You may be familiar with Reddit’s “Ask Me Anything (AMA)” series. Here’s our version. First up — our COO and resident cryptocurrency expert, Matthew May.
1. What’s your favorite customer story?
The current one is New Story — not sure how you can beat building 3D printed houses for people in need. Our clients do some pretty cool stuff but I mean…talk about impact.
2. What is your YouTube series “Drink While You Think” about?
Kenji and I don’t do the whole marketing thing the conventional way, so, instead, we pontificate about all kinds of stuff. It’s just fun hanging out with Kenji, drinking beer, and talking about current topics. Maybe people might find it interesting, but I do it for the conversation.
3. What are the messiest books you’ve seen?
One of our current clients, who shall remain nameless, hadn’t kept up his books in 5 years and had been managing his business by his checking account for that time period. He also used a combination of 7 different credit cards and 4 different bank accounts, which had mixed personal and business expenses, to fund the company of the years. We worked closely with him to unwind the personal vs business expenses and get him caught up on taxes. Moral of the story is that no books are too messy for our Cleanup services.
4. You’ve been a company coach at Venture Atlanta for 7 years now. What presentations have stood out to you the most and why?
The bad presentations (not bad companies ironically) stick out the most — probably because I notice the little things more than the average person.
5. Favorite thing to do, see, eat, and drink in Atlanta?
For visitors we always recommend the City Pass (especially if they have kids). That hits all the big touristy stuff: Georgia Aquarium, World of Coca-Cola, CNN Studio Tours, Zoo Atlanta, Center for Civil and Human Rights, Fernbank Museum of Natural History, and College Football Hall of Fame.
I don’t know how everyone doesn’t love Atlanta United. I’m excited soccer is here to stay. It is the best sports experience in town (and that is coming from a diehard Atlanta Falcons fan).
My current favorite place to eat and drink is Wrecking Bar, but if you’re reading this, don’t tell anyone please — it is my hidden gem in Little Five. And you can never go wrong with Staplehouse for a special occasion — great food and a great cause. But make reservations far in advance, or get there early to eat at the bar.
6. What’s the best piece of financial advice you’ve ever heard? What about the worst?
My dad has run a small business for almost 40 years, and he always told me to borrow money when I didn’t need it, because bankers will never lend it when you do. I hate that that advice is accurate. It makes no sense that entrepreneurs can’t get loans unless they don’t need the money, but that is how bankers work.
Worst advice is anything that is non-authentic to the founder.
7. What’s your favorite cryptocurrency and why?
Dash is by far my favorite. I geek out about the applications to corporate governance that Dash has introduced via their cryptocurrency. The fact that they try to help traditionally underbanked communities is just a cherry on top.
8. Who is on your “crypto companies to watch” list?
It’s really some of the big guys:
- Ethereum, because they have such broad implications to utility tokens.
- Ripple, because they are trying to work with legacy financial institutions rather than around them.
- Dash, because of the potential governance implications.
9. What should Acuity clients be most excited about in 2019?
We can now help you with taxes. We kept seeing our clients with tax bills under $3,000 get “stepchilded” at traditional tax firms. So our practice is built around the $1,800-$3,000 tax return, and all of our processes will be designed to serve that demographic. Hopefully we can bring better processes and services to that underserved market. At a minimum, we want to make sure that small businesses are taking advantage of tax credits — that is the biggest miss from their current tax preparers.
10. Who has better dance moves? You or your dancing GIF?
My dancing GIF unfortunately.
11. Is there ever a time when you WOULDN’T recommend Acuity’s services? When and why?
Right now we aren’t very good with helping people with heavy inventory issues, so if you have your own warehouse, that is something outside of our expertise at the moment.
We also aren’t very good with heavy cash based businesses that are underbanked, so we haven’t been very helpful for legal marijuana businesses.
12. Proudest moment as an entrepreneur?
When I read anonymous feedback from our employees when we do internal surveys. Whenever I’m having a bad day I can just pull out our application for best Places to Work and read how people feel about their jobs.
13. Truth time — is there anything Kenji is better at than you?
He is faster than me. We both run, and he can run circles around me. It’s ok, though, because his wife is faster than him.
14. Rapid fire questions:
- What’s something people don’t know about you?
- I coach my daughter’s middle school debate team.
- Hidden talents?
- I’m relatively handy around the house and have renovated two previous houses. Although I haven’t had much time for home improvements the last few years.
- Interests?
- I am a tailgater — so if anyone is ever at an Atlanta Falcons home game, come on by, and we will cook and buy you a drink. We get there as soon as the lots open, so you can’t really beat us there.
- Life motto?
- Plan, pray, and be deliberate.
To get more insights, tips, and fun stories from Matthew, follow him on Twitter at @TheTechCPA. You can also get to know the rest of the Acuity team here.
