Taking the smaller things off founders' hands with tech-enabled accounting services that scale in order to help founders get a better handle on their finances.
Co-Founders Remco Marcelis and Michael Budnow founded Standard Ledger to help founders get a better handle on their finances. Managing the dollars and accessing funds underpins successful growth, and they knew scalable accounting services would free founders up to focus on their vision. Apart from everyday accounting, Standard Ledger also delivers part-time CFO services, capital raising advice, financial management, valuations, and cash from R&D tax incentives and grants.
With Standard Ledger, Remco and Mike have set about reinventing accounting for startups and small-medium enterprises. Their special blend of technical nous with corporate finance and commercial tax expertise has been the basis of a growing but scalable services business that delivers packaged accounting services at fixed monthly prices. Reliable and affordable professional services are critical for startup survival; moreso when that know-how isn’t in-house.
And Remco knows. Even with financial understanding, he’s had to learn the lessons of his own failed startup. Having lost his house through that experience, Remco knows a failed business affects people’s lives and families. Through Standard Ledger, he and Mike are focused on supporting founders’ entrepreneurial spirits while avoiding that same kind of adversity.
Having proven the ability to scale, Standard Ledger needed enough capital to hire the people they needed to be able to address the market opportunity. As a services business, though, it wasn’t attractive to equity investors who are more interested in tech startups. And, although a standard bank loan was an option, Standard Ledger’s reinvestment of profits had created enough of a risk to make the terms unpalatable.
In a business world that is full of service providers, Tractor Ventures and Standard Ledger are aligned in values and beliefs. Remco and Mike have ambitious goals, but they value the personal connections that are so important in today’s services businesses. It’s early days, but both teams can already see the potential of a mutually beneficial partnership, long after the loan is repaid.
"We’ve worked with startups for more than 15 years as CFOs and as investors. Tractor’s investment is allowing us to expand our team off an already successful business model, and their network is directly helping us help more startups, which is good for everyone."
Sign up for our newsletter
