phone companies.
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We're growing @Shopify's Acceleration team to work on strategic acquisitions, investments, and more. Come accelerate the future of commerce with @bram, @anna_lambert_, @BrandonMChu, and me. 💸
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Shouting out @mintlify as an absolutely incredible platform for hosting API docs. Blown away at how this 9 person team has built the best product in the space in 18 months.
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Too many CEOs are focussed on pleasing investors rather than building something truly great.
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I can't really think of any startup problem for which the solution is "go to more conferences.".
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Imagine what we could accomplish if our institutions were optimized for producing greatness. Instead they are optimized for not looking bad.
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I pitched 100+ investors on Bench before anyone said yes. That's a lot of rejection. But it just takes 1.
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Tesla market cap today: $292B. Market cap of every other car manufacturer put together: $612B. Tesla has grown 8x so far this year. If it grows another 2.1x it will be larger than the entire non-Tesla auto industry. 🤯.
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Engineering quality is not measured in ideological purity. It's measured in maintenance time.
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@Austen 70 years from now: But daaaaaaad, Lucy got her brain pierced when she was *12*, why can’t I?? . Ugh, I’m so sick of you and this 3 dimensional reality. I’m the ONLY one of my friends not neurojamming this weekeeeeend 😭.
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Great products aren't built by 10x engineers, they're built by 10x teams.
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Banking as a Service now allows a neobank to be built in 3-6 months for <$1M. The resulting proliferation of neobanks is starting to eat away at the market share of traditional banks in consumer and SMB. Banking in 10 yrs will look much different than the last 50.
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I'm consistently inspired by @jamesclift and the @Durableteam team. They're on to something big.
1/ I’m excited to officially launch our open beta for Our mission is simple: remove all barriers to entrepreneurship and enable anyone to turn their skills into a profitable business. We’re also announcing that we’ve raised $6.25m.
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@Austen Hey Austen, we faced this also at Bench. Growth doesn’t cause quality to fall necessarily, that’s just conventional wisdom. Rather, there are systems you need in place to maintain quality at scale, and without them, as you approach scale at ANY speed, quality degrades.
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Honoured to be one of #CAN40under40! Congrats to my fellow @Top40_40 honourees @harleyf, @mkatchen, @matthswitzer
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