Could you tell us how Crunch started out?
It started when I was introduced to a tax specialist, Steve Crouch. He had an idea of accounting software for freelancers and contractors.
I decided to exit my business at the time, Pure360, and by 2008 I’d sold it. But very quickly we realised that we needed to provide the entire service – the accountant, the account manager and the software all as one complete package.
And we aimed to offer the third of what we’d surveyed as the average price for a limited company accountancy. It started in the summer of 2007 and it took two years to build the whole thing before we launched in April 2009.
Is Brighton a good place to run a business?
It’s an amazing, vibrant city to work in. When I first set up a business here in 2002, there wasn’t a digital community. We worked quite hard with an association called Wired Sussex to really drive digital businesses into Brighton. Now it’s a really strong place for creatives and internet-based businesses.
How did you and your co-founder Steve Crouch decide to work together?
Steve is ex-HMRC; he’s always been in tax and had his own practice. I got involved following my experiences of having a couple of accountants that were pretty shocking. I wanted to make Crunch the complete service. And still today, eight years on, it is unique. There is no other firm that has accountancy software in-house and an accountancy practice all built specifically for freelancers and micro-businesses.
What has helped Crunch grow really quickly?
It’s really useful having the software in-house here. We are set up to keep making the whole platform more efficient because it’s our own. Our office layout is really effective too – there are 160 people arranged in pods with four accountants and four account managers on each pod and a whole separate floor for the software team. It’s that unique combination of software and embracing technology that makes us very efficient.
What’s been most challenging?
I’m not an accountant; Steve is at my side, but it’s my vision. Steve has carried on running his own practice, but he is here two days a week. My vision was to have this complete efficient operation where the system can do your whole year-end [accounts] in seconds. It wasn’t until we started on it and I’d written down my whole vision for the business that we realised it was six man years to build the system – it’s so complex because it has the whole tax system in it [Crunch uses online accounting software built on Enterprise Java (the same technology as most online banks), which is plugged into HMRC and Companies House]. It has the tax running live. So the user sees exactly what is going on and how much to put aside. That was the most difficult thing – realising my vision and realising why no one had ever done it, and why they’ve still not done it.
What’s been your biggest achievement?
It’s a complex area to tackle, and we’ve done it and get fantastic customer reviews all the time as well as being a fast-growing firm. The AccountancyAge publish the Top 100 accountants list and a “ones to watch” list, which goes up to about 120. In 2013 we were 114th, in 2014 we were 97th and this year we’re 84th.
What are your hopes for the future of the business?
I would love to do more to help freelancers and micro-businesses. We’ve hired an ambassador and we have lots of content writers [offering advice articles for SMEs]. People can join this community and be helped, including having access to mentors.
Darren Fell is co-founder and CEO of Crunch Accounting.
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