Founders Everywhere: Rob Kaczmarek
Rob Kaczmarek is the founder & CEO of inbanx, a unified solution for budget and spending control that allows businesses to manage their card program and control spending in real-time.
Welcome to Founders Everywhere, where we highlight the incredible people behind the companies we’ve backed at Everywhere Ventures, a global pre-seed fund supported by a community of 500 founders and operators.
Budgeting and spending control are critical aspects of ensuring the financial stability and success of a business, especially in today’s dynamic market environment. Despite its importance, many businesses continue to rely on antiquated systems and processes for financial management. Inbanx is leveraging technology to provide one complete solution for budgeting, card management, expense reporting and automating Accounts Payable. Their user interface draws on real-time data, generates AI-driven insights, integrates easily with major accounting software, and automates expense reporting. They give a business-wide view of expense spending across divisions, departments, and teams. Say goodbye to those pesky manual expense reports.
CEO and founder Rob Kaczmarek’s is a multiple time founder, having successfully exited various companies previously. Rob and fellow co-founders Aaron Upshaw and Steve Burt recently raised a $3.6M seed round and will combine their software solution with community and regional banks. Inbanx services businesses directly as well, but with their “bank friendly” infrastructure, they look to partnerships with banks to extend their market reach.
What’s inbanx’ mission?
The main mission of inbanx is to enable businesses to achieve financial excellence by efficiently and effectively managing budgets and providing visibility and control in real-time. We aim to bring banks and businesses closer together through our technology.
Why inbanx, why now?
It was derived out of a personal experience I had at my previous business. We scaled from 6 employees to a global organization with 8 offices around the world. I quickly realized that as you go from a small to medium sized business, to a middle market business, the financial tools really fall off and you’re left with this really highly underserved area of the market. It became clear that inbanx was needed, not only for businesses, but also for community and regional banks, who establish strong relationships with their clients early on, but often diminish due to technological constraints. I envisioned bridging this gap by leveraging advanced technology to support and enhance these valuable relationships.
What sets inbanx apart from competitors?
Most medium to larger businesses manage and track their budgeting with Excel, which creates a huge lag from when money is spent to when it’s recorded. We minimize that lag and allow businesses to effectively manage their budgets with real-time visibility and control. What makes us unique is that we’re providing the best-in-class technology to businesses, while at the same time leveraging a network of community and regional banks to underwrite credit and participate in loans sourced by us. By pulling together these smaller banks, they’re able to effectively compete in the marketplace.
How has your background shaped you as a founder?
I grew up in an entrepreneurial environment. My paternal grandfather fled from Germany during the Second World War and came to the States and built the world's first industrial recycling equipment company. On my maternal side, my aunt and uncle had a plastic manufacturing business. I got this unique view of the world that I didn't know was different. I actually started my first business to pay for my college degree. I studied computer science, but then I got into computational fluid dynamics, electromagnetics, and physics. I really look at everything like it’s a flow problem with friction in the system. Figuring out the mechanics and piecing everything together like a puzzle is extremely fulfilling to me and it’s how I ended up here.
Any words of wisdom?
You can accomplish anything with dedication, commitment, and sacrifice. You will apply this a million times throughout the day.
The person you are when you start a business is not the same person you’ll become at the end. You’ve had challenges, adapted, and evolved and there’s so much self growth along the way.
You will hear stories of others that make it seem like they had it easy, it’s never easy!
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