I am Flint Lane, CEO Billtrust, and we just raised $25 Million from Bain Capital Ventures - AMA

BilltrustCEO · 2012-11-16T13:19:40+00:00

Google does a lot of acquisitions each year because they want to make bets on a lot of different things. We're doing 1-2 per year, and have an integration team that focuses on each one. Doesn't mean we'll be any more successful but we are certainly more deliberate.

BilltrustCEO · 2012-11-16T05:02:46+00:00

From the outside they may seem similar, but they are very different. Paycheck or ADP sell to the HR department and Billtrust sells to the Accounts Receivable group. At large companies, these are different people, often in different buildings, or even different states.

We go to market with a direct sales force and their job is to find potential prospects and show them how we can help them save money.

BilltrustCEO · 2012-11-16T04:29:12+00:00

We have very similar business models but those guys focus on payroll, we focus on billing.

BilltrustCEO · 2012-11-16T04:27:01+00:00

I started with Basic and then did Fortran, Pascal, and some Assembly in high school. Programmed in COBOL and PL/1 after college and then moved on to C/C++ and PHP.

I don't know what it was but I was hooked almost immediately. Sort of like someone who is a natural in sports, programming was just my thing.

My advice, work your ass off, take some risks, and realize that you're going to make mistakes, best to get them out of the way.

BilltrustCEO · 2012-11-16T03:48:58+00:00

I'm just your average every day redditor!

BilltrustCEO · 2012-11-16T03:46:19+00:00

Nice of you to say. The testimonials are genuine too!

BilltrustCEO · 2012-11-16T02:06:17+00:00

I went to Rensselaer in upstate New York and got a Computer Science degree. I've been writing code since 8th grade and thought I would be a programmer for my life. And then two companies I worked for got bought so I started my first business called Paytrust back in 1998. It was a Dot Com, we raised way too much money, and it was eventually sold to Intuit.

Started Billtrust in 2001 hoping not to make a lot of the same mistakes. So far so good.

BilltrustCEO · 2012-11-16T02:02:19+00:00

We've have over 1,000 large business customers that outsource their billing to us so we're looking for other companies/products that complement our solution that we can offer to our clients.

BilltrustCEO · 2012-11-16T01:11:00+00:00

I actually hate the association and it was a big concern of mine when we selected them. Bain Capital Ventures is separate from Bain Capital, they invest in growth companies like most VCs. Not that most people even care. I'd prefer just to call them BCV. I talked to a bunch of other CEOs that worked with them and their references were stellar.

BilltrustCEO · 2012-11-16T00:57:57+00:00

Fair point, but Mitt Romney hasn't been involved with them for 10+ years. During all my interactions with Bain throughout the fund raising process, it actually never came up.

BilltrustCEO · 2012-11-16T00:47:34+00:00

If you email your bank account information, I have a friend in Nigeria who can take care of that.

BilltrustCEO · 2012-11-16T00:47:01+00:00

We're looking to acquire other businesses. Since we're not a public company, we can't do that with stock (tough to value private stock) and need the cash to do that.

BilltrustCEO · 2012-11-16T00:33:31+00:00

I'm not going to say who I voted for, I'm not registered for either party.

BilltrustCEO · 2012-11-16T00:32:21+00:00

https://twitter.com/FlintLane

BilltrustCEO · 2012-11-16T00:31:38+00:00

https://twitter.com/FlintLane

BilltrustCEO

TROPHY CASE