The Best Banks for Funded Startups
How to choose the right bank for your startup
Update post SVB crisis: Silicon Valley Bank historically banked over half of the tech startups in the US. Now that SVB has been taken over by the FDIC, we are seeing startups choose the most stable/biggest banks over tech-focused specialist banks. Read on to learn more.
Given the SVB crisis, some founders are opting for very large banks like JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America or Citigroup. While these banks don’t have the same understanding of the tech market - or the tools to really serve startups - they are considered the safest. While we still think the expertise at FRB, Rho and Mercury make them some of the best banks for startups, we understand the flight to safety.
The Best Banks for Funded Startups - All you need to know
The Best Banks for Startups
Everything in startup banking changed on March 9th and 10th, 2023. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) took over SVB due to what was basically a bank run. On Sunday, the Fed’s announced that all deposits at SVB would be protected. However, there are still fears that a run could spread to other banks that focus on the tech industry.
This substantially changes the calculus on what makes the best startup banks.
We (and our startup clients) had historically loved working with the startup focused financial institutions like SVB, First Republic, and Mercury.
Now it’s all about quality and safety.
- JPMorgan Chase. Total assets:$3.20 trillion.
- Bank of America. Total assets: $2.41 trillion.
- Citigroup. Total assets: $1.77 trillion.
- Wells Fargo. Total assets: $1.72 trillion.
Founders aren’t going to get the same customer service or understanding of the tech market at those banks. However, it’s very unlikely that any of those institutions will face liquidity issues.
Ways you can extend your FDIC insurance for more safety
Before the SVB failure, most founders probably didn’t pay much attention to Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insurance for their company bank accounts. Now founders are paying much more attention to where they’re placing their money and looking for safer ways to manage their cash.
FDIC insurance protects individual bank deposits up to $250,000, which is typically enough for most individuals. However, startups can and do have millions in venture capital, and those amounts far exceed the FDIC limit. Founders and CEOs, as fiduciaries for their companies, need to focus on three tenets of cash management: Safety, liquidity, and managing risk. Safety should always be your primary objective, and recent events have underscored that.
Many banks have developed Insured Cash Sweep (ICS) accounts that will distribute your money to accounts in a network of FDIC-insured banks in increments of $250,000. Your custodial bank will manage the distribution, and provide you with a consolidated report to reduce your administrative burden. Please note that while these types of accounts have been available for over 20 years, they’ve never been tested to see if the FDIC would completely reimburse losses.
Before choosing a financial institution, talk with them about their specific products to make sure those products meet your needs and your cash management policy. Some of our executives have invested in some of the financial institutions we list here, and if you use our links you may get better pricing and we may receive a referral payment. Financial institutions offering ICS accounts include:
| Financial Institution | Amount Insured | Product | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank of America | $6,000,000 | Insured Savings Account | Spreads $ across many banks |
| First Republic Banks | $150,000,000 | Insured Cash Sweep | Spreads $ across many banks |
| Bridge Bank | $150,000,000 | Insured Cash Sweep | Spreads $ across many banks |
| California Bank of Commerce | $50,000,000 | Demand Deposit Marketplace | Spreads $ across many banks |
| Citizens Bank | $130,000,000 | Insured Deposit Marketplace | Spreads $ across many banks |
| Arc | $2,750,000 | Arc Gold | Spreads $ across many banks |
| Mercury | $3,000,000 | Mercury Vault | Spreads $ across many banks |
| Rho | $75,000,000 | Treasury Management Account | Spreads $ across many banks |
| Brex | $2,250,000 | Brex Business Account | Spreads $ across many banks |
Other low-risk options to manage bank cash with greater safety
Startups with cash balances that exceed their bank’s insured cash sweep limits, or that would like to further diversify their banking position to reduce risk and improve safety, may want to consider investing in short-term government debt.
Companies can access short-term government bonds by purchasing them directly from the US Department of the Treasury, or by working with their financial providers to purchase bonds or invest in money market funds.
Money market funds invest in highly liquid short-term investments like US Treasuries, which are backed by the government. Money market funds, while not FDIC-insured, are considered very low-risk investments and offer startups a high degree of safety for their funds.
All of the best startup banks have treasury or cash management teams that can allocate client cash into these various products. The very best startup banks also have good to great online interfaces where it’s easy for a founder to manage and understand how their company’s cash is allocated across these various products - although many of the bulge bracket banks like to get on the phone to set up a specialized account.
Banks and financial providers that provide money market funds and treasury bill solutions include:
| Financial Institution | Investment Product | Additional Information |
| Bank of America | Merrill Lynch Bank Deposit Program | Offered through Merrill Lynch |
| Brex | Money market funds | Offered through BNY Mellon |
| Mercury | Mercury Vault | Offered through Vanguard |
| Rho | Prime Treasury Account | Managed by RBB Treasury, LLC |
| Meow | US Treasury Bills | Offered through BNY Mellon Pershing |
| Treasure Financial | Treasure Managed Income | Actively managed money market fund |
| Arc | Money market funds or T-Bills | Offered through BNY Mellon Pershing |
How are rising interest rates affecting startup banks?
Rising interest rates can affect startup bank deposits. Startups that have money in a bank account might earn more interest on your deposits.
This is because banks generally pay higher interest rates on deposits when interest rates rise. However, if startups are pulling out their cash to move it to types of investments that offer higher yields, that reduces the bank’s deposit base. Furthermore, if a bank is locked into longer term assets like mortgages or longer duration T-Bills, the bank could face a liquidity crunch. Those factors, plus the rise in interest rates, could also make borrowing more expensive for banks.
This is partly what sparked the issue with SVB, and the rest of the banking sector is also challenged because of the same reasons.
It’s worth noting that the relationship between interest rates and bank deposits can be complex, and there are many other factors that can influence the interest rates that banks pay on deposits and the safety of the deposits.
What to look for in a bank for your startup
A bank is a very important piece of an early-stage company’s financial infrastructure. The best startup banks need to be easy to use and financially (and technically) stable.
Founders should look for several critical things in their financial institution:
Stable and well capitalized
From a stability standpoint, financial stability is imperative because if a financial institution goes out of business it can be majorly disruptive. In the United States, most banks have FDIC insured deposit products. These usually don’t offer much yield, but the actual deposits are theoretically protected up to a certain level. However, even if a financial firm did go out of business, getting access to the cash in the accounts could be difficult for a period of time. And so it’s important to pick a well capitalized institution.
Update post-SVB: It was truly stressful as founders tried to access their funds and meet payroll! Stability can not be underestimated. Read our checklist on moving bank accounts if you are moving institutions.
Good customer service
The best banks have great account managers - founders should expect a stable relationship with an account manager who gets to know the business over time. Great phone support is also extremely important, as startups may need to wire (or receive) large amounts of cash.
Strong technical integrations
Funded startups tend to have many transactions flowing into and out of their checking account. Keeping track of all of these transactions can be next to impossible without automation. So a startup must use a provider that has simple and easy integration with the bank feeds into QuickBooks. This automation will save founders time if they do their own bookkeeping, and will save them money if they pay outsourced accountants to do the work. A clean bank feed will include the vendor, the dollar amount and the date. Many financial institutions are using Plaid, a technology provider for automating the bank feed extraction. This makes it easier to move data from your bank into your accounting software.
Cash management
Unlike traditional small businesses, companies that raise VC or seed financing have cash. Strong cash management is the ability to generate interest on your deposits. Generating interest on cash is a great way to pay for an extra engineer or an extra salesperson. Given the current, low-interest rate environment, getting yield is not easy. But the best financial institutions will know how to structure deposits to generate some extra return. However, it’s important not to take too much risk in a cash management plan. More exotic securities like auction rate securities may generate some extra interest, but create real risk to the safety of the deposit - they usually are not FDIC insured. The banks our clients have success with can often structure multiple deposit accounts; one to actually run the operations of the business, and the other to generate returns.
Venture debt
And then the final thing to look for in a great startup bank is venture debt. This is not totally necessary, as there are plenty of independent venture debt funds, but it can be a nice way to extend a startup’s runway. One item that can make bank lenders more challenging that fund lenders is certain clauses like material adverse change clauses or investor abandonment clauses, which are pretty common in bank lending.
First Republic vs Mercury vs Rho vs Bridge Bank
Let’s breakdown the differences between the best banks for startups, FRB, Mercury, Rho and Bridge Bank. Startup founders need to care about how they access their accounts, the level of support (hey, where is that $10M VC wire?!? - nice to have someone to talk to when that happens) and the yield that they get on their cash balances (which will vary by bank and by the amount of cash in the account, among other things).
| Online + Mobile Apps | Branch Offices | Support | Venture Debt | Yield on Cash | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First Republic | Good | Yes | Phone, email, dedicated banker | No | Up to 2% |
| Mercury | Great | No | Email, Online | Yes | Up to 1.97% |
| Rho | Great | No | Email, Online | No | TBD |
| Bridge Bank | Good | Yes | Phone, email, dedicated banker | Yes | Up to 3% |
Startup specialized banks
Small business bankers get confused by Silicon Valley startups; they don’t understand how funded companies burn cash every month. It is best to pick an institution that is specialized in startups. For the early-stage, high growth companies, First Republic is the biggest player, although Bridge Bank is a stable bank making strides in the tech startup space. We also see growing market share from two newcomers, Mercury and Rho. And companies like Brex are starting to edge toward becoming actual banks, but aren’t quite there yet.
Choosing a bank for your startup
Here’s some advice from our COO, Scott Orn, on making this important decision. One of the most important decisions you will make in the early days of being a startup is choosing a really good place to put your money. Ideally, you want to simplify the banking process, but you also want to take advantage of other services that startup-focused banks can provide. Let’s take a look at the criteria:
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Products and services. A lot of startups raise significant amounts of cash, and you need a financial partner that has a good deposit foundation. Specifically, you will need a good money market account, because you want to earn some interest on your cash, while keeping risk to a minimum.
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Bill pay solution. This is not as critical, because a lot of our clients use another solution, like Bill.com. However, many of the banks that service startups have started building bill pay solutions, and older firms may have bill pay solutions too.
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Venture debt capabilities. Lending to startups is pretty rare, but there are some banks that do make loans to their startup client base. Some of my favorite banks do venture lending, and it’s really helpful. As an indirect benefit, banks that work with venture capital funds have relationships that can help you. Often a startup that is trying to raise money starts by trying to determine which VCs to approach. And banks that work with venture capital funds can help you make those connections.
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Customer service. As the founder of a startup, your most limiting factor isn’t usually capital, it’s time. If you are waiting for your financial institution to get back to you because they aren’t being responsive, it can cost you a lot of time. You really want your bank to assign an account manager to you. Some of the providers I recommend have a great account management practice, and you can always reach your account manager to solve problems very quickly.
Customer service is not only important for you, but you also want your accounting firm, such as Kruze Consulting, to get great customer service. Your accounting firm has detailed knowledge of your business and often works with the bank to resolve transactions, payments, or credit issues. Good customer service for your accounting firm will make your life a lot easier, and it saves you money on your bill by helping us be efficient.
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Technology. At the simplest level, this is being able to navigate banking portals like web or mobile apps. Many players have gotten very good at this, and some of the technology-centric options I recommend started with an app, which they worked very hard to make easy to use.
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Integration with Plaid. Another nice thing to have is integration with Plaid, which connects financial accounts to fintech services. At Kruze we pull significant amounts of information out of Plaid because we’re pretty technology forward. We write a lot of our own software. And that integration makes us more efficient, and it helps to connect with other applications like Quickbooks or Bill.com.
First Republic Bank
The second largest, startup focused, player in Silicon Valley, FRB offers excellent customer service and strong deposit and cash management products. Their technology integrations are stable and reliable.
Rho
Rho is a new comer, focused on helping funded companies with their cash management and credit card needs. Rho has strong perks and a great technology / UX. Rho is redefining startup banking for the better.
Mercury
Mercury - Mercury is another new player, creating a technology forward financial institution. They have a strong feed and excellent a user interface.
As the SVB crisis unfolded, Mercury provided the following information to us ontheir stability and capitalization. Note that this is in their words, not ours:
We want to assure you that Mercury is in a strong financial position (profitable and well-capitalized), and we have a number of ways that we keep deposits on Mercury safe:
- Mercury accounts are secure and insured up to $1M by the FDIC — far above the industry standard of $250K. This is made possible through our regulated partner banks and use of sweep networks, which spread your deposits across multiple trusted banks (including Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo), reducing the risk of a single point of failure.
- We also offer Mercury Treasury, which allows you to earn yield on your idle cash, and move excess funds into lower-risk, SIPC-insured (up to $500K) accounts. This is a great way to diversify where excess funds are held.
- Mercury accounts have many layers of security, including custom controls, airtight encryption protocols on your account, data, and card information, and a robust system of multi-factor authentication to reduce the risk of your account getting in the wrong hands.
Equally, our primary bank partners are in sound financial condition:
- They have well diversified deposits outside of tech, which reduces volatility and helps ensure stability for Mercury customers.
- They have not seen any deposit flight at this time.
- They’ve stayed disciplined on the investing side throughout the low-rate environment and have kept their bond portfolio with short durations, meaning there is no big mark-to-market risk like what we’ve seen with SVB.
- They also do not conduct risky lending activity, have no direct crypto involvement, and their capital ratios are sound.
- You can learn more about how we assess our partners here.
Bridge Bank
Bridge Bank is one of the leaders in startup banking, and now they’ve launched a new program designed to introduce startups to Bridge Bank.
Other startup banking options
We do see early-stage companies coming to us with a large variety of providers. And since we are a major voice in the industry, we get reached out to by the technology groups in a number of financial services firms. These are other startup banking options that we’ve interacted with; read our reviews and take on their tech-focused groups:
Which banks do we recommend?
We tend to classify banks in three categories:
- Established full-service banks. In this category is First Republic Bank. They are now the premier full-service provider that offer all the services startups need. Bridge Bank is also taking marketshare with tech companies, and may be a good option for a founder looking for a larger bank.
- Startup-oriented banks. Rho and Mercury Bank are both new and are focused on technology. They are backed by venture capitalists, both have raised a lot of money, both have beautiful technology interfaces, and really easy-to-use software. Both Rho and Mercury are picking up market share and doing really well.
- Large banks. There’s another group of providers like Comerica and Bridge Bank that have been very strong in the startup ecosystem for a long time, but are bigger entities. So as your company scales, they have really deep lending resources that will help your company.
You won’t go wrong with any of those banks. I’d encourage you to see which of those institutions have the resources you need, and which ones you feel are a cultural fit for your startup. I hope this information helps you with picking a startup bank, and if we can provide other information to help you with your choice, please contact us.
The Biggest Banks for Startups
After the Silicon Valley Bank take over by the FDIC in March of 2023, many founders opted to put their capital into the nation’s largest banks, under the assumption that these are the safest institutions. (Probably a good assumption.)
We are seeing founders choose JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup in particular. None of these banks is particularly known for being super innovative or supportive of very early-stage companies, but they are all regarded as well capitalized and ‘too big to fail.’
First Republic Bank Review
Scott Orn
Kruze Consulting COO
First Republic is one of the dominant banks in the startup category, and so we wanted to review First Republic’s strengths and why people like working with them. The first one and definitely the single most important reason people like First Republic is they have phenomenal customer service like white glove, call you back in 10 minutes, get it done no matter what, type of customer service. I’m an entrepreneur myself and so as an entrepreneur and someone who works with a ton of entrepreneurs, I really, really value that.
There’s nothing worse than sitting on hold or having to wait three days to get called back or just running to a lot of red tape at a bank, and First Republic is the anti-red tape bank. They just make things happen. They get it done, they do it with a smile, they’re super courteous. So their customer service is just beyond anything I’ve seen in the banking industry, it’s really the best, and really I’d put it up there with like the top companies across any industry, it’s really, really phenomenal and that’s one of the reasons I love First Republic and give them such a strong review.
Now, there are some other great things about First Republic, though. They’ve made a really big investment in their mobile apps. To be honest, their mobile apps really lagged the market until 2020, and this year they really put a lot of money in it and it’s gotten significantly better to the point where I actually enjoy using it. It used to be kind of a slog and even their online portal terminal was kind of a slog, but they’ve just made huge improvements to give you some idea like probably five years ago, we were not recommending First Republic to our early-stage-company clients because the internet portal and the mobile apps just were not up to snuff.
But again, the companies just put so much money. You can tell they really care, I recently met some members of their internal innovation team. So they’re serious about this. They’re putting a lot of money into it and it really shows in the app experience. So that’s another benefit for First Republic. The next one is old fashioned, but they have branches. It sounds kind of silly to say in this day and age, but having a branch you can walk into and make a deposit or handle a wire at the last minute, or even if you need to, you shouldn’t really be doing this if you’re a startup, but withdrawing cash or things like that is actually really helpful.
There are just some things that can’t be done over the phone, or you don’t want to scan, check images in over your mobile app because sometimes it makes it hard for the account to see that kind of stuff. Just having a branch is really nice, and maybe it’s because I’m a people person, but again, I’m usually in a hurry, I want to get things done very, very quickly and sometimes just going to the branches is the easiest thing, and they have branches in all of the major startup hubs, even in some of the high net worth hubs, like Jackson Hole, Wyoming and places like that. You’ll find a First Republic Bank branch. So that’s another benefit.
Now, there are a couple of other things in that they do some ancillary services for young businesses or founders or employees of startups that are really, really helpful. The two being mortgages, and if you’re working in the startup ecosystem, odds are, you’re not like maximizing your pay. Like you could probably be making more money at a bigger company, but you’ve chosen to help build something and change the world, and so you typically, there’s a little bit of a trade-off on salary and you usually get some equity alongside that. And so, First Republic understands the trade-off that founders make and employees make on salary and so they’re very, very flexible on margins.
Now, they’re not going to underwrite a mortgage that you can’t afford, but there’s just a lot more wiggle room and again, that customer-focus really comes into play there. So that’s really, really helpful, especially if you’re a founder and you’ve probably been paying yourself under market for three or four years. That is a huge differentiator if you’re trying to buy a house. Another thing along those lines is student loan financing. First Republic has a really aggressive student loan financing or refinancing program for early-stage companies’ employees, and I know a bunch of Kruze Consulting team members who have taken advantage of that. It’s really, really low interest rates, and basically, they’re using the halo of the company that you work with.
They know you’re working with a good company or good startup, and so that factors into their underwriting criteria and allows them to be a lot more aggressive on the student loans. So I know we’ve made numerous announcements at Kruze that the First Republic student loan financing program is something that everyone should investigate, and a bunch of people have taken advantage of that. They know you’re working with a good company or good startup, and so that factors into their underwriting criteria and allows them to be a lot more aggressive on the student loans. So I know we’ve made numerous announcements at Kruze that the First Republic student loan financing program is something that everyone should investigate, and a bunch of people have taken advantage of that.
Now there’s another aspect of First Republic that young business founders and employees don’t always think about, but it’s actually very important. They have a huge fund management practice, meaning they manage the capital, the bank accounts, the capital call loans for tons of venture capital funds, and so that creates a really nice synergy in that they know all the fund managers, all the VCs, you’re trying to get their attention or trying to get a meeting with them.
First Republic usually has a one-to-one relationship with them. In fact, they probably did their capital call loan, and they may even have done their mortgage and their fund probably has their cash sitting at First Republic, and so they can go above and beyond and make some really high-value intros for you. There’s also just a nice little synergy when the VC knows that their companies are banking at First Republic. So I really, it’s kind of an under the radar thing, but having that fund management, fund practice at First Republic is really beneficial to really everyone in the startup ecosystem.
So those are the big things, but I really want to come back to people as we wrap it up to just that customer-centric approach. It is again, above and beyond really anything I’ve experienced in the banking industry and I would put it up there with the top, Nordstrom’s, Neiman Marcus, Southwest Airlines, all the companies that you read about that are really famous for their customer service, First Republic is at that level and should be mentioned in the same breath as those top tier companies across the world that take customer service really, really important. They might be the best business bank in terms of customer service, period.
So I hope that helps, check out First Republic, we really like them at Kruze and it’s just a great bank to work with, thanks.
Rho Bank Review
Scott Orn
Kruze Consulting COO
Hey, it’s Scott Orn at Kruze Consulting. And today I’m telling you about one of my favorite new startup tools, which is Rho Banking.
Rho is a banking app that a lot of startups are using. And the reason why I like Rho, is that it’s built by serial entrepreneurs. Like these people have built companies before, so they really know what a founder thinks about and worries about and what they need from their bank. The company is based out of New York.
Now they’ve built a really beautiful interface. Like it’s just so easy to use. It’s almost like feeding your eyes cookies. It’s just so nice to just look at it and navigate around. Very easy, very different from your typical bank login experience. So I really like Rho for that.
They also have a really great savings interest rate. So they’re very generous on this. That number changes a lot, but they’re always significantly higher than kind of the old school banks. The other thing I like about them is, they have FDIC insurance over all your deposits. This matters for venture backed companies, since they may raise many millions of dollars of funding - and the FDIC typically only insures $250,000.
But Rho built a little bit of technology that splits your money (this is invisible to you, you only see your total balance). You might raise $10, $20 million. You want all that to be insured. So it splits your money into micro accounts and makes sure everything is insured, which is pretty huge. And then the kind of clincher for me is that they are building basically an accounts payable solution inside of the bank. And so typically our clients use bill.com. But a lot of times bill.com is kind of tough to learn. It’s not the most easy interface, it’s kind of industrial strength. And so the early stage founders are kind of like, “Do I really need to use bill.com? Do I really need to spend a lot of time using this?” And it’s not always super intuitive.
And so Rho is effectively replacing bill.com in that flow, and making it super easy to pay your vendors, to store the invoices, to label the transactions, and make sure they sync into QuickBooks, which makes our life a lot easier. That invoice aspect of it is really important. We need to be able to check the invoices, to see which months the service from your contractors was provided. Because if we don’t know the months, we can’t do accrual accounting and gap based accounting correctly. It just becomes like ugly cash accounting, which is not what you want and which makes your financials lumpy. So Rho is really pioneering, like this bill pay aspect inside of the bank.
And I’m just super excited about it. Like it’s a really beautiful, easy to use solution, but it’s got some real business applications that can save you time as a founder, make it a little easier, and frankly, save your accountant like us a lot of time. So check out Rho. It’s R-H-O.co and it has an app interface as well. So check it out, we really like it.
And shout out to Rho. Great job team for building a really great solution. I love recommending new things that make everyone’s life a lot easier. Thanks.
Mercury Bank Review
Scott Orn
Kruze Consulting COO
I’d like to explain a bit about why bookkeepers like Mercury Bank.
Now, Mercury is a new startup bank. It focuses on catering to early-stage companies, and it’s a venture-funded company itself. But it’s getting a lot of market share, which is really exciting. We’re seeing a lot of Mercury customers come over at Kruze.
And the big reason why startup bookkeepers like it is the bank feed is super easy to use, it integrates with QuickBooks nicely, and fits with a lot of our proprietary software, so it makes matching those transactions super easy.
And early-stage clients like it because they have a lot of great spend management tools. It’s really informative, it helps them know what their cash burn looks like, and it’s got a really great interface. Thus, with all three of those reasons combined, bookkeepers like Mercury.
Interview with Mercury Bank Founder
IMMAD AKHUND, Founder and CEO
“We want them [our startup clients] to do very well. As an entrepreneur, as maybe just as a human, I just want these entrepreneurs to do really well and I want Mercury to be, hopefully, a part of their success, whether it’s just making their life easier, giving them a bank account as soon as they want it all or we can build tools, like APIs, and help them understand their finances. If we can just enable a even 2% improvement in the startup’s life, I would feel great about that.”
Listen to the full banking interview here. And read our tips on how to read a bank statement here.
Bridge Bank Review
Scott Orn
Kruze Consulting COO
Bridge Bank is one of the leaders in startup banking, and now they’ve launched a new program designed to introduce startups to Bridge Bank. As background, Bridge Bank was founded in 2001 and has $50 billion in assets. The bank is part of Western Alliance Banking and they are very strong venture lenders. At Kruze Consulting they are a go-to when a client is looking for venture debt, but they do much more than just lending.
The new product is called Bridge to Growth, and is aimed at early stage startups. For bank clients in the startup phase, Bridge to Growth provides an extensive suite of banking services for free. The bank is eager for startups to try their services and get to know the business, and this program makes it easier. There are no monthly maintenance fees, and many checking and deposit fees are free up to certain limits.
High Yield Money Market Accounts for Startups
A great new feature offered by Bridge Bank to VC-backed startups with over $1 million in their banking accounts is a high yield money market account. There is also a $1,000 sign up bonus available to startups who choose this bank and keep a minimum account balance for long enough of a period of time (at the moment, the required balance is $250,000 for 3 months).
Single point of contact for startup banking
Another differentiator that Bridge Bank offers is a single point of contact. Often, banks will assign clients to an account manager, and then there are specialists who handle things like lending or foreign exchange. Frequently your business will get handed to another group that doesn’t care about the relationship as much. At Bridge Bank account managers work with your company across all departments and serve as a single point of contact for you. In addition to providing responsive service, your relationship manager will advocate for you, for example, making sure that you get best loan rates.
In addition, Bridge Bank is located in many of the major startup locations across the US. In fact, over the last eight years or so the bank has been recruiting bankers who know the startup landscape in specific geographies like Denver, Seattle, Chicago, Austin, Miami, Boston, and others. And now they’ve got people in those areas who really know the market and understand the unique needs of startups. That’s a significant benefit, having someone inside the bank who can represent your interests.
Interview with a Tech Banking Leader
Mike Lederman
Senior Managing Director - Bridge Bank
“People ask us all the time how we differentiate amongst others in our space, and how we manage our relationships to me is the number one way we are different. We have a single point of contact for our clients in each of those geographies. So, when you come to Bridge Bank as a Series A company, you’re going to be working with that same team throughout the entirety of your relationship with the bank. And that person is in your geography, in your time zone, and is hopefully someone and ideally someone that you use for things beyond questions about banking. We want you to ask us when you want introductions to VCs or, of course, temps, CFO, and accounting firms, and attorneys and use our network to help you. We want to have this be a relationship, not just a banking transaction. And we do that by ensuring that people have their relationships with the individuals at the bank, not just with the bank, and that’s that continuity in the relationship management in region, which in our opinion sets us apart.”
Listen to the entire interview with Mike here.
Streamline your operations
So Bridge Bank’s new program Bridge to Growth makes it very easy for startups to try out their services. They have a very strong venture lending program, great deposit management, extensive foreign exchange service, and more. We’re happy to recommend their services to startups. If you have questions about potential banking partners for your early-stage company, please contact us.
Consulting, Tax and Valuation Prices
Competitively priced for high-growth companies
Financial Consulting
| Staff Accountant | $120 |
| Senior Staff Accountant | $170 |
| Controller | $200 |
| Senior Controller | $250 |
| Financial Modeling | $400 |
| CFO / COO / VP | $400 |
Tax Advice
| Administrative | $115 |
| Tax Analyst | $175 |
| Senior Tax Analyst | $295 |
| Tax Manager | $395 |
| Tax VP | $495 |
| CEO | $495 |
Startup 409A Valuation
| Seed | $2,000 |
| Seed A | $2,500 |
| Seed B | $3,000 |
| Seed C | $3,500 |
Podcast Interviews with Startup Bankers by Kruze
Hear from the banks themselves why they are the best option for funded companies
Kruze has interviewed dozens of startup-focused financial services players, from banks to corporate cards to debt providers. Listen to our interviews with top bankers!
Best Startup Banks - Reviewed by Experts
Our clients have over $4 billion dollars in checking, savings and interest bearing accounts with the leading financial institutions serving startups. Our authors are experts at advising early-stage companies on their finances and financial strategies, and are regularly interviewed by leading tech publications for our expertise.
Client testimonials
We're huge fans of Vanessa and the folks at Kruze Consulting. They set up our books, finances, and other operations, and are constantly organized and on top of things. As a startup, you have to focus on your product and customers, and Kruze takes care of everything else (which is a massive sigh of relief). I highly highly highly recommend working with Vanessa and her team.
Vivek Sodera
Co-Founder @ Superhuman
As a startup, moving quickly is a top priority for us and we just needed to get our tax return done. After we uploaded our docs, we got our tax return in 3 days! E-filing was confirmed by Day 4. Super responsive and helpful!
Casey McKerchie
VP, Operations of Calm.com
Avochato has been growing rapidly in the past year – in fact, too quickly for us to keep up with books, taxes, and budgeting for growth. Partnering with Kruze Consulting has been fantastic to manage, track, and analyze our finances while we continue focusing on building our customer base. Kruze’s team knows what startups need.
Alex De Simone
CEO @ Avochato
Everybody, go to Kruze Consulting. They do a great job. I personally can tell you, they've done a great job for our companies, including Calm.com. I'm sure they’ll do a great job for you.
Jason Calacanis
Angel investor
About Us
A CPA Firm Specialized in Startup Accounting & Finance
Startups are our niche, and our passion. Our clients have raised over $10 billion in venture capital financing. We are one of only a few outsourced accounting firms that specialize in funded early-stage companies - we only offer financial and tax services to fast growing startups in the Seed, Series A, Series B and Series C stages.
The Right Accounting Partner for Your Startup’s Next Round
We know how to de-risk your startup’s next venture capital round. Our team makes sure you are ready to fly through your next VC’s accounting, HR and tax due diligence. And when you use us as your bookkeeper, we set up and keep up-to-date a due diligence folder so you can get that next round of fundraising.
A Leader in Cloud Accounting Software
Our practice is built on best of breed cloud accounting software like QuickBooks, Xero, Netsuite, Gusto, Zenefits, Expensify, Avalara, Brex iand Bill.com. Technology makes us more efficient, saving our clients money and letting us offer higher value services like FP&A modeling, 409A valuation and venture debt consulting. Startups deserve to work with CPAs using modern software.
Trusted by Top Venture Investors
Top angel investors and VCs refer Kruze because they trust us to give the right advice. Our clients are portfolio companies of top technology and Silicon Valley investors, including Y-Combinator, Kleiner, Sequoia, Khsola, Launch, Techstars and more. With us, your books and taxes are in order when it’s time to raise another round of venture financing.
What types of startups does Kruze Consulting usually work with?
Kruze Consulting works with a variety of funded Delaware C-Corps, but the majority of our companies have secured Seed, Series A, Series B and Series C. We look to partner with our clients, going beyond the typical outsourced accounting relationship and seeking to provide a higher level advisory role. We feel honored to be a part of making the world a better place, even if it’s one debit and credit at a time.
Accounting, Finance, Taxes, & Payroll all in one solution
Startup CFO services, startup accounting and bookkeeping services, startup annual taxes, expense reports, payroll, benefits: we've got you covered. Our software provides custom tailored dashboards that can be provided weekly or monthly, depending on your preference and plan. Founders are often so busy building their company that they don’t have time to take care of their finances. Traditionally, these companies have had to work with a basket of people to get their work done, including bookkeepers, accountants, AP clerks, CFOs, consultants, and tax accountants. At Kruze Consulting, our founders have one point person, saving time and money.
Client testimonials
We're huge fans of Vanessa and the folks at Kruze Consulting. They set up our books, finances, and other operations, and are constantly organized and on top of things. As a startup, you have to focus on your product and customers, and Kruze takes care of everything else (which is a massive sigh of relief). I highly highly highly recommend working with Vanessa and her team.
Vivek Sodera
Co-Founder @ Superhuman
As a startup, moving quickly is a top priority for us and we just needed to get our tax return done. After we uploaded our docs, we got our tax return in 3 days! E-filing was confirmed by Day 4. Super responsive and helpful!
Casey McKerchie
VP, Operations of Calm.com
Avochato has been growing rapidly in the past year – in fact, too quickly for us to keep up with books, taxes, and budgeting for growth. Partnering with Kruze Consulting has been fantastic to manage, track, and analyze our finances while we continue focusing on building our customer base. Kruze’s team knows what startups need.
Alex De Simone
CEO @ Avochato
Everybody, go to Kruze Consulting. They do a great job. I personally can tell you, they've done a great job for our companies, including Calm.com. I'm sure they’ll do a great job for you.
Jason Calacanis
Angel investor
Consulting, Tax and Valuation Prices
Competitively priced for high-growth companies
Financial Consulting
| Staff Accountant | $120 |
| Senior Staff Accountant | $170 |
| Controller | $200 |
| Senior Controller | $250 |
| Financial Modeling | $400 |
| CFO / COO / VP | $400 |
Tax Advice
| Administrative | $115 |
| Tax Analyst | $175 |
| Senior Tax Analyst | $295 |
| Tax Manager | $395 |
| Tax VP | $495 |
| CEO | $495 |
Startup 409A Valuation
| Seed | $2,000 |
| Seed A | $2,500 |
| Seed B | $3,000 |
| Seed C | $3,500 |
READY TO CONNECT FOR A FREE CONSULTATION?
We are the experts at helping seed/VC-backed Delaware C-Corps with their accounting and finances!
Talk to an experienced accountant, not a generic sales person
$250M+ VC Funding Raised
"I had a great experience working with Kruze Consulting when we raised Series A. They know what VCs need to see, and how to present a startup’s books and finances. If you are going to raise venture capital, you need experts like Kruze."
Chris Mansi
CEO
Startup Venture Capital Assistance
With former venture capitalists on staff, our team is here to help you navigate the fundraising process and manage your board of directors
COO | Former VC
VP FP&A | Former VC
Scale Remote Operations & Team
"Kruze has supported us above and beyond basic accounting needs by ensuring we have everything we need to expand and support our team wherever they may be located"
Zack Fisch
Head of Operations & Legal
Clients who have worked with Kruze have collectively raised over $12 billion in VC funding.
We set startups up for fundrising success, and know how to work with the top VCs.
Founder & CEO
Experienced team helping you
Our US-based account management team is staffed by CPAs and accountants who have, on average, 11 years of experience.
VP of Accounting Services
Controller
SUT/R&D Sr. Tax Accountant
Controller, CPA
Grew from a 2-person startup to a NASDAQ listed public company.
"The Kruze team helped us grow from a 2-person startup to a NASDAQ listed public company in 2 years. We wouldn’t have gotten public without Kruze’s support. Anyone thinking of launching a startup should make Vanessa their first call!"
Jesse Shefferman
CEO