René Lacerte built BILL by going after a market many startups overlook: small and midsize businesses. After selling his first company, PayCycle, to Intuit, Lacerte started BILL in 2006 with a focus on what he calls the “Fortune 5 million”—small and midsize businesses that make up the backbone of the U.S. economy. Today, the company generates $1.5 billion in annual revenue, serves roughly 500,000 customers, and processes more than $1 trillion in payments each year. Instead of chasing enterprise clients, Lacerte built BILL around the fragmented workflows of SMBs, using partnerships with accountants and financial institutions to reach a market that is often difficult to access at scale.
BILL took more than a decade to reach $100 million in annual revenue. From there, the company climbed to $1 billion within four years of going public in 2019. Lacerte has pushed against common startup practices, including prioritizing quick exits or maintaining outsized founder control, instead emphasizing accountability and building systems designed to last. That helped BILL grow into a network that now connects millions of businesses and suppliers, with each transaction adding data and strengthening its position. Over time, that gave BILL a larger footprint across the small-business economy and a harder position for newer competitors to replicate.
