fancy little setup here we’re gonna do
things a little bit differently we’re
gonna have a fireside chat with someone
that is putting Vancouver on the map as
a hub for entrepreneurial pardon me
entrepreneurship that’s a big word
entrepreneurship engineer and the
Millennial workforce he’s bringing the
sexy back to bookkeeping and accounting
with his design focused tech company
which has raised over thirty three
million dollars since 2013 they have
over two hundred and twenty five
employees and a few dogs and they
understand that they are hiring so if
you do have questions feel free to tweet
him afterwards they’re hiring and
they’re headquartered in Vancouver he
was named one of BC businesses and
Forbes magazine’s top 30 under 30
he is the CEO and co-founder of bench
welcome Ian Crosby thank you thanks for
joining today so I understand a belated
birthday wish is in order so
unfortunately you are no longer eligible
for 30 under 30 next year I’m sure you
wanted to sweeten right under the line
happy belated birthday does that mean
you’re gonna retire anytime soon I don’t
have any immediate plans I enjoy what
I’m doing we want you around for a
little bit longer though cool glad to
hear that we can we can keep you well I
will join best to oblige okay wonderful
so tell me a little bit about bench and
what you are doing to change the way
people do business sure
well every small business needs
financial statements it’s just one of
those things you need to run a business
I mean I guess you could try to run
you’re just about doing financial
statements and doing your taxes it’s
probably just not a very good long-term
strategy but the way that was done
before bench was you know you had to
hire someone you had to learn all the
software and bookkeeping in County it’s
got this very esoteric knowledge like if
you are a photographer running a
photography business or your Shopify
store you’re selling you know things
online accounting tends to be something
that’s so far outside of sort of their
previous knowledge that it’s it’s scary
it’s confusing and it’s something that
so many people need that I just didn’t
why there was just an easy place where
you can go and just hit a button on a
website and get your sort of standard
issue accounting you it was always sort
of a big ordeal so we did differently
was create sort of something where you
can just go sign up and in 15 minutes
you know you have your full bookkeeping
solution you’re gonna get your financial
statements every month you don’t have to
learn anything you don’t have to do
anything and that’s that’s what we built
well it’s easy for the customer to
actually actually do it yeah it was like
a multi-year journey I mean I think a
lot harder than what we thought it was
gonna be when we started out great and
so what are some of the lessons that you
learned along the way in building bench
oh man some of the lessons along the way
I’d say the biggest thing was there’s
just no right way it’s like when you
start especially I’ve been haven’t run
the business before there’s kind of this
general feeling I can’t put my finger on
it but that you know there’s some
knowledge or some secret that everyone
else knows that I don’t know right or
that you know there’s some some
qualification that must be out there
somewhere were some experience cuz you
know I look at other people running
businesses and to do with so much
confidence they must know something that
I don’t know and and really everyone’s
just kind of making it up as they go
along sometimes right yeah I mean it’s
it’s you know there’s no there’s no real
secret it’s it’s just about sort of
doing your best and doing what makes
sense to you and so what would you
describe as some of your core values or
guiding principles in building bench or
perhaps for yourself in life yeah I mean
I’d say what really got it off the
ground
and what sort of got us over the sort of
take that leap hump was I don’t know I
don’t know if this was a great attitude
to have but we sort of really didn’t
like a lot of businesses and how they
were run we thought they sort of were ok
with mediocre service or you know like I
would call I don’t want to like call out
any particular companies because now now
that I run a business I’m like wow
that’s hard
you know but you know you’re on hold for
like 35 minutes I’m like how why like
that’s not a good experience for me do
you want my business how how are you
making me sort of go through that so you
know we kind of started it as a like a
rebellion against mediocrity we wanted
to be something where Google would go
there and it would go wow that is
amazing they put a lot of thought into
from the first second that you know you
you land on the website to every day
you’re getting financials that
everything’s been thoughtful and I
couldn’t think of sort of anything
obvious that’s you know it was a
detriment to the customer experience so
that’s that’s really just sort of been
the guiding principle since day one now
you know obviously since then you learn
sort of how hard it is to sort of like
okay predict the exact number of colors
you’re gonna get you know at any given
hour of the day but you know we really
rather than saying oh well everyone else
has 30 30-minute wait times so I guess
that’s okay you just really push
ourselves to to try to figure out what
we can do that’s better because we think
that’s kind of mediocre exactly so don’t
just stick with the status quo and don’t
stick with what’s mediocre don’t use
that as an excuse to just do what
everyone else is doing you know raise
their expectations right yeah I mean the
way we think about it is you know the
way anyone else is doing it that’s not
that’s not the way it has to be done
it’s initially hypothesis like sometimes
it’s sort of like oh there’s an idea
that we’re doing it that way doesn’t
mean that it’s right like we actually go
out and we sort of maybe even to our
detriment sometimes we sort of test
everything like we take nothing for
granted and someone will say something
that sounds obvious we’re like yeah but
really is that is that actually the way
it is let’s go test it and you know 80%
of the time oh yeah okay so we were
being a little bit you know ahead of
ourselves but 20% of the time you know
the time when you actually test
something that no one else has thought
of her figured out and you’ve learned
something different it’s like hugely
wildly valuable and those are the things
that really are gonna what’s what’s
gonna make you successful it’s like
discovering the things that went
unexplored by others absolutely and you
talk about success how would you
yourself define success you know it’s
really about choosing priorities I
a long time ago had this like formative
as formative experience when I was in
martial arts I was competitive martial
artists before I got old I feel I feel a
lot older than 30 I’m definitely not
doing competitive martial arts anymore
but actually my teacher he went on this
big season for the class with these big
sort of philosophical speeches there’s
one we were sort of like every
achievement just passes you know you
think of it as like oh how amazing it
would be to you know accomplish this or
achieve this and then you know two weeks
later it’s just on to the next thing
like it’s not satisfying to just
constantly be chasing this image of what
your future life is gonna be like and
that you know it’s really about do I
enjoy what I’m doing in the moment like
is this is this really what I want to be
doing with my life and focusing on that
and it’s just a very different headspace
I think it almost goes back to like oh
everyone else has figured out a thing
that I haven’t figured out yet right
it’s like and then you know someday I’m
gonna figure it out or you know someday
I will get the mass for achievement and
then that will be gratifying and then
like my life is kind of done and just
you know the satisfaction doesn’t really
work that way and I think I saw it in
high resolution too when when I was
building the company he was sort of like
oh yeah the first million dollars in
revenue you know it was like oh well be
a real company or you know we’ll be
successful when you got our first
million dollar in revenue and you get
there and you’re like wow there’s more
problems than there have ever been no
there’s more stress than it’s ever been
you know like this doesn’t feel
gratifying if anything I’m like more
worried about everything right and and
then you know the next million dollars
are getting this big investor or you
know getting and you know it turns out
that you know what you’re actually doing
is not any of those things that matter
like those kind of just fade into the
background and it’s it’s really about do
you believe in what you’re doing every
day and I understand that people are a
big part of you know what you do and you
know what you’re focused on it where can
you tell us a little bit about what it’s
like to be working at bench and my
understanding also is there’s actually
been a lot of news coverage as well
around your corporate culture I have a
bit of a culture crush on you guys as
well I’ve looked on their website
they’ve got a really cool like wellness
guide you better
you new hire got as well tell me a
little bit about that and how that comes
into play and what it would be like if
we were to work at bench yeah now I’ll
get my answer with full knowledge that I
might not be representative answer
because obviously one one directional
view and you know maybe that sounds
really like but I’ll see what I observe
it to be like it when I think its life
we are again coming going back to you
know we don’t really take anything for
granted
we’re really just investigating you know
what is the best way that we would like
to run our company there’s no sort of
right from the get-go it was K we’re not
gonna take cookie cutter what other
companies do just because that’s the way
it should be done now sometimes you
learn you know you test out you’re like
oh there’s a really good reason that you
know people do do things that way
but for the most part it’s sort of like
yeah why don’t most companies have like
mental health guides or help you know
they’re people really deal with stress I
mean if stretches is gonna be a thing
that comes up in your job I mean even if
you were like just sort of like the most
like stereotypical evil Grinch like like
organization they want their people to
be the most effective like why are they
not helping people sort of be the best
people they can be
so that’s thing we focus on a lot in in
you know we just were like well I don’t
know if it’s gonna work was not gonna
work let’s just try it can we even come
up with a mental you know wellness guide
I don’t know we’ve never done it before
right but no one else has done it either
so so so there’s a lot of things like
that like you know things like so we
have beer on tap sort of unlimited beer
on tap and you know in a lot of
companies you would be like oh were
people just gonna be drunk all the time
well no I mean if it turns out if you
hire really good committed people that
people aren’t just gonna dike they’re
not there for the beer just sort of a
nice you know baby maybe with lunch or
after work or something and you know you
can generally trust people to be
responsible you don’t have to try to
like predict all the bad things that
people are gonna do so there’s just a
lot of places where you know it got dogs
in the office right where we’re like
well I mean I can’t really think of a
good
to not have one in the office I mean not
in the sales area because they’re gonna
be barking and there’s customers on the
phone okay so there’s a very good reason
I have dogs in the sales area we learned
that one you know firsthand but you know
in general it’s sort of like yeah why
why can’t you bring dogs Rick I mean if
they’re you know well-behaved dogs etc
and and so you know it’s again another
one of those things were like well we
like it and we have a founder forget a
good reason not to do it I mean everyone
else is not doing it but seems to work
for us so you know in general I guess we
do things that we like and make sense to
us rather than sort of I know I think a
lot of the time also companies feel like
they have to play like grown-up business
theater you know there’s a way that sort
of like businesspeople are supposed to
act and look and and that almost takes
priority and maybe it’s that they’re
like well you know I don’t know why we
do it this way but everyone else is
doing it that way so there must be
something they figured out so I have to
do it that way and you know we gave that
up and I don’t we’ve really really
enjoyed the results and my understanding
also is that you vow to never have any
offshore employees and you’re
headquartered in Vancouver why Vancouver
yeah and you know again there’s nothing
against offshore employees but you know
when we were thinking about what is the
best customer experience and what’s
going to be you know the best that was
just one of the things sort of early
upfront that we decided that’s just
that’s gonna be a lot better for our
customers why Vancouver
I live in Coober I’m from Vancouver
originally this is where I want to live
elephant rhino I lived in New York I
spent a lot of time in the San Francisco
area but thank you Bruce palm and
actually it’s funny sort of I a lot of
people in Vancouver you know I’m not
sure where it is but there’s people who
like sort of complaining about Vancouver
and I’m kind of like I mean I I want to
respect your opinion but I totally don’t
agree I love that Cooper like maybe just
a social thing that we’re supposed to
like complain about things so we can
sort of like oh yeah you too oh yeah
around things that they don’t enjoy
their heat yeah well they could rally
against things they do enjoy too but you
know I love Vancouver and I you know I
actually put a lot of effort into
getting the business back here we
actually started it in New York it was I
was not very popular with my investors
for about three weeks there when when I
was like you know we’re going back to
Vancouver on the other side of the
continent from you but all worked out
for the best so they’re happy you took a
big leap by focusing on an industry that
isn’t traditionally something that part
of me an industry that you know people
would think about you know building a
new technology and it’s kinda it’s not
particularly like sexy we talked about
bringing the sexy back to bookkeeping
and accounting how did you decide to
take the leap in that industry you know
I don’t really think there are any
boring industries just boring companies
like if you just you know if you see an
industry where you know things are room
for the customer or it’s boring or not
done well that just shows you there’s an
opportunity I mean that’s really where
there’s opportunity I mean do you think
the people would buy the better thing
yes well then you know that should be a
huge opportunity right so we actually
saw that as a massive opportunity to
actually envision and build something a
lot better than existed before and so I
have to ask also we have a crowd here a
field of mostly Millennials and you’re
also Maleny on and there’s a lot of talk
around no idea was this Millennials that
I love Gleneagles and Ella Vancouver
record here right here at TEDx SFU 2016
so what are what do you see the future
looking like for Millennials in the
workplace where’s the workplace you know
it’s interesting because I have
obviously I have such an air of you I
only see sort of what’s in front of my
face my day-to-day basis right but I
think there’s really an opportunity to
chart our own course in what work is
going to be like that there’s sort of
these default ways of operating that you
know they might have worked or had a
really good reason for being that way 30
or 50 years ago that now you know we’re
gonna question
one principals for example that we we
have a bench is minimum viable hierarchy
not no hierarchy we’ve we’ve tried that
and that was chaos so that’s me you know
it turns out that hierarchy is a very
important tool for for you know making
sure that a team is operating
effectively together but you know beyond
a certain point it really becomes an
impediment to people’s creativity to
actually you know accomplishing what we
really want to accomplish together and
you know we’ve kinda just figured that
out in charge our own course as well and
I think you know for a lot of millenials
we’re gonna be figuring out you know how
we want to work together and and that
you know that isn’t written we can we
can choose what we want to want that to
look like we want working together to
look like absolutely well thank you so
much Ian and we wish you all the best
and happy belated birthday let’s give in
Crosby a round of applause [Applause]