Small Team, Big Results: How a Lean Startup Saves Time and Money with Pilot

A successful three-time tech CEO and Silicon Valley veteran, David founded Medcorder, an app to help patients record and transcribe their doctor’s visits — making it easier to navigate complex medical conditions like cancer or IVF and keep loved ones in the loop.

With just five full-time employees, Medcorder is already having a huge impact, doubling its user base in the first quarter of 2020 and helping tens of thousands of families coordinate medical care.

How is such impressive growth possible with such a lean team? Part of it, David says, is choosing to automate his financial back office with Pilot.

15x cheaper than hiring in-house 

When it comes to hiring bookkeepers, David explains, “the total cost to employ someone qualified in the Bay Area is well over $100k a year. A Pilot subscription is a fraction of that.” 

With the help of tools like Pilot, Brex, Mercury, and TriNet, Medcorder has fully automated their back office and eliminated the need for a full-time finance hire. That gives the team a longer financial runway and frees up funds to be used elsewhere in the business.

Set-and-forget integrations save CEO time 

Pilot automatically syncs with primary financial accounts, including bank accounts, credit cards, payroll, and more, which means less manual work for busy CEOs like David. 

With Pilot handling the “business of the business,” David gets an extra 7-10 hours a month to focus on Medcorder’s mission of making life-saving medical info easier to manage.

Transparent data builds trust with investors 

Unfortunately, David has been burned one too many times by bad in-house bookkeepers — one even got caught embezzling funds. Outsourcing bookkeeping with a third party like Pilot provides transparency and accountability. Pilot’s automated reports are linked in every board agenda, giving peace of mind to both David and his board of directors. 

And, thanks to Pilot, Medcorder’s books are more accurate than ever. Pilot’s mix of software and service flags unusual behavior amidst thousands of expenses and transactions.

For example, Pilot proactively flagged when one of Medcorder’s Google Cloud expenditures went from thousands to zero in one month. It wasn’t an error—David had negotiated free credit for the year—but he was impressed that Pilot proactively identified the discrepancy on their own. Knowing that Pilot is “on it” helps free David’s brainpower for other things, driving Medcorder forward faster. 

Want a closer look at Medcorder’s fully automated back office? Get the Full Case Study →