Cal.com

“I sleep soundly at night knowing that I can pull up Rho on my phone and understand everything that's going on with our finances, all within one platform.”—Bailey Pumfleet, Co-founder of Cal.com

As a startup founder, choosing the right business banking partner can significantly impact how you scale.

Choose the right one, and you'll have a growth partner every step of the way—giving you deep insights into how you're spending, helping you evaluate capital allocation across channels, and providing support when you need it.

On the other end of the spectrum is the wrong fit. This banking partner makes you jump through hurdles for, arguably, standard requests. You lack the spend data you need to make informed decisions and touch points are often met with friction and frustration.

These two polar opposite scenarios are exactly what Bailey Pumfleet, Co-founder of Cal.com, dealt with when choosing to adopt a legacy bank and, eventually, switching over to Rho.

His experience highlighted the conclusion that many fast-growing startup founders come to: many legacy banking options struggle to meet the needs of scaling, hypergrowth businesses. 

What is Cal.com?

Cal.com simplifies scheduling for individuals, teams, and developers with powerful features and integrations that make booking effortless.

Challenge

Navigating disjointed legacy banking processes 

At the onset, Bailey chose a popular fintech as Cal.com’s preferred banking platform. But his faith in them quickly soured after its partner bank faced a cease-and-desist notice from the FDIC. “That was immediately a huge alarm bell,” said Bailey. To make matters worse, the fintech was also hacked shortly after, prompting a significant release of sensitive customer information.  

Now looking for a new partner, Bailey landed on a legacy bank, given their reputation as a business-friendly option with various financial products. “I was thinking this could be a good idea because as you evolve into a late-stage company, being with a larger institution is helpful for fundraising and IPOs,” said Bailey.

But similar to their experience with the fintech, their trust started to erode after realizing their decision would become a game of compromises. 

First, Bailey ran into issues with the bank's various siloed financial management platforms, all of which had confusing interfaces and were missing critical security features such as two-factor authentication. Because each platform was behind its own login flow, Bailey needed to jump between interfaces to create a holistic picture of Cal.com’s finances.

“It was frustrating to have the different systems, all of which were just very annoying to log into.”

Next, expectations of good customer support were unmet as Bailey managed disjointed communication between branches and departments: “Because their bank accounts are under their commercial product line, if you go into a branch they’ll tell you, ‘We can't do anything for you here.’” 

Most notably, one of the most significant points of frustration for Bailey was their low transfer limit. “With our commercial account, we were restricted to only being able to transfer $50,000 a day. For a multi-million dollar business, $50K is a small limit,” said Bailey. 

These inefficiencies caused Bailey to avoid logging into Cal.com’s accounts unless absolutely necessary: “I just logged into the bank as little as possible. It felt like such an annoyance.”

Solution

Consolidated business finances  

Soon after onboarding with his bank, Bailey began reconsidering fintech alternatives to help scale Cal.com.

After getting a demo of the Rho platform and taking note of the consolidated UI, security measures and integrated treasury services, Bailey decided to make the switch. “Honestly, now that we did kind of have the forcing function to move to Rho, I would not go back to pretty much any legacy bank,” said Bailey.

Now on Rho, Bailey leans on several Rho products to help fuel Cal.com’s growth:

• Treasury to earn yield on cash and keep operations running smoothly. “We want to have a significant portion of our cash in treasury, but we need to make sure that we can cover payroll. So the automatic transfer rules in the treasury product are perfect.”  
• Accounts payable to manage dozens of payments per month. “Every single time we pay a bill, we save 10 to 15 minutes compared to our legacy bank. Being able to do AP within Rho saves us many hours per month.” 
• And the Rho mobile app for banking on the go. “I sleep soundly at night knowing that I can pull up Rho on my phone and understand everything that's going on with our finances, all within one platform.”

Results

A modern approach to startup banking 

Cal.com’s experience so far has been marked by several significant benefits: consolidation, support, constant iteration, and a seamless onboarding process. 

A simplified migration process 

Switching banking platforms can become a huge logistical headache, especially when migrating several cash sources such as checking, savings, and treasury. 

With Rho, “…the account opening process was the best I've ever gone through, including all of the fintechs out there,” said Bailey. 

“Early on, one of the things that always held me back a little was the idea that it would be a pain to switch. The only pain about switching came from our legacy bank. If you’re switching to Rho, you can be assured that your account manager will be ready to help with anything. Everyone was very supportive.”  

A single platform for all their finances 

“Rho is just everything we need financially in one platform,” said Bailey. As a founder, the ability to manage checking and savings, corporate cards, treasury, AP, and expenses in a single platform has been a huge boon for efficiency and decision-making. 

“It gives us so much more confidence and makes us really feel at peace with our finances. Nobody wants their finances to be a black box. Rho is the first all-in-one platform that actually makes us feel like we're on top of everything.”

Award-winning support when they need it

The support he receives from the Rho team has also been a bright spot, particularly after dealing with the long hold times and communication chains with his previous legacy banking platform. 

“Rho actually cares when I have a problem. When I reach out, they’re like, ‘We'll fix that. If you see it again, don't hesitate to reach out.’ With a large bank, you're lost in a ticket that's been filed with them, and you’ll typically get a corporate response rather than having it feel like a personal touch,” said Bailey. 

One of the most welcome changes? The constant updates to the Rho platform. 

“When I reach out to the product team to request a feature, they usually say, ‘We’re already working on this.’ Which is great,” said Bailey. "In the time I was with the legacy bank, we saw zero platform improvements. And I expect that if we stayed with them for another five years, that number would still be zero."

Now, with a simplified interface, Bailey has found it easier to monitor Cal.com's finances regularly, minus the hurdles: “I’m ten times more likely to check what's going on in the bank now.” 

Testimonials reflect individual customer experiences and opinions and are provided for illustrative purposes. There is no guarantee that your Rho experience will be the same and results may vary.

Rho is a fintech company, not a bank. Checking account and card services provided by Webster Bank, N.A., member FDIC; savings account services provided by American Deposit Management Co. and its partner banks.

Investment management and advisory services provided by RBB Treasury LLC dba Rho Treasury, an SEC-registered investment adviser. RBB Treasury LLC facilitates investments in securities: investments are not deposits and are not FDIC-insured. Investments are not bank guaranteed, and may lose value. Investment products involve risk and past performance does not guarantee future results. Registration with the SEC does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Treasury and custodial services provided through Apex Clearing Corp. Treasury and custodial services provided through Interactive Brokers LLC for clients with accounts opened prior to July 2024; IBKR rates may vary from Apex rate shown above. The yield may change at any time and without prior notice. Please see the ADV Wrap Fee Brochure for further information regarding fees and Rho Treasury.

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