Alex Victoria, CTO at ZenBusiness – Interview Series

Alex Victoria has been the CTO at ZenBusiness since September 2018. As Chief Technology Officer, Alex oversees Engineering, Data, Business Systems, IT, and Security. His passion for creating user-loved software drives his approach to building teams focused on simplicity, product mindedness, quick paths to customer value, and a learning-oriented mindset.

He believes that innovation in organizations stems from eliminating fear and embracing action, viewing every step not as a failure but as feedback.

ZenBusiness is an online platform designed to help entrepreneurs start and manage small businesses by streamlining formation and ongoing administrative tasks. It guides users through setting up entities like an LLC or corporation, supports key steps like securing an EIN and handling required filings, and offers add-on services such as registered agent coverage and compliance support to help businesses stay in good standing. Beyond formation, ZenBusiness also provides tools that can help with things like building an online presence and organizing business operations, aiming to reduce the paperwork burden so founders can focus on running the business.

You’ve spent two decades scaling engineering organizations at companies like HomeAway and Civitas Learning before taking on the CTO role at ZenBusiness. How did those experiences shape the way you now build technology for new founders?

I spent a decade at HomeAway, where we merged more than 28 acquisitions into one platform, work that eventually led to an IPO and later a $4 billion acquisition by Expedia. At Civitas Learning, I saw how even sophisticated products struggle when market fit needs change over time.  Those experiences boiled down to two things: don’t over-engineer for problems you don’t have yet, and build technology that fades into the background so the user can focus on what matters.

At ZenBusiness, we’re applying that for everyday entrepreneurs who want simplicity. Most of our customers don’t have technical backgrounds and can’t afford friction when they’re forming an LLC or managing compliance. So we focus on the real problems they’re facing right now, deliver value quickly, and learn as we go instead of chasing perfection.

Your mentorship work at Capital Factory and TechStars gave you exposure to many early-stage teams. How has that shaped the way you design tools like Velo for first-time founders?

My time mentoring at Capital Factory and Tech Stars gave me exposure to what I see every day now with ZenBusiness customers: first-time founders are juggling an overwhelming number of decisions, and administrative tasks like compliance create unnecessary headaches. They want to build their product and find customers, not get stuck in back-office work.

That’s why we built Velo. It’s not just a chatbot that waits for questions. It’s an agent that takes on tasks proactively. In the first few weeks, it can form your business, handle filings, generate documents, manage compliance tasks, and track deadlines automatically. And because it’s learning from the experiences of over 100,000 founders across the platform, it’s continuously getting smarter about the patterns that trip people up, especially those who are starting their first company.

Velo acts as an AI co-founder that manages filings, licenses, compliance and operational tasks. Can you walk us through what a typical new founder can accomplish with Velo in their first few weeks?

From day one, Velo handles the basics like LLC formation, registered agent setup, and EIN filing, which is all work that used to take multiple service providers and hours of research. Instead of navigating complex government websites or filing requirements, founders get all the legal infrastructure in one place. We’ve already seen users complete these key milestones 30-40% faster with Velo than traditional methods.

Velo also manages ongoing tasks founders often miss, like compliance deadlines, annual reports, or licensing requirements. That way, they don’t have to worry about forgetting something critical. They can stay focused on their customers while Velo handles the background work.

Velo is built around a “do-it-for-you” philosophy rather than traditional “do-it-yourself” software. How does this shift change who can realistically start a business today?

Traditionally, entrepreneurship favored people with money, legal knowledge, or the right connections. For everyone else, the question of “where do I begin?” became the roadblock that stopped them from starting their business. DIY software assumes you have the time to research and learn new systems, which works if you have that background, but it’s a massive hurdle for people who just have a solid idea and want to get moving.

Velo removes that friction. It’s not just a tool; it’s more of a business partner or co-founder who can work alongside you. This doesn’t just make starting a company easier; it makes it possible for anyone, regardless of age, background, or resources, to turn their dreams into a real business. That opens the door to a much broader, more diverse group of entrepreneurs who might not have seen a path forward before.

As you build automation into complex areas like compliance and business formation, how do you decide when AI handles the task entirely and when human oversight is required?

We look at automation the same way we look at product development: start simple, prove it works, and bring in human support where it genuinely improves the experience. For repetitive tasks like formation filings or EIN applications, AI is a great fit. Velo’s trained on hundreds of thousands of customer interactions and business records, so it can execute those processes quickly and reliably.

But when things become ambiguous or unique, Velo stops and routes the customer to a human expert. AI shouldn’t fake confidence, especially when legal details are on the line. The goal isn’t full automation; it’s giving founders their time back while keeping them safe and building trust.

ZenBusiness supports everything from formation to banking, bookkeeping and website presence. How do you decide which parts of the founder journey should be automated, augmented, or left fully manual?

We start by looking at where founders feel the most friction. Tasks that are highly repetitive, or have clear rules like filings, compliance reminders, or bookkeeping categorization, are ideal for automation because AI can remove hours of work and reduce risk.

For decisions where context matters, we focus on augmentation instead of full automation. Velo can walk founders through requirements, explain options in simple language, and point them to the right next step, but the founder still makes the final decision. That keeps the process fast, while bringing the founder along for every step.

ZenBusiness emphasizes transparency, small highly focused teams, and fast paths to customer value. How do these principles influence how your engineering and product organizations operate?

In the world of agentic software and tools, the biggest bottleneck for a business like ours isn’t infrastructure or lack of funding, it’s too many layers of people, processes, and tools. When we built Velo, a product manager and three engineers built what would traditionally take 20+ people across multiple teams. Keeping teams small and highly-focused allows us to move fast and stay accountable.

We also decided to build Velo in public, sharing our progress and learnings openly on our blog. That transparency keeps us honest and shows customers exactly how we think about the product. We release in small pieces, observe how people use the product, and iterate quickly based on real behavior.

AI is now lowering the barrier for people who previously felt entrepreneurship was out of reach. What trends are you seeing in the types of founders emerging on the platform?

We’re seeing more people turn skills or side gigs into real businesses, across everything from consulting and creative work to service providers and online sellers. AI is speeding up the move from idea to execution, and opening the door to folks who might never have taken the first step.

We’re watching that shift firsthand: 32% of ZenBusiness customers are already using Velo, and they come back about twice a month, most often for help with compliance, tax implications, or building a website. During the government shutdown, questions spiked around how it would impact forming a business or getting an EIN.

Velo guides entrepreneurs through these tasks, as well as filings, licenses, trademarks, and setup tasks, so they don’t need a big budget or a full team, just the willingness to start. In an unpredictable economy, people want autonomy and flexible income, and AI is helping them act on that instead of getting stuck in paperwork.

What risks do you see when building an AI-powered platform in a domain where trust, accuracy and regulatory correctness are critical?

One of the biggest risks is AI overpromising what it can do. In business formation and compliance, mistakes can be costly. So the real danger is relying on a system that sounds confident even when it shouldn’t be.

That’s why we built Velo to know its limits. When something’s straightforward and repetitive, Velo handles it. But when things get ambiguous or unusual, it stops and brings in a human expert instead of guessing. Behind the scenes, we have layers of guardrails, validation checkpoints, and testing to catch issues before they reach our users. That’s our responsibility, not our customers.

Looking ahead over the next five years, how do you see AI changing the relationship between founders and the operational work required to run a business?

We’re going to see many more people become entrepreneurs as they look for financial independence, flexibility, and purpose. Business applications are up 67% since 2019, but survival rates remain low because first-time founders lack timely, accurate information. AI tools like Velo are helping close that gap.

The biggest impact won’t just be efficiency; it will be access. People who never thought they could start a business now can. In five years, I believe millions more Americans will be working for themselves, building local businesses, putting money back into their communities, and shaping their own futures because technology finally makes it possible.

Thank you for the great interview, readers who wish to learn more should visit ZenBusiness.