Steven Bong

Age: 30

Employer: AuditFile, Inc.

Title: CEO

City/State: Walnut Creek, CA

Twitter: @AuditFile_team

Steve is a co-founder and head of development for AuditFile, which introduced the profession’s first complete, cloud-based audit automation solution. Prior to starting AuditFile in 2011, Steve used his degree in statistics from UC Berkeley as an analyst in the financial services sector – first as an analyst for Merrill Lynch, then Accenture Technology Labs, and finally as a quantitative systems engineer for a Thomson Reuters start-up.

“I planned to go into Hedge Funds and my brother was going to be an auditor. But when we started working on AuditFile, we knew we just had to see it through – to go for it while we were young and could afford to take risks. In fact, we applied to every incubator in the country and got a lot of rejections before we moved to one in South Carolina, then another in San Mateo to work on our project and make the connections we needed to get started. We’re still very grateful to those that had faith in us early on and gave us those opportunities.”

Steve is involved in UC Berkeley’s Cal Alumni Association, and though he participates in many different types of events, he finds the most rewarding the opportunity to connect with students and young alumni at the Cal Career Center. He appreciates the chance to network with and assist students as they start down their own career paths. AuditFile also provides internship opportunities for students at the local universities.

Additionally, Steve also supports Saints Peter and Paul in San Francisco and is a volunteer for its many mission projects, like St. Anthony’s soup kitchen in San Francisco.

Favorite influencer(s) (authors, bloggers, mentors, speakers, etc.)

“I’d say I’m influenced by Jason Blumer and read his ThrivealCPA blogs because his perspective is unique. He sees the profession for its possibilities and encourages accountants to think differently. In fact, he believed in what we were doing very early on and was one of our first investors. Like Jason, Rod Drury, CEO at Xero, is an innovator and also another high energy individual. He has amazing vision for how Xero is transforming bookkeeping and it served as a model of sorts for what we’re trying to do for auditing. René Lacerte, CEO at bill.com, took a great idea and executed very well, and even with all his many successes he takes the time to share his advice with those of us just starting out. And, lastly, my father Gary Bong is a great influence – we’re always challenging each other, and at the end of the day it’s pretty cool to be able to work with my dad and brother.”

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Read about the other 20 Under 40 Honorees for 2017.