The reason there are so many is that every company needs an accounting service. You don't need to dominate the market to have a profitable service.

Then how did Bench collapse? How many of those startups have enough customers to be profitable? How could I, as a business owner, decide based solely on their HN advertisements?

> Then how did Bench collapse?

We don't know. There have been many companies that collapsed while competitors grew and new competitors started out. Companies collapse for various reasons. One good explanation is that secure debt got called in and that was the end of them.

> How many of those startups have enough customers to be profitable?

Who knows. How many of the VC ran startups are running at a loss to grow but if they just cut back would be profitable?

> How could I, as a business owner, decide based solely on their HN advertisements?

Who knows. Sounds like a foolish thing to do.

The reason is that there is tons of money still flowing, because accounting is an industry that is easy to pitch to an investor in 2024.

1. It touches everyone 2. Everyone finds it annoying 3. Everyone thinks they pay too much 4. AI (still sexy) can fix the above

Unfortuntely, we're still decades from strong products.

I wouldn't touch any of these companies with a ten foot pole if I was a consumer or investor.

Because literally no one knows how to keep books and manage a double entry system. We had a family business for 40+ years and most of the revenue was from fixing bookkeeping and accounting mistakes made by untrained individuals trying to use software (QuickBooks). "If the software lets me do it then it must be correct."