Why Basis ignored the chatbot advice to build a $1.15B accounting agent
Key takeaways from the Upstarts Media interview with Basis co-founder and CEO Matt HarpeDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → (August 2026):
Turning down the obvious advice. Harpe recalls being told repeatedly, by investors and customers alike, to build a simple chatbot for accountants, the dominant paradigm other AI startups were chasing. He held the line and instead bet on agentic systems that complete whole workflows, a company now valued at $1.15bn.
Trading early traction for the right product. He concedes revenue might have accelerated faster in the earliest days with a chatbot; the team spent a year-plus with less traction than it could have had, convinced a chatbot would not be genuinely valuable to most accountants.
The pressure was internal and external. Investors and customers pushed for low-hanging fruit, a bot to answer simple questions, while Basis resisted; Harpe notes it is also harder to recruit people to a contrarian vision than to whatever everyone else is building.
Starting inside a real firm. Before writing much code, the founders used the accounting system of co-founder Mitchell TroyanovskyDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →'s mother, a New York pharmacy owner, and spent time with her accountant to prototype against a live small-business workflow.
Shadowing accountants under NDA. Basis signed non-disclosure agreements to embed in accounting firms and shadow staff, building a precise sense of how accountants really spend their day and where AI could drive the most immediate impact.
The leadership blind spot. Harpe found a recurring dissonance between what accountants actually spend time on and what firm leadership assumes is most valuable, because leaders often last did the hands-on work long ago, a gap Basis designs its agents around.
Instant impact as the wedge. Rather than pitching a distant vision, the team prioritised the workflows it could improve on day one, using that immediate, demonstrable value to win firms over to the larger agentic roadmap.
Read more: Upstarts Media · Basis
