# Punchcard

Aiolum story: https://aiolum.com/story/punchcard/ · added 2026-11-06 · updated 2026-11-06

**In short.** Punchcard (AI agents that test audit evidence and prepare workpapers for audit firms, in a web app and in Excel and Word, United States): Excel add-in live with named audit-firm customers, November 2026. Evidence grade E: no revenue figure was checked. Team: Founded in 2023 by Daniel Alberson (his blog post, June 2026); 3 co-founders and 5 people on the team page and a team size of 6 on the Y Combinator page, November 2026. Launched 2 November 2023; still running.

AI agents that test audit evidence and prepare workpapers for audit firms, in a web app and in Excel and Word · United States · AI-native · team of 2 to 10 · still running · group: Finance, risk and compliance

- Outcome: Excel add-in live with named audit-firm customers, November 2026 (evidence grade of the headline number: E; no revenue figure)
- Launch: 2 November 2023; months from launch to the outcome: 36
- Team: Founded in 2023 by Daniel Alberson (his blog post, June 2026); 3 co-founders and 5 people on the team page and a team size of 6 on the Y Combinator page, November 2026
- Outside funding: Y Combinator, Summer 2023 batch; the company says venture firms, product builders and accounting professionals also invested; amounts not published
- Main factor: Niche
- Meters, 1 to 4: evidence strength 1, copyable pattern 1, capital needed 2
- Tags: AI-native, Small team, Funded, Running, B2B, Audit software

Links:

- Visit punchcard.com: https://www.punchcard.com/

**The product.** A workspace for financial statement audits and similar assurance work. Clients upload evidence against each requested item; AI agents match the files to the sample items, run the test steps that the auditor wrote in plain language, and fill in workpapers with a citation to the page, row or cell behind each value. The agent, called CoAudit, works in the web app and as an add-in for Excel and Word. Auditors review the output and keep the audit judgment.

**Why it worked.** In a typical audit, much of the time goes into requesting documents from the client, matching each file to a sample item and copying values into a workpaper before any judgment is made. The founder audited at Ernst & Young and says this is the work he left the profession to avoid. An agent that does the matching and shows its sources lets a reviewer check the work instead of redoing it.

Evidence grades: A = disclosed by a public company, a filing or a payment processor, or verified by one; B = two or more independent reports agree, or a journalist confirmed it; C = a founder claim that no one else verified; D = reported, not verified: one founder claim or a third-party estimate with no second source; E = no revenue figure found, so the headline is a non-money fact and the other facts carry their own grades; calc = computed on this page from graded facts.

## Summary

Punchcard, called Agentive until June 2026, is sold by Substantive AI, Inc. of Provo, Utah. It is assurance software (assurance is work in which an independent auditor checks a company's financial statements or controls and states an opinion). Daniel Alberson, a former Ernst & Young auditor and Facebook product manager, wrote that he founded the company in 2023; it was in the Y Combinator Summer 2023 batch, and the launch post is dated 2 November 2023.

It began with client document requests: the PBC list (the "provided by client" list of documents an auditor asks for) became a table in which the client uploads evidence for each sample row. Its agent, CoAudit, now performs substantive testing (checking individual transactions against their supporting documents) from instructions the auditor writes, and the Excel add-in shows the reasoning and citations for every cell it fills. The company names two customer firms, Richey May and JLK Rosenberger, with case studies.

No revenue figure was found, so this story has evidence grade E. The team page lists five people, three of them co-founders, and the Y Combinator page gives a team size of 6.

## Pricing

Punchcard prices in November 2026: no prices are published (grade C)

| Plan | Per month, billed yearly (US$) | Per month, billed monthly (US$) | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Firm contract |  |  | one-year contract after a demo and trial; price not published |
| Excel add-in pilot | 0 | 0 | free pilot offered in the 4 November 2026 post |

The site sells by demo. On a podcast published in December 2025 the founder said the company uses one-year contracts and lets firms try the product first, with a training session of two and a half hours. The November 2026 Excel post offers a free pilot.

## How much revenue does Punchcard make? The numbers, graded

A Y Combinator audit-software company from 2023 with an AI agent in Excel and two named customer firms; no revenue figure was found

| Fact | Value | Grade | Note | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2023, by Daniel Alberson, as Substantive AI with the product named Agentive | C | Founder's blog post of 12 June 2026: "in 2023, I founded Substantive AI and named the product Agentive". The Y Combinator page gives 2023 as the founding year. | [6, 4] |
| Launch post | 2 November 2023 | C | Date in the page data of the company's launch post. A Y Combinator Launch for the request product followed on 10 March 2025. | [8, 5] |
| Team | 3 co-founders and 5 people on the team page; team size 6 on the Y Combinator page | C | Team page read 6 November 2026: a CEO, a CTO, a technical co-founder, a head of customer success and a customer success associate. The company is hiring engineers, designers and account executives. | [3, 4] |
| Funding | Y Combinator, Summer 2023; other investors not named | C | Y Combinator company page. The About page says the backers include venture firms, product builders and public accounting professionals. No amount is published. | [4, 2] |
| Named customers | Richey May (customer since 2024) and JLK Rosenberger (customer since 2026) | C | Company case studies. The home page also says "Trusted by RSM"; no RSM case study was found. | [10, 11, 1] |
| Firms consulted for the Excel add-in | 30+ audit and accounting firms | C | Founder's post of 4 November 2026: "Built with feedback from 30+ audit and accounting firms". This is not stated as a customer count. | [7] |
| Excel add-in usage | 3 times the usage of the web-based agent | C | Same post: the add-in launched to existing customers three months earlier, so about August 2026. No base figure is given. | [7] |
| Security | SOC 2 certified; GDPR compliance available | C | Company's home and security pages. No auditor report was read. | [1, 13] |
| Rename | Agentive became Punchcard, June 2026 | C | Blog post of 12 June 2026: the name stopped standing apart when "Every company was building an agent". | [6] |
| AI models used | not named | C | No page read names a model provider. | [1, 7, 9] |
| Time from launch post to the headline | 36 months | calc | Calculated: November 2023 to November 2026. | [8, 7] |

How to read this table: a grade C value is a statement by the company on its own site, blog or Y Combinator pages. A "calc" value was computed on this page. No row is Punchcard's revenue.

## When did Punchcard launch, and how did it grow? Timeline

From a 2023 Y Combinator company that started with audit document requests to an AI agent inside Excel in 2026. Each entry carries its grade.

- **2023** (grade C [6, 4]): Daniel Alberson founds Substantive AI and names the product Agentive; the company joins Y Combinator's Summer 2023 batch.
- **2 November 2023** (grade C [8]): Launch post: a document-request tool for audits with AI that matches files and drafts procedure results.
- **10 March 2025** (grade C [5]): Y Combinator Launch "Agentive—Audit Requests Clients Love": itemized requests, a board view and AI-drafted workpapers.
- **5 December 2025** (grade C [9]): The founder is interviewed on the Jason On Firms podcast about one-year contracts and trials before purchase.
- **12 June 2026** (grade C [6]): Agentive is renamed Punchcard, with a new domain.
- **4 November 2026** (grade C [7, 12]): Post on the Excel add-in: launched to existing customers three months earlier, usage 3 times that of the web agent, free pilots offered. The changelog shows near-daily releases.

## Why did Punchcard work?

### A founder from the profession

The founder audited at Ernst & Young and the team page describes the staff as auditors and engineers. The product follows audit terms (selections, assertions, tick marks, workpapers), which a general chat tool does not.

### Citations a reviewer can check

Every value the agent writes links to its source page, row or cell, and the Excel add-in shows the reasoning per cell. Audit standards require a reviewer to see the support, so traceable output is what makes the agent usable.

### Meet auditors in Excel

Moving the agent into Excel and Word, where workpapers already live, raised usage to 3 times that of the web agent, according to the founder's November 2026 post.

## How it was built

Only what the company's own pages and posts show. No page names the model providers.

- A web app for requests, engagement boards and workpapers, plus add-ins for Microsoft Excel and Word, according to the CoAudit page and the changelog.
- Agents run test steps from plain-language instructions, a skill file or a completed workpaper from the prior year, according to the Excel post.
- SOC 2 certification, encryption in transit and at rest, single sign-on and required multi-factor authentication for staff, according to the security page.
- A public changelog with releases on most days in early November 2026.

Sources: [13, 7, 12]

## Who tried this before Punchcard, and why did they fail?

Two companies in our database of failed startups promised to automate accounting work with software, and failed. The values below are from that database and are not independently verified.

The failed startups come from our database of dead startups, retold here in our own words; Its entries are AI-assisted summaries of public sources, so they carry no evidence grade.

### ScaleFactor (2014 to 2019; funding US$100M; cause: Product/Tech Failure)

- Promise: Automated bookkeeping and financial analytics for small and medium-sized businesses.
- Why it died: The automation did not match the marketing; the database says it relied on automation and machine learning that were not developed enough.
- Record: 

### NetBooks (2006 to 2011; funding US$33M; cause: Competition)

- Promise: An online accounting system for small business owners.
- Why it died: It could not stand out against QuickBooks and paid too much to win each customer.
- Record: 

## What changed

ScaleFactor promised automation that its software could not yet do. Punchcard does not claim to replace the accountant: its agent prepares work with citations and the auditor reviews and signs, so an error is visible before it reaches the opinion. Language models can also read contracts, invoices and memos, which earlier rule-based tools could not.

NetBooks sold to small businesses against a dominant product. Punchcard sells to audit firms and works inside Excel and alongside the firms' existing methodology tools, instead of asking them to replace those tools.

## Can one person copy Punchcard now?

**Verdict: Hard to copy alone: it needs audit expertise and enterprise security.**

The pattern is a vertical agent built by people who did the job, sold to firms that must document every step. A solo founder would need deep audit knowledge and a SOC 2 report before firms trust the product with client data.

1. Pick one audit procedure that firms repeat on every engagement, such as revenue or payroll testing.
2. Make the agent cite the source of every value, so a reviewer can check instead of redo.
3. Put the agent inside the spreadsheet the firm already uses.
4. Offer a trial and short contracts, as this founder says he does.

**What is still open.** Narrower agents for one engagement type, such as employee benefit plan audits or non-profit audits, priced for small CPA firms.

## What could go wrong for Punchcard?

- **What is not verified.** No revenue figure, customer count or funding amount for Punchcard was found. We looked for a payment-processor profile, a funding announcement, a founder interview with figures and press coverage. The traction facts are company statements: two case studies, "feedback from 30+ audit and accounting firms" and add-in usage of 3 times the web agent, with no base figure. A reader could look for a funding announcement, a TrustMRR or similar verified profile, or an interview that gives revenue or the number of paying firms.
- **Customer outcomes and a logo.** The efficiency figures ("10× efficiency on substantive testing", "~15% less client rework", 90% less review time in the 2025 launch) are the company's statements about customer results, not independent measurements. The home page and CoAudit page say "Trusted by RSM" without an RSM case study or quote.
- **Team size and funding.** The founder wrote that he founded the company, while the About and team pages name three co-founders. The team page lists 5 people and the Y Combinator page gives 6, and the company is hiring. It is funded by Y Combinator and unnamed venture firms; amounts are not published.
- **Competition and model providers.** On this site, Normain (cited answers from documents for audit, compliance and M&A teams) is the closest story; Punchcard differs by running test steps and filling workpapers inside Excel. No page read names a model provider, so its dependence on one cannot be judged; a team member's post argues that a general chat tool such as ChatGPT is not enough for financial statement review.

## Sources

1. Punchcard home page, read 6 November 2026 — https://www.punchcard.com/ (grade C). Read in full. Source for the product, the SOC 2 statement and the "Trusted by" line.
2. Punchcard: About — https://www.punchcard.com/about (grade C). Read in full. Source for the three co-founders, Provo, the company name and the investor description.
3. Punchcard: Team — https://www.punchcard.com/team (grade C). Read in full. Source for the five people listed and the hiring note.
4. Y Combinator company page: Punchcard — https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/punchcard (grade C). Read the company data in the page source (copy downloaded by the pipeline on 6 November 2026). Source for the batch, the founding year, the team size and the founder's background.
5. Y Combinator Launch, 10 March 2025: Agentive—Audit Requests Clients Love — https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/N0S-agentive-audit-requests-clients-love (grade C). Read in full. Source for the request product and the company's rework and review-time claims.
6. Punchcard blog, 12 June 2026: Why Agentive Became Punchcard (Danny Alberson) — https://blog.punchcard.com/posts/why-agentive-became-punchcard (grade C). Read in full. Source for the founding year, the founder and the rename.
7. Punchcard blog, 4 November 2026: Punchcard in Excel: Verify agent work like a formula (Danny Alberson) — https://blog.punchcard.com/posts/punchcard-in-excel (grade C). Read in full. Source for the add-in, the 30+ firms, the usage multiple and the free pilot.
8. Punchcard blog, 2 November 2023: Punchcard - Bringing Simplicity Back to Auditing — https://blog.punchcard.com/posts/launch (grade C). Read in full; date from the page data. Source for the launch date and the first product.
9. Punchcard blog: Jason Staats Podcast: Building AI for Auditors with Danny Alberson (episode published 5 December 2025) — https://blog.punchcard.com/posts/jason-staats-ai-for-auditors-podcast (grade C). Read the edited transcript in full. Source for the one-year contracts, the trial and the training session.
10. Punchcard customer story: Richey May — https://www.punchcard.com/customers/richey-may (grade C). Read in full. Source for the customer and the year it started.
11. Punchcard customer story: JLK Rosenberger — https://www.punchcard.com/customers/jlk-rosenberger (grade C). Read in full. Source for the customer and the year it started.
12. Punchcard changelog, read 6 November 2026 — https://changelog.punchcard.com/ (grade C). Read the latest entries. Source for the release pace and the Excel and Word add-ins.
13. Punchcard: CoAudit and Security pages — https://www.punchcard.com/co-audit (grade C). Read in full, with https://www.punchcard.com/is/security. Source for where the agent works and the security measures.
14. Database of failed startups, local export — /method/#dead (grade C). Local export. AI-written summaries, not independently verified. Source for the failed predecessors.

Contact: aiolum@livyden.com. Run Punchcard? Send corrections or a verified figure to aiolum@livyden.com (subject: Correction: Punchcard).