Meet the People & Vision Behind Tellen
Driven by experience, united by a mission to revolutionize the accounting industry with AI.
Meet Our Leadership
Deepak Lalit
Co-founder & CEO
Deepak combines deep audit expertise from EY with CFO experience at PE-backed fintechs. He founded Tellen to solve the inefficiencies he witnessed firsthand, empowering auditors with AI.
Jason Jones
Co-founder & Head of Growth
Jason excels at scaling tech solutions for professional services. He's dedicated to helping audit firms leverage Tellen's AI to boost capabilities and client value.
Paul Gerlich
Head of Engineering
Paul has spent his career building audit and AI solutions at Workiva and AuditBoard. With a Master's in CS focused on AI/ML, he now leads Tellen's engineering, turning our ambitious vision into a powerful, secure platform.
Our Collective Experience
Our team and advisors bring a wealth of expertise from world-class financial institutions and tech companies, shaping Tellen's innovative approach.
The Tellen Story
Our Beginning
Tellen was born from direct experience. Co-founder & CEO Deepak Lalit, a veteran of EY and fintech CFO roles, knew the daily grind of audit. Co-founder Jason Jones knew how to scale tech for professionals. They united to build Tellen: a secure, intelligent AI workforce to finally solve audit's core inefficiencies and empower the profession.
Our Mission
To supercharge accounting teams with a network of highly specialized autonomous agents trained in accounting.
Our Vision
A future where every accounting firm leverages knowledge and skills from trained AI Agents that grow with their firm.
Our Journey: Building Tellen
Founded
Tellen launches after 100+ customer interviews and secures $500K in initial funding from Array Ventures.
Platform MVP Launch
The Tellen AI Platform goes live with its first working product.
Pre-Seed Funding
Raises $2M from Blumberg Capital to scale platform development and deployment.
First Paid Partner
Signs first paid design partner, validating the platform and its applications.
SOC 2 Type II Certified
Achieves full SOC 2 Type II compliance, demonstrating enterprise-grade security.
First Top-20 Firm Partnership
Signs first top-20 accounting firm as a design partner.
Expanding Partnerships
Adds a second top-20 firm and reaches seven total design partners.
Team Growth
Brings on key leadership from AuditBoard and Wolters Kluwer; expands AI engineering team.
Seed Round Fundraising
Begins raising seed round with full product nearing production and strong design partner traction.
Ready to Transform Your Firm?
See how Tellen's AI Agent Workforce can empower your team, boost efficiency, and unlock new growth opportunities.