Former Bench CEO Ian Crosby joins Shopify Balance as product director

The Bench co-founder described Shopify Balance as “a phenomenal product.”

Ian Crosby has joined Ottawa e-commerce giant Shopify as product director of the company’s business banking offering, Shopify Balance.

Crosby announced the move earlier today via LinkedIn and Twitter posts. The announcement comes just over a month after Crosby left Vancouver-based accounting software startup Bench, which he co-founded and led as CEO for over a decade.

Crosby called Shopify Balance “a phenomenal product that is going to be massive.”

“After leading Bench Accounting for 11 years, I wanted to land somewhere that I could learn from incredible people while also contributing to building something huge and important,” wrote Crosby, who added that he decided to join Shopify because “it’s the best place in the world to learn with incredible people.”

Crosby co-founded Bench out of his Toronto apartment in 2010 with Jordan Menashy, Adam Saint, and Pavel Rodionov, all of whom left the company prior to Crosby’s departure.

The announcement of Crosby’s departure was made at a Bench all-hands meeting on January 10. Speaking with BetaKit last month, Crosby did not confirm if the board let him go, saying only that they had a good discussion. Bench has since named Jean-Philippe Durrios as its new president and CFO, as they search for a new CEO.

First revealed in 2020, Shopify Balance is a Stripe and Evolve Bancorp-powered banking offering for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs). It is composed of a few different products, including a bank account, card, and rewards program for Shopify merchants.

The idea behind Shopify Balance is to provide financial services built for independent businesses and entrepreneurs.

RELATED: Bench CEO and founder Ian Crosby out, company brings in president

In January 2021, Shopify began rolling out Shopify Balance to hundreds of thousands of eligible merchants in the United States. According to Shopify, thousands of merchants are already actively using Shopify Balance.

“I signed on to Shopify Balance because it’s a phenomenal product that is going to be massive,” said Crosby. “It will redefine how the fintech industry thinks about banking for SMBs.”

According to Crosby, Shopify Balance is currently hiring in user experience, product, and engineering roles.

Crosby joins Shopify during an interesting time for the publicly-traded Canadian retail tech company, which has seen its share price fall after disclosing slowing growth in the fourth quarter 2021 compared to the record results it saw in Q4 2020.

In its latest earnings report, Shopify revealed slowing revenue growth, decelerating Black Friday sales, and soft revenue guidance as the COVID-19 pandemic, government lockdown, and stimulus tailwinds that drove the rise of e-commerce begin to subside.

Josh Scott

Josh Scott

Josh Scott is a BetaKit reporter focused on telling in-depth Canadian tech stories and breaking news. His coverage is more complete than his moustache.

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