Ian Crosby, who previously founded Bench Accounting, is starting a new venture after Bench famously shut down in 2024 and was sold off. His new company, Synthetic, seeks to create a fully autonomous AI bookkeeper capable of generating accrual-based financials without human input. While still in development and potentially ahead of current tech capabilities, Synthetic has raised $10 million in Seed funding from Khosla Ventures, Basis Set Ventures, and Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke.
Despite Crosby’s past setbacks, such as Bench’s collapse, investors like Khosla’s Jon Chu support him, emphasizing that innovation often involves risk and controversy. Chu cites the example of Parker Conrad, who rebounded after leaving Zenefits to create the successful Rippling.
Crosby claims he wasn’t directly responsible for Bench’s failure, having been dismissed by the board in 2021 after rejecting a $250 million acquisition offer. He later worked at Shopify and founded another startup, Teal, which was acquired by Mercury.
Chu believes Crosby’s experiences since leaving Bench have helped him learn and grow. Crosby aims to develop a completely AI-driven bookkeeping service, contrasting with the human-reliant models of other accounting firms. While Synthetic currently targets AI and software startups, Crosby acknowledges that current AI models still make errors in bookkeeping, posing scaling challenges.
Using a self-driving car analogy, Crosby explained the complexity of ensuring AI reliability across different scenarios. He feels confident in waiting for technology to advance, having secured long-term funding to support Synthetic’s journey.