Ben Borodach shares classes from consulting, enterprise constructing, and fintech management—on innovation, execution, and rethinking monetary providers.
Ben Borodach is co-founder and CEO of april, the place he’s working to make the tax course of extra approachable and reasonably priced for American taxpayers. Ben has spent his profession on the intersection of economic providers, cybersecurity, and expertise, starting at Deloitte Consulting, the place he suggested the biggest US banks and insurance coverage firms on development, M&A, enterprise and expertise methods. Extra lately, he led company technique for enterprise group Team8, the place he performed a crucial position in beginning and scaling new FinTech and Cyber ventures similar to Curv (acq. by PayPal) and Seen Danger (acq. by Bitsight). Ben is a co-creator and designer of the Team8-WisdomTree Cybersecurity Index and the TU-Team8 Cyber Fellows PhD program. Ben is a graduate of New York College with B.A. in Economics, the place he held the excellence of Presidential Honors Scholar.
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If fintech has a fault line, it runs between those that perceive how massive monetary programs actually work—and people who attempt to change them with out that context.
Ben Borodach belongs firmly within the first group.
Earlier than co-founding april, Ben had already been contained in the boardrooms of a number of the world’s largest monetary establishments. At Deloitte, he wasn’t simply observing decision-making at scale—he was analyzing it, studying how capital, incentives, and inner politics formed what monetary giants may or couldn’t do. That type of entry doesn’t simply make you sharp. It provides you an unusually clear view of what must be rebuilt—and how you can construct it.
However what makes Ben’s story attention-grabbing isn’t simply his company background. It’s how seamlessly he moved between advising incumbents, launching new ventures, and in the end founding a product designed for probably the most underserved wants in U.S. monetary life: making taxes much less painful, extra human, and more cost effective to navigate.
On this interview, Ben shares what he’s discovered about constructing tech with endurance, why he thinks personalization in finance continues to be underdelivered, and the way AI—if architected from the bottom up—can really enhance execution, not simply pitch decks.
This isn’t only a dialog about tax innovation. It’s about how you can flip deep institutional understanding into sharper, sooner, and extra human-centered merchandise—with out shedding the self-discipline that critical fintech calls for.
Let’s get into it.
1. Your profession has spanned consulting, enterprise constructing, and entrepreneurship. Reflecting on this journey, what pivotal experiences have most importantly formed your method to innovation in monetary providers?
I spent the early days of my profession at Deloitte—in all probability not the primary place you’d count on to coach as a founder. However I acquired a front-row seat to check the ability dynamics of enterprise and watched high-stakes choices reshape whole industries.
As part of Deloitte’s World Monetary Companies group, I shared the room with CEOs and CIOs speaking about billion-dollar acquisitions, restructurings, or aggressive threats. Watching senior executives deliberate over choices that might reshape an business and influence 1000’s of lives gave me a decade of training compressed into two years.
Most younger professionals see the outputs, similar to press releases, organizational adjustments, and strategic shifts. However I used to be witness to the inputs—the true conversations, hidden incentives, and unstated guidelines that truly govern how massive organizations function. I discovered how you can make an efficient argument to influence stakeholders or how main technique shifts emerged in casual talks.
This turned invaluable at my subsequent position at Team8, a worldwide enterprise group. I used to be simpler promoting to organizations as a result of I understood how they labored inside. Whereas I felt the agency was too massive to make an instantaneous direct influence, it was a superb place to begin and one thing I’d suggest to any would-be entrepreneur aspiring to resolve enterprise issues.
2. Transitioning from advising massive monetary establishments to co-founding startups entails a shift in mindset. How did your earlier roles put together you for the challenges of constructing and scaling new ventures?
I really began my profession as a founder. Once I was at NYU I began an organization known as Printed whereas concurrently engaged on my economics and enterprise diploma.
I’d Uber forwards and backwards between courses, investor conferences, and buyer conferences. I finally made the choice to show down extra institutional cash and began at Deloitte. Early on I acknowledged how troublesome enterprise gross sales had been, so I wished to immerse myself in that world and develop into an professional. After all, I finally continued my entrepreneurial journey, however I had that foundation of information from the very starting.
3. You’ve got been concerned in growing initiatives just like the Team8-WisdomTree Cybersecurity Index and the TU-Team8 Cyber Fellows PhD program. How have these experiences knowledgeable your understanding of expertise improvement in tech-driven industries?
Creating expertise begins with management. Our leaders play a pivotal position in shaping, selling, and sustaining our firm tradition by embodying our values and motivating our groups to contribute to our ongoing mission.
Regardless of vital development, now we have ensured that as we scale up, our tradition stays intact by emphasizing the significance of our core values in each side of our operations. They encourage open communication, present alternatives for cross-functional collaboration, and prioritize worker well-being and development.
4. In your view, what are the important thing elements that contribute to efficiently integrating rising applied sciences into conventional monetary programs?
We’re getting into the age the place most monetary providers are going to be more and more delivered on-line, and that implies that shoppers will count on that what they’re seeing is totally contextual to them.
Most monetary storefronts right now are digital, however they don’t service their prospects in a personalised method—it’s pretty generic. The duty of sewing collectively a digital monetary profile shouldn’t fall on the person, the household, or the small enterprise.
The way forward for fintech and monetary providers will revolve round bundling and offering options which are customized to the person. Software program and AI are main gamers in that personalization as properly. I believe we’ll see much more room for specialization and intelligence to raised serve extra particular kinds of prospects. This is not about expertise, however about reimagining the service mannequin from the shopper’s perspective quite than the supplier’s comfort.
5. All through your profession, you have witnessed the evolution of economic expertise. How do you keep forward of business tendencies, and what methods do you use to adapt to fast adjustments?
Staying forward in fintech means constructing for change, not stability. We now have architected our tech to be agile from the beginning. One core technique: integrating AI — not as a bolt-on, however as foundational infrastructure. We use generative AI and NLP to translate dense, advanced tax code into software program, which is then refined by our staff of tax engineers.
This human-in-the-loop system constantly improves our fashions and dramatically accelerates improvement cycles. It’s how we’ve expanded product protection and slashed time to market. We additionally prioritize sturdy, safe knowledge APIs — as a result of in fintech, connectivity is not only a characteristic, it’s a drive multiplier. These methods permit us to not simply preserve tempo with business shifts, however assist outline them.
6. For professionals aspiring to make an influence in fintech and associated fields, what recommendation would you provide relating to constructing a profession that balances innovation with sensible execution?
As somebody who has been within the business and the enterprise marketplace for north of a decade, I believe essentially the most essential aspect for constructing a profession is working with nice folks. The journey is at all times going to be unpredictable, however one factor you possibly can management is who you encompass your self with. For founders in the hunt for traders, you actually are shopping for a enterprise accomplice—discover somebody who challenges you however enhances your skillset on the identical time.