Bookkeeping startup Bench, which raised $100M+ including from Shopify, closes down effective immediately; several employees say Bench also laid off staff
it's reputation-ending Leadership means accountability Rohit Mittal / @rohitdotmittal : Does anyone know how to go about buying Bench's assets? I'm sure investors have counsel to sell the assets and get back whatever they can. It's an opportunity to raise a few million, buy all the assets, brand name, and the rest and run the thing profitably. If you think you Natasha Mascarenhas / @nmasc_ : Bench shut down is a big deal - especially this time of the year. Watching customers and employees melt down all over my LinkedIn/X feed https://www.theinformation.com/ ... Brandon Hall / @bhallcpa : Another unfortunate example of outsiders thinking you can fully automate accounting. Bench, and those similar, have an unscalable model. Why? To have a large enough TAM and attract VC investments, they must charge rock bottom prices. Otherwise they become unaffordable to many [image] Andrew Rea / @andrew__rea : It's about to be a bloodbath on Twitter/LinkedIn + email inboxes today as every accounting firm and accounting tech startup goes after the @Bench client base. [image] Tommy Griffith / @tommygriffith : It looks like @Bench is shutting down, with 3 business days left in the year, right before tax season. Does anyone know what happened? [image] Anand Sanwal / @asanwal : 13-year old accounting software @bench shuts down abruptly 3 days before year-end If you're a customer, ouch! Raised $104M w/the last round being $60M in 2021 A zero value here is wild Would figure the customer base, software would be worth something? But guess not [image] Alex MacCaw / @maccaw : Bench just charged us for the full year. And then went under a few days later. I don't know the specifics behind their shutdown, but I would not be surprised if this was yet another example of an otherwise great business that would have thrived had they not taken venture Travis Jamison / @travis_jamison : Bench accounting/bookkeeping services just abruptly ended services. According to HackerNews they were allowing new users to sign up even yesterday. What caused this? How many people are screwed? [image] LinkedIn: David Morgantini : Almost 4 years ago I joined the Bench EPD team. Over the past 4 years, the team has grown and changed, making it virtually unrecognizable from the team I joined. … Greg O'Brien / Greg O'Brien, CPA : Wow! Bench, an original cloud accounting provider who tried to scale low cost bookkeeping has abruptly closed its doors. … Anne Hughes : Heartbroken this morning to hear that Bench Accounting is closing down operations. — I know many will echo the same sentiment that Bench … Max Ezerzer : The news today from Bench is really devastating. Having worked there for over 2.5 years, I know so many talented and hard working individuals who are now out of a job. … Forums: Hacker News : Bench accounting services shutting down r/vancouver : Long-time local tech startup, Bench, shuts down and lays off all its employees.
The InformationNatasha Mascarenhas
Context & Ripple Effects
Bench’s immediate closure came after it had raised more than $100 million, including from Shopify, leaving a high-profile bookkeeping provider unable to continue service. The timing compounds the operational stakes for customers and accounting-firm partners approaching year-end and tax-season work.
Bench customers and partner accounting firms must rapidly secure access to records and replace a bookkeeping provider, while employees face layoffs tied to the abrupt cessation.
Investors and creditors shift from supporting an operating company to preserving or selling Bench’s assets, brand, and customer relationships.
Second-order effects
The disruption gives incumbent accounting firms and bookkeeping software vendors an opening to win displaced customers, but it also raises switching and continuity concerns for buyers of outsourced financial operations.
A buyer of the remaining assets can preserve portions of Bench’s customer base at a lower cost than building distribution from scratch, as the later Employer.com deal suggests.
Third-order effects
The episode reinforces that recurring-service startups handling core business records face a higher accountability bar than discretionary software: service continuity and data handoff become part of the product promise.
If automation-led bookkeeping models continue to struggle with implementation and operational execution, capital may favor providers that can show durable human-and-software workflows rather than growth funding alone.
The trend: Bench is a data point in the tightening scrutiny of subscription-backed business-service startups whose customers depend on uninterrupted operations and reliable records.
here's the full pitchbook info on Bench board members. haven't independently verified myself. my dms are open. have pinged a couple people to see if i can get more info [image]
Talk about a board turning a company into nothing. Bench raised a $60M Series C in 2021 - then board pushed out the founder CEO, to bring in a professional CEO. The company is shutting down 3 years later. Not even a fire sale. Customers, employees, investors left with nothing.
“Dear Bench customer, we regret to inform you that we will be shutting down Bench services.” Weapons-grade corpo speak Totally soulless managerial pablum Surest sign the founder is no longer there [image]
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
The accounting tool @Bench shut down with no warning 3 days before the end of the year. They had raised $110m in venture capital. The app is no longer accessible. There will be a way to export your data, but it's not available yet. File over app is not just for individuals. [imag…
It's far easier for a founding CEO to learn leadership than for a hired CEO to develop a founder mindset. Important lesson from the ousted founder of Bench, which just abruptly shut down. Bench raised more than $100m in venture funding, and at one point employed more than 650
Another founder kicked out by their VCs You never hear this so common story because people are tied by NDAs or scared to get sued Know that when you raise money you give up full control, important to choose well who you give that full control to
Oof. The sudden closure of Bench, an accountancy software platform, leaves 35,000 US businesses in a scramble. The firm is suggesting they contact the IRS to ask for extensions on tax deadlines. Founder Ian Crosby says he was fired from the firm after disagreeing with its new
The @Bench shutdown is sad. Lots of angry clients. Lots of angry investors who (presumably) are losing their entire investment. Lots of angry employees who saw this coming and couldn't stop it. Everybody in accounting who has raised venture owes Bench's team a thank you for
When I say indie isn't about fundraising this is exactly what I mean. The right partners are a super power. The wrong partners are a death sentence to your ability to operate independently.
@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 intransi…
@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
@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.”
@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.
@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.
@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 h…
@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-chanc…
Bench Accounting. 500 employees, Series C, $109M in VC funding, 14 year-old company. NONE OF THAT MATTERS. Company just shut down, because VCs were propping them up and they weren't profitable. If raising X00 Million in VC funding is in your criteria when evaluating vendors,
.@Bench accounting is dead. Lots of startups, e-comm brands, and SMBs that will need help transitioning providers in the days and weeks ahead. Bench failing is not that shocking of a development for anyone who's been in the industry or a client of Bench's in the past though. [ima…
@kepano @Bench We were once bench customers, and I completely see why they shutdown. Accounting, for all but the smallest companies, is complicated. Bench's bookkeeping process was designed to be cookie cutter. We could barely get direct access to any humans at the company. Now w…
Business is tough, but @Bench CEO has ZERO excuse for not giving employees, customers, and stakeholders advance warning and a proper transition plan Neglecting this isn't just a mistake—it's reputation-ending Leadership means accountability
Does anyone know how to go about buying Bench's assets? I'm sure investors have counsel to sell the assets and get back whatever they can. It's an opportunity to raise a few million, buy all the assets, brand name, and the rest and run the thing profitably. If you think you
Bench shut down is a big deal - especially this time of the year. Watching customers and employees melt down all over my LinkedIn/X feed https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
Another unfortunate example of outsiders thinking you can fully automate accounting. Bench, and those similar, have an unscalable model. Why? To have a large enough TAM and attract VC investments, they must charge rock bottom prices. Otherwise they become unaffordable to many [im…
It's about to be a bloodbath on Twitter/LinkedIn + email inboxes today as every accounting firm and accounting tech startup goes after the @Bench client base. [image]
13-year old accounting software @bench shuts down abruptly 3 days before year-end If you're a customer, ouch! Raised $104M w/the last round being $60M in 2021 A zero value here is wild Would figure the customer base, software would be worth something? But guess not [image]
Bench just charged us for the full year. And then went under a few days later. I don't know the specifics behind their shutdown, but I would not be surprised if this was yet another example of an otherwise great business that would have thrived had they not taken venture
Bench accounting/bookkeeping services just abruptly ended services. According to HackerNews they were allowing new users to sign up even yesterday. What caused this? How many people are screwed? [image]