August 19 - Trent McLaren, co-founder of Vinyl
We’ve raised $2M AUD in seed funding to build the future of AI meeting assistants for accounting and bookkeeping firms.
Since March this year, we’re already helping hundreds of firms save hours each week by turning client meetings into structured notes, clear action items, and synced follow-ups — without the admin headache. Now, with the backing of Tidal Ventures and the founders of Dext, Ignition, and KeyPay, we’re ready to accelerate.
Our Journey So Far
Like many firms, we started with a meeting problem.
At our agency, Journey, we were meeting-heavy — clients, team, stakeholders. But all that talk led to one big issue: scattered notes, missed context, and manual follow-ups that ate up our time. We tried everything from generic notetakers like Fireflies and Fathom, to Frankensteining our own workflow using Zapier and GPT. It sort of worked — we even generated new revenue from AI-written proposals. But it wasn’t built for us.
So, we asked a simple question: Are accounting and bookkeeping firms facing the same problem?
After 12+ years working in the accounting & bookkeeping ecosystem, we took it to the community, and 276 firms answered.
What we heard was clear:
Firms are spending 6.6 hours per week on post-meeting admin
That’s 345 hours a year — or 43 full working days
With the right AI help, firms could reclaim $31K+ in billable time
The biggest pain points? Remembering what was said. Capturing the right actions. Making sure follow-ups actually get done.
So we built Vinyl — the AI meeting assistant for accountants and bookkeepers.
Since launching our beta, we’ve processed over 7,500 hours of meetings, now recording 150 hours a day across 400+ firms in Australia, the UK, and the US. And we integrate directly with the tools firms already use — like Xero Practice Manager, Karbon, and FYI.
Meet Our Investors
Backing this $2M AUD round is Tidal Ventures, joined by four strategic angels who’ve each built and/or exited category-defining platforms in accounting:
Michael Wood, co-founder of Dext (formerly Receipt Bank)
Richard McLean, co-founder of KeyPay, the payroll platform acquired by Employment Hero
Guy Pearson, founder of Ignition, the engagement and billing platform used by firms worldwide
Nathan Harper, founder of Finlert, the Xero Small Business App of the Year 2023
These aren’t just investors — they’re operators who’ve lived and solved real problems inside firms. Their belief in Vinyl signals something bigger: that meeting admin isn’t just an annoyance — it’s a solvable, high-impact opportunity for the entire profession.
“Their backing isn’t just capital — it’s a signal that Vinyl is solving a real, recognised problem in a space they know inside out.” – Trent McLaren, Co-Founder
How We’ll Use the Capital
This funding lets us go faster on the things firms care most about: deeper integrations, smarter AI, and time-saving automations.
In the next 6–12 months, we’re focused on:
Practice management integrations that go deeper — with automatic task deployment
AI Chat across multiple transcripts
Extract FAQs, marketing snippets, sales opportunities — all from past meetings.
Mobile app for in-person meetings
Record conversations with clear speaker detection, even in-office or on the road.
Instant post-meeting outputs
Draft follow-up emails, answer technical queries, or prep a scope of work — in a click.
Meeting scheduler with payment support
Ditch extra tools. Let clients book and pay for time — and we’ll record it all. We’ll even be able to apply different prompts to create different outputs depending on the meeting type
Pre-meeting agendas
Turn up to meetings prepared with an auto-generated list of discussion points, data, and past actions — tailored by client or service line.
Screen recording and video snippets
Replace Loom. Record your screen in Vinyl, then cut and share short, searchable video clips with clients or your team.
“Firms lose 43 full working days a year to post-meeting admin — Vinyl gives them that time back.”
While our current focus is on AI that captures and organises meetings, Vinyl’s broader vision goes much deeper.
In the near future, Vinyl will evolve into a true AI executive assistant for your firm — one that preps your meetings before they happen, nudges team members on what to bring, and handles the follow-up automatically (with human review). It won’t just capture the conversation; it’ll help close the loop on every commitment.
This is where Vinyl starts running key workflows for you — across meetings, emails, documents, and tasks — always with clear human review and full context. It’ll:
Create and assign tasks with clear owners and due dates
Attach relevant notes, files, and meeting summaries
Sync everything back into your practice management tools
Draft client emails, engagement letters, and proposals
Escalate reminders and keep statuses up to date
And because Vinyl understands what’s being said in your meetings, it can even surface hidden sales opportunities based on client conversations, helping you grow without switching context or chasing notes.
This is the future we’re building toward:
A firm that runs smoother, communicates better, and never misses a promise.
Thank you
We just want to say a huge thank you — to the firms who’ve supported us, the partners who’ve offered feedback, and the community that’s helped shape Vinyl from the very beginning.
This raise is a big milestone for us, but we’re just getting started.
If you’re curious about what we’re building — or if meeting admin has been eating into your time and team energy — we’d love for you to give Vinyl a try.
We’re building this with the profession, not just for it — and your input makes it better every step of the way.
Thanks again for being part of the journey. We're excited, optimistic, and more committed than ever to helping firms walk into meetings prepared — and walk out done.
Insightful Accountant Newsletter
Like what you're reading?
Subscribe to our FREE newsletter and we'll deliver content like this directly to your inbox.