We had the opportunity to interview Alice Cheng, the co-founder and CEO of TaxDrop. TaxDrop was founded in 2016 as a mobile app that connects users with a licensed CPA for tax preparation. The company currently has a live crowdfuding campaign.
Q. Can you tell us a bit about yourself and TaxDrop? When was your company first launched?
A. TaxDrop automates tax season for consumers, from gathering tax documents to filing the tax returns. Users are connected with a licensed CPA via mobile app and simply snap pics of anything such as W-2’s/1099’s. All it takes is ten minutes. Featured at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2017, the TaxDrop app is currently available for download on the Apple (AAPL) App Store. The tax industry is an $11B market with over 149M individual returns filed annually. The TaxDrop founders all have financial experience from Deloitte, Moody’s, and CPA tax/accounting experience.
I graduated from Rutgers Business School in 2015 and started my career in International Tax at Deloitte, gathering my experience in high-wealth and multinational tax planning. The roots for my individual tax experience started before I had graduated and soon I found the two professional experiences enabled me to combine my core competencies into something extremely helpful for the consumer. TaxDrop launched during tax season 2017.
Q. At what point did you realize you had a viable business model?
A. I can’t owe it to a specific moment in time, but each time speaking with consumers for feedback validated TaxDrop’s business model and made it stronger. In the early stages for TaxDrop, we had tabled at a local NYC coffee shop for an entire weekend from 7 AM through the afternoon just so we could meet and share TaxDrop with busy locals, the exact type of people we were hoping would use TaxDrop in the future. Since then, we’ve had tremendous support and fantastic encouragement to push forward to make TaxDrop a reality.
Q. Describe the features you have in TaxDrop’s app. Are you planning on implementing new features in the future?
A. TaxDrop is rolling out new features within the existing iOS app and the first user web portal to make tax filing easier than ever. TaxDrop is integrating Plaid API to make 365 days’ worth of transactions more accessible and quicker to share with the CPA. The web portal will work smoothly even for bulkier documents or excel files that clients may want to drop in. As future developments roll out, all will turn the 10 minutes it currently takes to get through tax season even faster.
