S12 E25: From Processing $500B at Intuit to Building the Fraud-Proof Ledger: Eradicating Financial Misstatement with Ahikam Kaufman, Co-Founder & CEO of Safebooks AI

Code Story: Insights from Startup Tech Leaders

Noah Labhart - Startup Founder & CTO

News, Entrepreneurship, Business, Technology, Careers, Tech News

5.0 • 217 Ratings

🗓️ 30 June 2026

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ahikam Kaufman spent most of his career in the Bay Area. After becoming a CPA, he started his career as CFO at a startup company. Over time, he has been giving multiple opportunities to not only serve finance, but serve business roles as well - which prepared him for his own entrepreneurial path. IE starting 3 companies and exiting one to Intuit. Outside of tech, he enjoys traveling the world, spending time with his family, and hiking. But, he notes that the demands of being a business owner limits the amount of time he spends in these things. Ahikam started to think about how automation can positively impact financial operations, specifically around managing data in the office of the CFO. After the first AI models were released, he got excited, realizing that these models would continue to get better and better, alongside operating with agency. This is the creation story of Safebooks. Our Sponsors: * Check out Cash App and use my code CASHAPP10 for a great deal: https://click.cash.app/ui6m/mt82fpxl #CashAppPod. Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App’s bank partner(s). Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. See terms and conditions at https://cash.app/legal/us/en-us/card-agreement. Cash App Green, overdraft coverage, borrow, cash back offers and promotions provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. Visit http://cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosures. * Check out Plaud AI and use my code CODESTORY for a great deal: https://plaud.ai Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by The Built. A new podcast from the guys behind Cincera,
0:04.7	Michael Sullivan and Ian Myers. They built their company by figuring out clever solutions to a few
0:09.8	important ad tech problems in their industry. And that's exactly what this show is about.
0:15.2	Mike and Ian interview some of the smartest tech minds in the biz to hear about how they
0:19.8	identified opportunities, solve their hardest challenges, and grew their businesses in the biz to hear about how they identified opportunities, solve
0:21.6	their hardest challenges, and grew their businesses in the process.
0:25.6	Listen to The Build with Michael Sullivan, wherever you get your podcasts.
0:34.6	One of the things that stroke me, if you think about it, when I worked in finance, in a few public companies, I had a chance to walk in four public companies.
0:44.0	Finance always have the notion of clothes.
0:46.9	But for several weeks, every quarter, everyone is heads down, closing the books.
0:52.1	You can't take vacations.
0:53.8	It's almost like you're nailed to your chair,
0:56.0	so to speak, and soon in processes that basically requires you to validate the data, document what
1:02.9	you're doing, create a set of analytics, all kind of repetitive work, which AI can immensely
1:09.8	help to solve. And I just thought it could be different.
1:13.8	My name is Icom Kaufman. I'm the co-founder and CEO of SafeBooks AI.
1:20.7	This is Code Story. A podcast bringing you interviews with tech visionaries.
1:26.6	Six months moonlighting. There's nothing on the backhand. Who share what it takes to change in industry. I don't exactly know what to do next. She took many goes to get right. Who built the teams that have their back. The company is its people. The teams help each other achieve more. Most proud of our team. Keeping scalability top of mind. Yes, we've been fighting it as we grow. Total waste of time. The stories you don't read in the headlines. It's not an easy thing to achieve, my view. Took off the shelf and dusted it off and tried it again. Dry the ups and downs of the startup life. You need to really want it.
2:01.8	It's not just about technology.
2:03.2	All this and more on Code Story.
2:06.9	I'm your host, Noah Lab Partner, and today, Oh, Aikam Kaufman has built the agentic platform
2:12.9	for finance operations, turning your manual processes into agentic automation.
	...

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