Ian Crosby, the founder whose previous company Bench Accounting spectacularly collapsed in 2024 before being sold off, is back with a new venture called Synthetic. The new startup aims to create a fully autonomous AI bookkeeper capable of producing accrual-based financial statements without human intervention. Despite the ambitious goal—Crosby himself acknowledges the technology may not yet be feasible—the company has secured $10 million in seed funding. Khosla Ventures led the round, with participation from Basis Set Ventures and Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke.
Khosla partner Jon Chu explained his rationale for backing a founder facing significant headwinds. Chu said he deliberately seeks out controversial situations, arguing that "groupthink often shapes the narrative rather than the truth of the story itself." He pointed to Parker Conrad's trajectory as precedent: after being pushed out of Zenefits in 2016, Conrad went on to build Rippling, now valued at nearly $17 billion. "I believe people have room for growth," Chu said about investing in Crosby and Synthetic.
Crosby disputes his role in Bench's downfall. He claims the board fired him in 2021, just three months after he rejected a $250 million acquisition offer from Brex. According to Crosby, the board disagreed with his strategic vision as the company hemorrhaged cash, and his executive team grew frustrated with his direct management style. New leadership proved unable to turn the company around. Following his departure, Crosby joined Shopify and subsequently founded Teal, another accounting-focused startup that Mercury acquired 18 months later. Chu told TechCrunch he contacted several executives who worked alongside Crosby during this period, and all had "fantastic things" to say about him.