Personas

Runs a 6-person applied-AI startup whose second-largest cost line is model inference. Scrutinises anything touching tooling or compute spend and wants cards that can be issued to agents, not just people.

Models every recurring cost over twelve months before committing. Will build a spreadsheet from a pricing page and abandons any product that makes that impossible.

Manages books for fourteen startups. Needs accountant-level access without owning the account, clean exports and a way to switch between clients without logging out.

Owns the close at a 40-person company. Cares about approval chains, role permissions and whether transactions sync to the ledger without cleanup.

Incorporated six weeks ago and is unsure which products a brand-new company even qualifies for. Reads eligibility language before anything else.

Runs the company from a phone between site visits. Judges the product entirely on the mobile experience: approvals, notifications and card freezes in two taps.

Incorporated in Delaware from Berlin and needs to open a US account without flying. Eligibility for non-residents is the only question that matters until it's answered.

Profitable, unglamorous, and cash-flow driven. Cares about invoicing, ACH timing and getting paid, not about startup features.

Runs a regulated business and asks 'who do I call when something goes wrong' before 'what does it cost'. Established brands and physical branches carry real weight.

One person, one product, no finance help. Wants banking that behaves like infrastructure: an API, webhooks, and nothing that needs a phone call.

Non-technical, first business, wants a guided path and a person to ask. Evaluates support before features.

Already banks somewhere and has a banker relationship. The question isn't 'is this good' but 'is this worth the pain of moving'.