If you’re looking for a bookkeeper for your startup, my team and I would be happy to help!
I’m a CPA and the founder of Kruze Consulting, where we provide Accounting, Tax, Finance, Bookkeeping and HR expertise for over 550 funded startups. In the past I’ve worked at Deloitte Tax and I was the Controller of a 120+ employee startup. Our COO Scott Orn is a Kellogg MBA, former VC Partner at Lighthouse Capital Partners, and before that was an investment banker at JPMorgan’s technology group. Our head of FP&A is a former venture capitalist and startup operating executive, and has helped Kruze clients successfully raise hundreds of millions in VC funding.
Together we’ve created an all-in-one back office solution for VC backed startups. Most importantly, we love what we do and look to form lasting partnerships with our clients. Part of that lasting partnership is helping our clients prepare for their next fund raise - our clients have raised over half a billion dollars in seed and venture funding in the past 12 months alone! So we think we’ve been successful on that front. We also help startups navigate an exit; an average of 1 to 3 of our clients are acquired any given month. Finally, we know what government incentives are available to help cut startups burn - our work is helping our startups save over $3 million in burn this year.
Here’s a few of our services: Interim CFO services, startup bookkeeping, payroll, benefits, taxes, debt and equity fundraising assistance, 409A reporting, board financials, AR, AP, and HR. We also build financial models for startups that have been used to win investments from premier VC firms.
We have offices in San Francisco, San Jose (Silicon Valley), Santa Monica (Los Angeles) and New York, and our trained accountants and bookkeepers serve clients all over the United States.
What to look for in a Startup Bookkeeper
Startups, especially San Francisco Startups, need a bookkeeper experienced in startup accounting. Not all bookkeepers are accustomed to working with startups. Fundraising, dealing with venture capitalists on the board, sudden acquisition offers or financial diligence requests from potential partners - it’s nothing like being a personal CPA or working with a traditional small business.
Your startup’s accounting partner needs to start de-risking your next funding round right away. When we onboard a new client, we run them through a checklist to make sure we can get their financial files in order to sail through VC financial due diligence. And we start setting up a due diligence folder with your historical financials and other important documents, like tax returns, so you don’t have to delay your Series A, B, etc. while you search for paperwork. (Check out our due diligence checklist here so you can see some of the files we start to pull together for you.)
Secondly, your bookkeeper needs to know how to automate as much of the busy work as possible, to save the startup founder/CEO/executive team time. Every minute you waste doing silly bookkeeping paperwork is a minute you don’t get to use to generate your MVP or make that next sale or partnership. Startup founders need to be able to focus on what matters and use automation (and a competent bookkeeper) to get their numbers right. Read our Startup Financial Health Tips here to see the systems we set up for you so you can focus on growing your startup and not on your books!
Finally, you want someone who knows about startups. So many small business CPAs try to handle startup’s financials and fail. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen incorrect revenue, incorrect treatment of convertible notes, and just plain wrong stuff when we’ve taken over the books from bookkeepers who claim to know how to help startups, but who are really generic SMB accountants. In fact, a lot of times, VCs bring us into their investments because they can’t get the financial data they need out of their portfolio company’s current bookkeeping solution. And you don’t want your accounting to be the reason that your Series A is delayed by four months. That person in the Nashville call center might be very nice, but they don’t know what it’s like to be a San Francisco startup raising a $10 million Series A. We do.
You can get a feel for what it should cost using the tool on our site here.
Why Hire a Startup Bookkeeper Near Me in San Francisco?
Startups in San Francisco need more than just a bookkeeper “near me.” They need specialized support for companies in the heart of the venture capital ecosystem. Here is what makes Kruze different, and what to look for in a “bookkeeper near me.”
Fundraising and acquisition support from experienced bookkeepers
The first thing is fundraising and acquisition support. We focus on venture capital-backed startups. So the hundreds and hundreds of startups that work with Kruze are going to raise venture capital and eventually, hopefully, get bought for an exit. Due diligence is no joke for VC-backed companies in San Francisco. It’s incredibly important that their books and financials are in tip-top shape, their taxes are in tip-top shape. The top VC funds - the accounting firms that they hire and also the legal firms they hire - will be pouring over the books and other financial documentation of our clients, so we make sure they are ready.
Kruze’s clients are raising over $2 billion in capital per year now. We’ve actually had $10 billion in total venture capital raised amongst our client base.
Fundraising is probably one of the most stressful times for a founder. So the best startups know that they have an experienced bookkeeper near them, ready to help them fly through due diligence.
Tax compliance and advisory for the top startups in San Francisco
The second item to look for from a good bookkeeper is tax compliance and advisory. So we are a CPA firm. We have an in-house team of tax experts led by Vanessa Kruze, CPA - our founder and CEO. Vanessa was a Deloitte tax CPA. She leads a team of about 15 tax professionals ready to advise our startup clients and help get them through due diligence. Having the ability to make all your tax compliance get done quickly, efficiently and make sure you’re always operating in compliance is a huge benefit.
Deeply caring about your business - and it’s books!
And the final thing that makes Kruze different is just our attitude, the way we approach business, and we call it Kruze Cares More. It’s the idea that we will go out of our way to help our clients whenever it’s possible, whenever it’s needed. And it could be a last-minute due diligence session. It could be a board meeting prep for next week. It could be hey, I need to turn my books around really quickly because I have an all-hands meeting in a couple of days. Whatever it is, whatever you need, we are going to try our best to go beyond your expectations and make sure you’re taken care of. And that’s what Kruze Cares More for us.
Feel free to reach out to me: vanessa@kruzeconsulting.com or fill out our form and one of us will be in contact with you to see if we can help your startup manage your books.
