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Startup Accounting

Choosing Your Startup Finance Stack: Banking, Cards, and Expense Management

Written by Harry Prabandham

Curated by Rubric Financial

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Banking: Mercury vs Brex vs Traditional

Mercury: built for startups, free, up to $5M of FDIC insurance through the Mercury Vault sweep network (spread across up to about 20 partner banks). Strong API + integrations. Best fit for VC-backed startups raising $500K-$50M.
Brex: also free, integrated with Brex Card + expense management + AP. Best fit if you want a unified finance OS in one vendor.
Traditional bank (SVB/HSBC/JPMorgan/etc.): venture debt access, banking relationships for later-stage, RIA services, complex international banking. Worth the friction at Series B+.
Multi-bank strategy: post-SVB, most startups keep 1-3 weeks of operating cash in checking and sweep the rest into MMFs at multiple institutions. The goal is to never have >$1M unfunded at any single bank.

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About the author

Harry Prabandham

Founder & CEO

Founder and CEO of StartupCFO. MBA from Wharton, MS in Computer Science, and decades of experience building and advising venture-backed startups.

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