Collective handles financial administration for owners who would otherwise coordinate separate software and professional services.

AI is increasing Collective’s bookkeeping capacity and changing how quickly it needs to add staff.

CEO Hooman Radfar sees AI helping solo founders build larger businesses without surrendering equity, while established financial software providers retain advantages.

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Hooman Radfar is building Collective for business owners who are also the people doing the work. A consultant might be the company’s only employee, responsible for finding clients, managing those relationships and delivering every project.

That same person has to keep the books, deal with taxes and meet the other requirements of running a business. Buying software or hiring someone to help can still leave the owner responsible for making sure everything gets done.

For Collective’s co-founder and CEO, the opportunity is to take more of that financial work off the owner’s hands. In his conversation with PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster, Radfar described a service built around completing the work and giving customers back the time they spend managing it.

Radfar said owners generally face two choices. They can choose software, learn the financial workflows and supervise them, effectively becoming their own finance chief. Or they can hire accounting and tax professionals and manage the costs and communications that come with those relationships.

That help might come from Aunt Susan or the bookkeeper down the street. Even when someone else does the books, the owner can still be the person supplying records, answering questions and coordinating with whoever handles payroll or prepares the taxes.

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