Iba founded Optimal AI already at a sprint. Just weeks in, she was raising her pre-seed round and needed accurate financials to show investors. “There was probably a four-week timeline between incorporation and closing our first pre-seed round,” says Iba. “We obviously had to have our books ready to go … even though we were just a month-old company.”
She wasn’t new to this, but she did want a fresh start. After building and scaling two previous startups—including a Y Combinator-backed company which she ran for nine years—she knew how much of a time drain finance and accounting could become. Accounting had only worked at her last company because her ops team “had basically become accountants” to manage their accounting firm, and triple check transactions.
This time, she didn’t want her team bogged down in reconciling transactions and chasing W9s. Optimal AI exists to help companies automate their engineering and compliance work using AI agents, and she wanted precisely the same level of operational efficiency in their own back-office.
And that’s when a referral led her to Pilot, a provider that understood exactly what she needed. “Pilot was our support system. They consistently had our back,” she says.
Pilot was our support system. They consistently had our back.
At her last company, Iba had an accounting provider, and on the surface, everything ran smoothly. But behind the scenes, the operations team was constantly stepping in to classify transactions, follow up on issues, and generally handle tasks that fell outside their role.
That experience shaped how she approached the back office the third time around. She didn’t want her team doing work they weren’t hired for. Instead, she wanted an automated system, backed by real humans. “I was gung-ho about automating our back-office as much as possible. That meant working with vendors who understood that our founders or ops team shouldn’t spend hours digging through emails or transactions,” says Iba.”
That mindset aligns perfectly with Pilot’s model. While Pilot’s software connects with QuickBooks and automates some parts of bookkeeping and accounting, a dedicated human bookkeeper is also involved in strategizing, catching errors, and answering questions when they come up.
That human oversight made a difference, especially when dealing with things like regulatory changes. Earlier in the year, when Iba and her team were confused about BOI filing requirements, the Pilot team clarified the details and explained exactly what they needed to do.
After closing a pre-seed round of $2.25M, hiring was next. Iba planned to bring on team members across multiple states, many of whom she had worked with at her last company. But hiring across jurisdictions is complex. Each state has its own tax rules, registration processes, and employment laws. Employers must register for state unemployment insurance (SUI), comply with income tax withholding requirements, and submit new hire reports in each state. Many states even require foreign qualification before you can legally hire employees there, which adds paperwork and delays. For a fast-moving startup, staying compliant across multiple state systems can quickly become overwhelming.
Pilot handled it all seamlessly. “We’ve been growing really quickly, and we’ve hired employees in different states and even different countries. Pilot helped with all the filings and made sure we were compliant.”
Over time, Iba came to trust that she didn’t need to stay on top of every back-office task. Instead of letting random bookkeeping questions derail her day, she could just ask Pilot and keep moving. “I can ping Pilot at a moment’s notice and know everything is taken care of. If there’s some random filing that comes up, I know they’ll tell us exactly what to do and how to handle it.”
I can ping Pilot at a moment’s notice and know everything is taken care of.
After six months of working with Pilot, the results are great. The team spends less time managing books and their financials are ready when investors need them. “Our investors have constantly asked us why our books are always on time and why it’s so easy for them to pull financials and data,” Iba says.
Our investors have constantly asked us why our books are always on time and why it’s so easy for them to pull financials and data.
For Iba, that reliability and efficiency mean she can focus on building, not back-office busywork. “Compared to my first company, I’m doing so much less back-office work. It took us three years to raise our pre-seed then. This time, we were ready in one month.
Optimal AI is moving fast, and Pilot is growing alongside. “In the first few years of running a business, you really want to feel like everything is handled … Things are moving much faster now, and Pilot has consistently delivered above and beyond.”
Optimal AI builds AI agents to automate engineering and compliance workflows for tech teams like MongoDB and Prometric.
