Rene Lacerte
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Inc.,
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Accounting Today,
Fintech Weekly
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Articles by Rene Lacerte
AI Gives Main Street the Power to Play Like the Fortune 500
By PYMNTS | December 4, 2025 | Highlights AI and automation are shifting enterprise-level financial capabilities to SMBs, democratizing access to advanced back office solutions. BILL expects AI agents to absorb back-office tasks, reducing friction, lowering startup barriers, and freeing owners to focus on growth. BILL sees its workflows, payments network, and distribution as its moat — and says empathy will be the key human advantage in an AI-driven world.
BILL CEO Says AI Gives Small Businesses More Competitive Juice
By PYMNTS | November 20, 2025 | Highlights BILL CEO René Lacerte sees AI’s leapfrog capabilities helping SMBs bypass inefficiencies and compete like large enterprises. He stresses constant adaptation and empathy as keys to building durable, future-ready businesses. BILL aims to create an AI-driven, touchless financial platform that empowers entrepreneurs to focus on creativity and community.
New Innovations to the BILL Intelligent Financial Operations Platform
2025 is a time for reinvention. Businesses across America are always navigating uncertainty. Whether it’s getting a start-up off the ground, securing capital, adapting to policy and technology shifts, or responding to shifting consumer behavior. As hard as uncertainty is, there is opportunity in it. With the accelerating pace of change from AI to the dynamic economic landscape, success in 2025 requires a laser focus on making businesses more agile, efficient, modern and strategic.
4 ways to drive innovation in an era of AI
We’re in an AI era that is redefining the way we work, live, and do business—in exciting ways. But there’s also a problem: 99% of attention is focused on the future of AI, which risks missing all the innovation—both AI and non-AI related—happening in businesses of all sizes and in all sectors. In fact, some of the most inspiring advancements I’ve seen recently have come from small and midsize businesses (SMBs).
Council Post: Four Lessons From SMBs And Accounting Firms Every Entrepreneur Can Benefit From
René Lacerte is CEO and Founder of BILL. After more than 30 years of building companies and products to serve small and mid-size businesses (SMBs), there is one thing I am certain of: there is always more to learn from your customers. This is what makes entrepreneurship so rewarding: our job is never done. The most successful business leaders are rarely satisfied with the status quo.
Council Post: The SMB Dilemma: How To Build AI That SMBs Actually Need
CEO and Founder of BILL. The night I was born, my mom and dad worked late sorting punch cards. Like all small business owners, their work never stopped, even for impending births! My parents loved serving customers and were early adopters of punch cards, which was advanced technology then. Technology has come a long way, but the underlying principle remains the same: SMBs and accountants need tools to help them succeed.
Council Post: How To Lead When You Need To Do More With Less
CEO and Founder of BILL. Entrepreneurs are impatient, and I mean that in the best way possible. After 30 years of building businesses, I’ve learned that being an entrepreneur requires the perfect balance of patience and impatience. There are times when patience pays off—investing time in getting your product right is one of those. And then there are times when a bias for action is the right call. After all, impatience is what gets the entrepreneur to take action and start a company.
For small businesses, trust is everything
By René Lacerte7 minute Read Jennifer Cullenbine knows a lot about trust. Jennifer is the CEO and founder of Family Giving Tree, a small non-profit business in Silicon Valley and one of our BILL customers. They make it possible for people to gift targeted donations that make wishes come true. For example, if a donor sees that an 8-year-old wants a Star Wars Millennium Falcon Lego set, they can make that wish happen for the child.
3 Tips for Leading When the Unexpected Happens
A seasoned entrepreneur who built a business helping business owners offers lessons learned about leading through a crisis. It’s every entrepreneur’s worst nightmare. Your day is going along as any normal day, but then everything changes in a moment. Everything you have worked at for years flashes before your eyes as you wonder if you and your business will survive the challenge that just landed on your desk. Dealing with the unexpected is something that every entrepreneur expects.
3 Tips for Leading When the Unexpected Happens
It's every entrepreneur's worst nightmare. Your day is going along as any normal day, but then everything changes in a moment. Everything you have worked at for years flashes before your eyes as you wonder if you and your business will survive the challenge that just landed on your desk. Dealing with the unexpected is something that every entrepreneur expects. I started BILL 17 years ago, and we've had our fair share of unexpected events to navigate.
Fintech News Issue #85
Top Stories Faisal Khan on why financial regulators need to accept the reality (and usefulness) of bitcoin for money transfer and remittances. Chris Skinner argues that a bank is just a technology company trying to keep up in an ultra-connected world. Young fintech companies are facing a harsh new reality. After years of unbounded growth fueled by billions in venture capital, the market dynamics that made it all possible have changed.
Anger, Fear, Joy: The Unspoken Side of Entrepreneurship
Every day, entrepreneurs across the country are taking significant personal risks, creating new companies, and boldly paving previously nonexistent paths forward. They pour their passion, authenticity, and, oftentimes, their finances into these ventures -- and there's no guarantee of success. Everyone has ups and downs on a daily basis. But in my experience as an entrepreneur, the highs are higher, and the lows are lower.
Why embracing subcultures inside your company is critical to scaling your business
Creating a company is never easy, but it is the ultimate form of self-expression—whether it’s the product or service you offer or the type of company. Every business is unique, and so is every company culture. But how do you go from a unique company to a great company culture that can grow with you? Well one analogy comes from one of my favorite small business customers, Antoine’s, which makes these incredible cookies.
Council Post: A Year Into The Pandemic, Creativity Is Still Key For Small Businesses
Rene is founder and CEO of Bill.com, the leading cloud-based platform that automates and streamlines cash flow processes such as AP and AR. getty One of the things I love most about small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) is their can-do spirit. I saw it firsthand growing up watching my parents and grandparents meeting numerous challenges head on. This past year especially, I’ve seen it over and over again with our customers.
Lessons from 2020 and Outlook for 2021
2020 has served as an unprecedented time in history in so many ways. SMBs have been especially impacted by the global pandemic. Now is a time to gather thought leaders in the industry to share takeaways and stories on the current state of SMBs, provide actionable insights into what 2021 holds and how to best position SMBs for success.
Why Banks Are Scrambling To Build A Venmo For Business
Venmo is a phenomenon that has become so synonymous with paying someone back, it’s even become a verb. Venmo gives users the ability to immediately send or request payment from anyone in their contact list or Facebook network, and it transmitted 8 billion dollars in payments in the second quarter of 2017 alone. Don’t think banks haven’t noticed -- they’ve developed their own version Venmo, called Zelle.
Blockchain Isn't The Magic Pill To Banking Ills
With the market cap of digital currencies like Ether, Litecoin and Ripple surging in 2017, pundits are already speculating that “2018 will see many more cryptocurrencies double in value.” However, while we all know about these incredible valuations, the fakes are bringing down the credibility of the industry and threatening the promise that it holds.
Is 2017 The Year Bank-Fintech Partnerships Hit Product/Market Fit?
2016 was a landmark year for the financial technology and banking industries. After years of high-profile messaging wars, both sides finally decided to accept the inevitable: The financial technology (fintech) and banking industries are far better off as friends than as foes. Not long ago, fintech startups openly clashed with their more traditional banking counterparts.
Ditch the Desk and Still Run a Grounded Business
Entrepreneurship is not a 9-to-5 job. Never has been. But in today's hyperconnected world, running a business requires an "always on" mindset and fortunately, there are a number of mobile tools that to do just that. As the CEO of a technology company that empowers small business owners to simplify their workflow and step away from the desk, it probably comes as no surprise that much of my job happens outside of the confines of the office.
The 6 Most Important Tips on Hiring For Long Term Success
One of the most exciting things about growing a business is the need and the capital to hire more employees. Hiring folks is an indication that you are doing something right - that there is demand for what you are building. That said, however, it is also one of the most challenging jobs a leader has. Lots of people I talk with say "Ugh!" when the hiring question comes up. This is because hiring takes time--a lot of time--and sometimes it doesn't show results in the near term.
The Road Previously Traveled: What I learned from Ken Chenault, Scott Cook and Mark Benioff, Leaders who've been there before
The path to starting your own company is a long, arduous one. There are twists and turns, roadblocks and hurdles. At times, it can feel as though the road leads nowhere and self-doubt looms on the horizon. But fear not, along this journey you will meet those who have already passed each mile marker. Leaders who have experienced the high highs and lowly lows of growing a company from seed to exit are the ones I turn to when I find myself needing guidance or direction.
Good Design IS Good Business
According to the 2014 BLS Labor and Statistics "Time Study," workers between the ages of 25 and 55 spend an average of 8.7 hours of their day on work-related activities. For many of us, this means time spent at the office--a lot of time. In a given year, the average worker is likely to find themselves spending over 2,000 hours at their office. At the center of every business is talent, and it's my belief that their time is the most valuable resource we have.
Foresight is 20/20 for the Future Payments Technology
The Jetsons don't write checks why should you? Consumer payment technologies have advanced by leaps and bounds over the last twenty years. When I was a kid, checks were the norm and charge accounts were locally managed. Plastic came along and made charge accounts centrally managed. In the 90's consumers got bill payment and points for charge cards. Both took off. By the beginning of the millennium Paypal came around and reinvented person to person payments--no more cash needed.
4 lessons I wished I learned in my 20's
I am not sure I ever thought of running a digital business payments service in my 20's. Back then I was a consultant and product manager, and while I had ideas that I might someday follow the family entrepreneurial spirit, I had no idea what I didn't know. Looking back, I feel very fortunate for the journey to where I am today. That said, I do wish that I could have learned a few things the easy way instead of the hard way.
What a Dog and Taoism Taught Me About Being an Entrepreneur: Two Unlikely Reads for the Aspiring Entrepreneur.
None of us entrepreneurs have all the answers. In fact, most of us feel like we have more questions than answers, especially when starting out. As the business grows, the questions become more focused, yet the answers become more blurry. We all need a little help sometimes. Whether it is a difficult decision or loss in direction, the road to success is no limousine ride.
5 Surefire Ways to Get Clients to Pay on Time
Late payments can be one of the most frustrating parts of owning a business -- not to mention being potentially crippling to the bottom line. As the lifeblood of any business, healthy cash flow gives business owners the means to pay employees and procure the goods they sell. In contrast, when times get lean and cash dries up, even the most finely tuned operation can be at risk of collapse.
5 Tools to Retain Great Employees
Great managers recruit and retain great people. Employees stay with a manager when they can learn and grow. If you learn how to build an employee growth culture, you will retain more of your best employees. To understand how people learn, we need to look at Salman Khan, founder of the Khan Academy. Khan knows people learn by solving problems. He's helped them solve more than 3 billion problems.
3 Signs You're Becoming an Extraordinary Leader
How did Bill Campbell, a football coach from Columbia University, become one of the most successful technology executives in Silicon Valley, including CEO of Intuit and board director at Apple? How did Scott Cook, the founder of Intuit, manage to stay deeply involved with the businesses of eBay and Procter & Gamble while overseeing Intuit? They are extraordinary leaders. I was fortunate and worked for them in the '90s. I got to see firsthand how they choose to lead.
Greatest Christmas Gift For Business
Last year, I gave myself a gift. It helped me nearly double my business and more importantly gave me the clarity to put plans in place to continue our rapid growth for the next several years. I feel younger, have more energy, and think faster. I gave myself a pair of running shoes. But, that is not the whole story. It's just the beginning. Before the shoes, I read " Younger next Year: A Guide to Living Like 50 Until You're 80 and Beyond ," by Chris Crowley and Henry S. Lodge, MD.
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