Episode 010 of Between Two Founders - René Lacerte
Episode Summary
René Lacerte has spent nearly three decades building the financial infrastructure that powers millions of small businesses. As the founder and CEO of BILL, he has created a platform that now processes over 1% of US GDP, serving nearly half a million customers and 9,000 accounting firms.
In this epsiode with Jeff Seibert, René shares his journey as a fourth-generation entrepreneur. He introduces the concept of “Owner Mode” as his alternative to the founder mode vs manager mode debate, and shares his contrarian view that SMBs don’t want more AI, they want less work.
The episode also marks the launch of the Digits × BILL partnership, designed to simplify and automate financial operations in real time while reducing manual work and errors.
A masterclass in building financial infrastructure that works for small businesses.
Watch the full video here
Between Two Founders is an enlightening series of fireside chats, hosted by Jeff Seibert of Digits, featuring seasoned founders from VC-backed startups offering rare insights from their journeys, and first-hand experience.
Featured Guest
René Lacerte
Founder and CEO of BILL
René Lacerte is the founder and CEO of BILL, a leading financial operations platform helping small and midsize businesses automate the work behind getting paid, paying bills, and staying in control of cash flow. A fourth-generation entrepreneur with more than three decades across finance, software, and payments, René has spent his career leveling the playing field for the “Fortune 5 Million”—the millions of SMBs that power our communities and economy. He founded BILL in 2006 to remove friction from business payments, took the company public in 2019, and has continued to expand its impact through acquisitions including Divvy, Invoice2Go, and Finmark. Before BILL, René built PayCycle—one of the first online payroll platforms—later acquired by Intuit, where he also helped grow key payments and payroll products early in his career. Guided by a belief in building with trust, empathy, and real-world customer focus, René is now shaping the future of finance through automation and the rise of agentic AI.
