Founding Accountant

Porter is the AI finance team for startups and SMBs. We built the system where a company’s entire finance function runs: the books, the AI employees that do the work inside them, and the control plane that keeps it accountable.

Two humans (CEO, CTO), a growing roster of AI agents handling bookkeeping, AR, AP, payroll, tax, and reporting, and a corporate memory system called Aurelian that never forgets a decision. We’re pre-seed, VC-backed, and going after the $300B+ US finance-function labor market that every small business currently patches together with QuickBooks, a part-time bookkeeper, and a prayer.

We need our first finance hire.

The Role

You’re not here to do bookkeeping. You’re here to turn bookkeeping on its head. You’ll work directly with the CEO as a fractional CFO for our startup and SMB customers, running their books inside Porter while breaking every manual process you find and feeding the insights back into the product. Half the job is client delivery. The other half is building the playbook that lets AI do it next.

• Dogfood Porter alongside the CEO, acting as fractional CFO for startup and SMB customers — month-end close, reconciliations, financial reporting, flux analysis, the works

• Own the full accounting cycle for a growing book of clients: categorize transactions, close periods, prepare financials, and answer the questions founders actually care about

• Automate everything you touch — use Claude/ChatGPT, Porter’s MCP tools, and whatever dropped on Product Hunt this morning to turn a 4-hour close into a 40-minute one

• Deliver client work from day one: you’ll be in front of founders and operators, liaising on their books, their reports, their questions

• Shape the product by being its most demanding user — file bugs, propose features, write specs, and pressure-test every AI agent before a customer sees it

• Wear every hat: sales support, customer onboarding, process documentation, marketing content, investor prep

• Find the best way to do something, then make it repeatable so the AI can do it next time

You

• Have a CPA (or equivalent). Two to three years in public accounting, a startup finance role, or fractional/outsourced accounting. You’ve closed books, prepared financials, and dealt with the messy reality of small-company accounting.

• Live in AI. Not "familiar with AI." Obsessed. You automate your own workflows before anyone asks you to. You’ve built things with Claude or ChatGPT that surprised you. You see AI as a multiplier, not a novelty.

• Are entrepreneurial. You’ve worked at a startup, freelanced, run a side project, or otherwise operated without a playbook. You don’t wait for instructions. You find the gap and fill it.

• Are a 10x contributor. Fast, resourceful, creative, allergic to busy work. You’d rather spend an hour building a system than a week doing something manually.

• Are comfortable with customers. You’ll be client-facing immediately, working with founders and operators on their finances. Confidence and communication matter as much as technical skill.

• Want to build, not just operate. You care about product. You’ll dogfood Porter relentlessly, file bugs that make the engineering team groan, and write the specs that make them thank you later.

• Ship content. You write LinkedIn posts about accounting hot takes. You make videos explaining month-end close to founders. You don’t wait for permission to try something new.

Apply

michael@buildwithporter.com

Resume + a short note on why you think AI will replace the back office (and what you’d do about it).