Andres Hernandez won’t be spending much time celebrating the holidays as he prepares to fully launch his new accounting software program this weekend from his Tampa headquarters.
Hernandez, 23, signed up approximately 150 clients to his AI-fueled platform during pre-launch for his company, Pezzi. He started working on Pezzi 18 months ago, not long after he graduated from Rollins University. Earlier this week, the company announced it had received around $135,000 in seed funding from anonymous, Tampa-based investors. “It’s a validation of our vision to revolutionize small business financial management through innovative technology,” Hernandez told the Catalyst.
“It’s been hectic,” he added. “I haven’t been sleeping more than about three hours per day.” He shared that recent product testing had been “perfect,” giving him the sense that his nascent company is ready to be successful.
Hernandez’s vision is to break down the complexities of accounting into manageable segments for his mostly small clients whose monthly revenues will range, he said, from $10,000 to $200,000. Pezzi will use AI to automate profit and loss statements (P&Ls) and other bookkeeping features. Pezzi will also, Hernandez explained, simplify and condense the myriad categories in companies’ spreadsheets.
Hernandez expects to directly challenge established platforms such as QuickBooks and Stripe – platforms, he claims, that suffer from the sort human error he expects to be eliminated thanks to AI automation. He said the software will also help simplify tax codes for its clients.
Pezzi will charge clients $185 per month and will offer one free month to start. “I want people to find the integrity inside Pezzi,” Hernandez said. “I know a lot might be skeptical.” He wanted to launch in time for a new year – and a new tax season.
Hernandez was born in Fort Lauderdale and raised in Brandon. He shared that he had come up with the idea for Pezzi in a dream and “wanted to make it a Tampa company,” owing to the surge in tech companies in the city. He saw, partly through the lens of his parents, who are business owners, the mistakes made by CPAs. He has degrees in business management and computer science with a minor in economics, and spent time as a software engineer, including internships with Disney and Google.
Currently, Hernandez shares office space at Tampa’s Industrious building with his CFO and marketing specialist. He has just hired a fourth developer in Houston – the first three are based in Peru and the Philippines – and is confident that by the end of 2024, he will have 10,000 clients and 20-25 employees, adding, among other things, an internal sales and marketing team.
For now, as 2023, draws to a close, he is not doing much more than work and sleep. Will he take in any of the New Year’s Eve celebrations? “I’m not sure,” he said with a chuckle. “I’m a workaholic. If I stay up long enough, maybe I’ll see the ball drop.”
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The post Tampa AI-fueled accounting platform to launch appeared first on St Pete Catalyst.