Nobody wants to be an accountant anymore. Basis CEO Matt Harpe thinks he can help. Founded in 2023 by Harpe and @mitch_troy, Basis builds AI agents for accounting firms, automating hours of number crunching and copy-paste into a review process that takes minutes. @trybasis already works with 25% of the top 150 firms in the U.S. and reached a valuation of $1.15B in February. And far from eliminating jobs, Harpe believes his startup will help human accountants get paid. "It will increase how valuable accountants are, because they will be able to accomplish so much more," he says. On The Upstarts Podcast, Harpe shares: ▪️how Basis can stay ahead of the big labs like Anthropic and OpenAI in its vertical ▪️why outcome-based pricing is nice work, if you can get it ▪️how he pitches top AI talent in New York on building accounting tools, of all things. Plus, he shares his Upstart Moment: resisting calls to chase short-term revenue until his product felt ready for primetime. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Introduction 01:47 The basis for Basis 07:25 Why no one wants to be an accountant any more 14:37 CEO Matt Harpe's founder journey 19:46 "The home for applied AI talent in New York" 22:58 Winning over skeptical accountants as customers 28:41 A big bet on agents from the start 31:31 Outcome-based pricing and its challenges 35:52 Competing with the big AI labs like OpenAI 41:11 Making human accountants more valuable A big thanks to our season sponsor, @Rippling, for supporting founder stories like this 🫡 Enjoy!