As a three-time tech CEO, David Weekly is kind of a big deal in Silicon Valley. He started programming at five—seriously—and hasn’t stopped innovating since then.
He is also a seasoned Google and Facebook vet, award-winning startup mentor, investor in over 60 companies, founder of two non-profits, and has started three successful companies to boot.
Now he’s onto company number three: Medcorder.
In his own words, “Medcorder is an app that enables patients to record the audio of their consultation, with their doctor’s consent.” It’s difficult for patients—especially those needing acute care due to cancer or even COVID-19—to understand every piece of information a doctor shares with them. Medcorder is the only app that allows patients to record, transcribe, and discuss the medical situation with family all with just one tap.
Medcorder’s growth is impressive: Just one year ago they raised $2.5M in seed funding to get started. Today it’s a top-rated medical app in the App Store, with tens of thousands of users.
How has Medcorder grown so much with only five employees? According to David, it’s partially due to building the right financial foundation and backoffice to let him focus on the business.
David wanted to get his books locked-in from the beginning. Today, Medcorder’s backoffice is fully automated: “Between Pilot, Brex, Mercury, and TriNet, my backoffice is completely taken care of. Now I can focus on my business.”
With less manual work, Medcorder is able to run a highly productive, yet lean business. According to David, “It’s never been more possible for a small team to have a tremendous impact. Pilot is part of that.”
What’s the preferred bookkeeping service for startups? When just starting out, David crowdsourced his community for advice:
I reached out to my peers and asked: ‘What are the cool kids using these days?’ Pilot came up again and again.
After reviewing multiple bookkeeping solutions, he chose Pilot for a slew of reasons:
Reasonable pricing
Pilot’s price is affordable, especially when compared to hiring an in-house bookkeeper. “I’m in the Bay Area,” explains David. “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.”
Quickbooks is risk-free
“The fact that Pilot uses Quickbooks—not some wacky and proprietary system—shows they’re thoughtful like that,” he shares. “My books are in the canonical system, which made Pilot seem like a risk-free choice if I ever had to migrate away.”
Seamless integrations
Pilot syncs with primary financial accounts, including bank accounts, credit cards, payroll, and more. That means less manual work for a busy CEO: ”I don’t have to do the schlepping: logging into this account and another to move data around every month. Pilot is a relatively hands-off service, which saves me time.”
A trustworthy third party
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, helping CEOs and Board members alike sleep well at night.
Thanks to Pilot, Medcorder’s books are under control and 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:
It gives me comfort that Pilot looks at the books deeply to get a sense of what’s the same and what’s changing over time.
“Pilot lets me focus on the business.”
A CEO’s time is worth so much more than just money.
“The more I can focus on driving the business, product, and marketing opportunities forward—versus spending time on the business of the business—the more likely we are to succeed.”
Pilot has helped Medcorder by:
Saving hours each month
Pilot’s accurate, automated books save David hours when compared to the full-time bookkeeper and part-time CFO he managed at his first company. “Before I spent 10 hours each month managing their work. Now with Pilot I spend three hours a month on my financial back-office. It’s a big change.”
Fewer employees means more money in the bank
With salary, payroll taxes, and benefits combined—hiring employees is expensive. Bringing books and finances in-house would mean “we’d have less runway and would have to raise more money.”
More confidence with board members
No, a board member probably won’t go through every single line item in your profit and loss statement. Who has that kind of time?
But, sharing detailed Pilot reports shows “a big vote of confidence” in David’s books. “The fact they know reports are available and linked in every board agenda means they feel comfortable that I am operating the business well.” He continues:
Having Pilot do the books adds trust and accountability with my board. I share Pilot reports directly with them, so they can access accurate, third-party data.
There’s very little I need to do to update and correct Pilot’s reports—they’re judicious—which makes it easy for me. Pilot is a machine, and it’s a machine I don’t need to spend a lot of time worrying about.
The Medcorder app allows patients to record, transcribe, and discuss their medical appointments with family, all with just one tap. Today it’s a top-rated medical app in the App Store, with tens of thousands of users.
