Braden Kraft Braden Kraft

Founded by experienced product leaders John Knific and Kris Ciccarello, K2 Venture Partners helps ambitious companies bring new products to life—from early strategy and design to fully built software. Their mission is clear: build high-quality products the right way, powered by thoughtful product thinking and modern, AI-enabled development.

But while K2’s approach to building software was modern and streamlined, the finance tools they relied on to understand their own business were anything but.

The Challenge: Financials at the Speed of Business

As a rapidly growing services company, K2 needs fast, reliable financial insight to guide hiring decisions, understand margins, and keep cash flow healthy. Instead, traditional accounting tools slowed everything down.

Manual workflows created constant friction, requiring repeated categorization and monthly cleanup just to get a usable snapshot. Reporting was slow and tedious, relying on spreadsheets, email back-and-forth, and disconnected systems that couldn’t keep up with the pace of the business. Month-end, in particular, was painful—absorbing hours of reconciliation before the numbers could be trusted.

For John—who previously led two venture-backed startups as CEO and COO—the pattern was all too familiar:

“In a small, fast-moving environment, you just need a snapshot of how the business is doing. The bookkeeping routine shouldn’t block that.”

Trying to maintain momentum while spending 10 hours a month cleaning up books—and losing even more time at month-end—pushed John and Kris to look for something different. Something built for 2026, not 2006.

Discovering Digits: An AI-Native Experience That “Just Worked”

The search for a modern, AI-first accounting solution began with Kris, who was convinced there had to be something better than traditional bookkeeping tools. After asking ChatGPT for recommendations, Digits surfaced as an accounting platform built with automation at its core.

Onboarding was immediate—and surprisingly magical.

Rather than migrating years of historical data from QuickBooks, John chose to start fresh in Digits in 2025. He connected K2’s bank accounts and payroll system (Gusto), and Digits immediately:

  • Imported recent bank and payroll activity
  • Automatically categorized expenses and income with high accuracy
  • Grouped transactions into clear, easy-to-understand spending categories

“Digits hit that threshold of giving me exactly what I needed—without having to manually configure anything. It was just clean.”

Before settling on Digits, John evaluated a wide range of solutions, including QuickBooks’ newer automation features, FreshBooks, Xero, and several “AI-enhanced” accounting tools. But nothing felt truly AI-native.

“Everything else felt like different flavors of the same thing. Digits was the first fully AI-native experience I’d seen. It was apples to oranges.”

Digits didn’t just replace QuickBooks—it consolidated their accounting and bill pay tools into one, eliminating redundant workflows and reducing operational overhead overnight.

Faster Insights, Simpler Workflows

Within weeks, John and Kris found themselves opening Digits far more often than their previous tools—because it finally made understanding the business effortless.

As a bootstrapped, fast-scaling services company, K2 relies on quick visibility into runway, spending, margins, and hiring capacity. Digits delivered that clarity immediately while dramatically reducing the work required to maintain it.

With Digits, K2:

  • Reduced monthly financial workflows by 60%, removing repetitive tasks that used to slow them down
  • Cut bookkeeping cleanup from 10 hours per month to just 1 hour, thanks to accurate, automated categorization
  • Reduced 80% of month-end work, eliminating the scramble to reconcile and validate numbers
  • Consolidated two tools into one, simplifying their financial stack and day-to-day operations

Digits streamlined the workflows that mattered most:

  • Automated categorization that stayed accurate month after month
  • Invoicing that took minutes instead of hours
  • Bill Pay that worked out of the box, turning uploaded documents into scheduled payments without manual setup
  • Always-on financial updates, providing a trusted snapshot without spreadsheets or email threads

“Digits makes it effortless to see where we stand. We open it anytime we need a quick snapshot of the business.”

Between migration and ongoing use, John estimates Digits saved him 20–30 hours upfront and continues to save 5–10 hours every month—time he can now spend running and growing the business instead of cleaning up books.

When asked whether he’d recommend Digits, John didn’t hesitate:

“I’d recommend Digits without question. It’s clean, it’s simple, it works the way modern software should. Definitely a 10 out of 10.”

Ready for Modern, AI-Powered Financial Clarity?

Digits is helping companies like K2 Venture Partners replace manual bookkeeping, reduce operational drag, and make faster, smarter decisions—with far less effort.

See your financials clearly—instantly.