KURT RATHMANN

We told investors AI was doing the bookkeeping. Investors loved it. The problem was, humans were doing the bookkeeping. The AI wasn't ready. We shipped the marketing before we shipped the technology.

We raised $100 million from Bessemer, Canaan, and Coatue. Some of the smartest VCs in tech. They invested in an AI bookkeeping platform. What they got was a CPA firm with a website.

I'm a CPA. I know bookkeeping. I genuinely believed AI could automate it. But the technology wasn't there yet, and instead of admitting that, we hired more humans and called them AI. That was the mistake.

We had 500 employees doing manual bookkeeping while our pitch deck said AI handled 90% of the work. When Forbes started asking questions, there was no good answer.

We shut down in 2020. Laid off everyone. Returned what money we could. The lesson is simple: don't raise on the technology you plan to build. Raise on the technology you've actually built.

Every startup exaggerates a little. But there's a line between optimism and deception. I thought I was being optimistic. The market decided I was being deceptive. The market was probably right.