From the original item — Small Business Trends:

Starting a business often begins with excitement, but it can quickly turn into uncertainty. New entrepreneurs may have an idea, but not know what legal steps to take, how much money they need, what licenses apply, or whether the guidance they are getting is reliable.

ZenBusiness is trying to address that gap with Velo, an agentic AI advisor designed to help entrepreneurs move from idea to launch and beyond. The tool is built to guide small business owners through planning, formation, compliance, budgeting, marketing, licensing, and other early-stage business needs.

In an interview with Small Business Trends, Ross Buhrdorf, CEO and co-founder of ZenBusiness, discussed how Velo is intended to act as a kind of AI co-founder for entrepreneurs. Rather than simply answering questions, Buhrdorf said the tool can recommend next steps, provide personalized guidance, and in some cases complete tasks directly within the ZenBusiness platform.

The conversation covered why many entrepreneurs get stuck before forming a business, how AI can help reduce fear around making mistakes, and how ZenBusiness is balancing automation with human support for legal, financial, and compliance-related questions.

Buhrdorf also discussed how Velo uses ZenBusiness’ experience from more than one million business formations and millions of customer interactions to better understand what small business owners are asking, worrying about, and trying to solve.

The following is a transcript of the interview.

Leland McFarland: Hello there! I’ve got a special interview here. I have on the line Ross Buhrdorf, the CEO and co-founder of ZenBusiness, and we’re going to talk about their new app, Velo. Ross, it’s a pleasure to have you on.

Ross Buhrdorf: Well, it’s great to be on here, Leland. Thanks so much.

Leland McFarland: All right. So let’s let’s start with what is Velo?

Ross Buhrdorf: Yeah, you know, Velo is our agentic AI advisor for small businesses. So think of it as a co-founder for you in your small business. It guides you, it actually does work for you also, but it guides you on every step of the journey for a small business. So there’s an educational component where we take you through the steps, you know, you can jump in the middle of that or you can be at the beginning, but it just really guides you through everything that you need to start, run, and grow a small business.

And then we’re we’re very proud, Leland, of you know, we’ve got a super high NPS, we’ve got the highest Trustpilot scores in the industry. It’ll also kick you out to an actual human being if if Velo says, “Ah, you know, I think we need to pull a person in here to to help out with this one.” And we’re we’re very proud of that. And you know, the ultimate goal here is, of course, the AI really gives you a customized solution for your business, while at the same time, you know, we want to have it backed up by people so that our customers can trust us every step of the way.

Leland McFarland: Right. So the announcement says that many entrepreneurs get stuck because they fear making a mistake. They do not know where to start, or do not know which guidance to really trust. From your perspective, what is the biggest pain point, you know, with all that in mind, that Velo is designed to address?

Ross Buhrdorf: Well, all of it. [Laughter] All of it, really. And and that’s kind of the the point, but it’s certainly, you know, what Velo is, even even pre-formation, this this this new launch we’re coming out with next week is even pre-formation or pre-starting up an LLC. So you may just have an idea and you want to do a cost estimate, and you want to do some market research, Velo will will help you out with with all of that. And so it really is to take that, you know, when we’ve surveyed our customers, they’re worried about everything. You know, they don’t know what they don’t know. And with Velo, you can ask, you know, no no question is is too uninformed for Velo to answer.

And that and that’s based on—we’ve done over a million formations now, we’re 11 years old, and we’ve got all of that data and all of that experience is what we’ve built Velo, our our AI co-founder for the for the business, upon. So it can be, you know, I’ll tell you one of the things that happens very common, and we discovered it through Velo, is, you know, Leland, when you form a business, you give it a name. And it’s very common—when I tell you this, you’ll go, “Oh, that makes a lot of sense”—for people to go, “Oh my goodness, I want to change the name. How do I change the name?” you know, when it’s already it’s already formed. So there’s really there’s two ways you can change the name. You can, you know, you can do an amendment, you know, or, you know, to to to your documents through the state, or you can do a DBA. And unless you’re in the midst of this, a DBA is “doing business as,” which is an alias. It’s most appropriate to do a DBA in most cases, there’s some cases where it isn’t.

But Velo informs you. It gives you the the the information you need to make help you make that decision, and then while you’re in the actual interaction with Velo, it will do it for you. And it’ll show you on the screen, so it doesn’t it doesn’t pop you out, it doesn’t, you know, take you to some other part of the website. It literally does it while you’re in the conversation. Here it is, it does the the checkouts right next to all the information, so it’s very, you know, in the in the flow. And then all of that paperwork then is stored on the platform so you can go back and and see it. So it really is this truly, you know, assistant, advisor, co-founder that, you know, helps you every step of the way.

Leland McFarland: Perfect. All right, so ZenBusiness has traditionally helped people when it comes when when they’re ready to form an LLC or manage compliance. Why the move, or why move earlier into the journey when someone is still just exploring the idea of, or deciding to start, a business?

Ross Buhrdorf: Well, I think, Leland, it comes it comes back to that first question you had is, hey, when where do people get stuck? Where do they get hung up? You know, where where do they decide to take the leap? And we want to take that sting out of it or that uncertainty out of it. You know, if you do a formation in California or a formation in Texas, they aren’t cheap to do those formations that you pay to the state. Now, we can we we we do them for free for you, but you still have state fees to, you know, to pay and it’s a it’s a it’s a legal process. Everyone should do that if they’re serious. Trust me, you you should definitely do an LLC formation; it protects you and your family legally, and there’s tax advantages to it also.

But early on, maybe you just want to bounce around an idea, you know, do some research, get some information, get some some education. Well, we can do that for you and get you started on your business, because what’s most important is, you know, to take that first step and and get get get going. And so that’s why we’re, you know, earlier in the process where you’re really just, you know, doing the ideation and and and thinking about it and and get that momentum going so that, you know, you’re you’re squared away when it does make sense to do a formation like, “Hey, I’m I’m ready to go, I’m ready to make this official,” and get a bank account and do all the other please, you know, launch a website, etc.

Leland McFarland: All right. So a lot of small business owners are already experimenting with general AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude. What does Velo do differently for entrepreneurs that a general-purpose chatbot may not do?

Ross Buhrdorf: Well, we have, one, is is when you engage with Velo, Leland, we have all that context that comes along with you. You know, if you give us your email, your password, if you do a formation, we know where you live, we know what kind of a business it is, we know what products you bought. So that all of that data that comes along with you interacting with Velo is used in in in all of the interactions that you you have with Velo. In addition, so it has a context when it says, “Hey, give me a marketing plan,” and you just literally push a button, well, it pulls in all that information it already knows about you. It knows what your geography is. It can it’s like, “Hey, you’re in Oregon, these are the license and you’re in this specific town, we can do a a business license report for you so you know what licenses you you need for that jurisdiction.” It has all of that context with you and, most importantly, it’s based on over a million customer formations and millions of interactions with with, you know, with the company over the last 11 years.

We launched Velo, the the first version of it, over a year ago, Leland, and we have over 2 million interactions with our customers. And um, 60% of those interactions are high-value interactions where they actually did something—we actually did something for them. So this is the the next big piece of of Velo: it’s not just a chatbot, it actually goes out and does work for you. Like you’re asking—I use the DBA example because it’s it’s an obvious one—of, okay, yeah, I want to change the name, do it for me. It does it for you. You know, and so that’s the that’s the big difference is it’s it’s not just a chatbot, it’s far from it. It actually does the work for you in many cases. And it reminds you what’s the next step, “Here’s the next step for your business, you should be thinking about this.” And it can infer from, you know, the interactions with Velo and all the previous interactions with all the other million formations and and customers that we have of what you should be doing next. It anticipates and and advises you moving forward. A a standard model can’t do that.

Leland McFarland: So, the press release emphasized that entrepreneurs often describe where they are rather than rather they are rather than asking for specific products or services. How does Velo interpret those open-ended questions and decide what the next useful step really should be?

Ross Buhrdorf: Well, I mean, you can infer, I mean, the same way the uh uh you can infer from the context that that customer has come to you in and all the data we have around them, and then all of the other interactions that we’ve had with our, you know, these 2 million interactions that we’ve had with customers, we can infer what the next likely thing it is, and we can ask. We can say, “Hey, Leland, you know, you asked about changing the name of your company, here’s the the all the information about doing a DBA or or doing an amendment.” We can ask some clarifying questions around there from that context and then we can make a recommendation, “Hey, you should do an amendment, here’s why,” um, “or you should do a DBA, here’s why.” So I think it’s it’s that it’s uh, you know, all the data we have around all of our customers, what those those the historical interactions have been with our customers, and what’s been a a successful outcome for our customers.

And then this is all seeded in a in a educational journey we call Blueprint. And so not not only is it educational, but it’s also step-by-step how you should move your your your business forward. Now, there’s educational pieces and then there’s actually stuff you should do. “Hey, at this point, you should do a website. Hey, you should have a a marketing plan at this at this point. Uh, let’s create um, you know, you need a business bank account. Let’s create uh, you know, get you hooked up with uh uh, you know, our um, our accounting solution, or or you should file taxes, you should file your amendments, you know, your annual filings.” It creates calendars for you uh and and then those next steps you need to to take along your journey.

Leland McFarland: So, actually, now that you mentioned Blueprints, I was that was my next question. Um, so for someone that is a new entrepreneur who has no plan, uh, what all does Blueprint give you, um, specifically, uh, I guess, you know, are there like step-by-step instructions? Are there links? Are there…

Ross Buhrdorf: Yeah, it gives you step-by-step instructions, and it it creates a plan for you based on on where you are in your in your journey. If you come to us with a website, it will say, “Well, you’ve got a website,” you know, “uh, but you, you know, uh, and you have this much revenue maybe coming in. Hey, it’s time to do a formation,” you know, “so you can have the tax benefits.” Um, so that that Blueprint is not, you know, uh, you don’t have to go through it step-by-step, but it will, depending on where you are, it will create a plan for you—a blueprint for you. But but it knows um, you know, all the various steps to take a business, small business, through.

Leland McFarland: So, you talked earlier about Velo handling more than uh 2 million conversations since its launch. Uh, what patterns are seeing in what entrepreneurs are asking about, worrying about, or misunderstanding?

Ross Buhrdorf: I’ll tell you what, it’s so exciting for us, and we we, you know, use AI on the interactions to discover the patterns. And one of the things that gets us—gets us most excited, and I think you’ve you talked to Mo already, right? Have you talked to Mo? Yes. Yeah. And what, you know, uh, what gets Mo and I excited is that entrepreneurs are having real conversations—real emotional conversations. They aren’t robotic conversations. It’s like, “Hey, I’m I’m worried about this. Can you help me with um, uh, you know, uh, with the pricing, for example? I’m concerned that I’m not charging enough or I’m charging too little.” And so what what you see in the interactions is that they’re being vulnerable, as opposed to, you know, that that that it seems they’re more vulnerable with Velo and more open with Velo to ask uh questions and to get to get guidance.

So that’s one of the exciting patterns, and it’s exciting for us because, you know, we can see that people are depending on it, and we need to make darn sure we’re giving out good advice. And we spend a lot of time making sure that our answers are uh uh continue to get to get to get better with uh each each interaction. So, I would say, you know, um, you know, the the patterns, and of course, we’re trying to guide people along, which is what we should do. We shouldn’t just be sitting there and and saying, “Ask us anything.” It should be we should be guiding folks along.

So, the pattern we’re seeing is people are engaging, as you as with these 2 2 million interactions and growing, people are engaging more and more with Velo and asking it for more and more meaningful uh advice and and guidance. So, I I I would say overall a big pattern is that it’s working, and people are are embracing it and asking it, you know, um, more and more intimate questions about their business.

Leland McFarland: Do you do you think that that it’s possible that people are more willing to ask these more intimate questions, these more vulnerable questions, because it is an AI and it’s not like, “Well, I really don’t want to ask a person, an actual person, this question and get the uh, ‘Huh?’”

Ross Buhrdorf: Yes! Yes, very it’s a good insight, Leland, and the answer is yes, absolutely. I think people can be more vulnerable with the robot, and you know, and I don’t know if you’ve seen probably some of the research out there that young men are asking the robot for advice on, you know, how they should uh uh deal with their dating life. “How should I respond to this? How should I respond to to that?” because I think they don’t they don’t feel judged. And I think that’s very much the case for small business owners, you know. It’s uh it’s scary. You know, it can be it can be scary.

Leland McFarland: Yeah, definitely. So, I believe it was the the announcement um cited a survey showing that nearly 60% of entrepreneurs would turn to AI for guidance on starting or running a business. But business decisions have legal, financial, and compliance uh consequences. How do you build in enough trust for users to act on the guidance that comes from Velo?

Ross Buhrdorf: Well, I mean, I think by delivering—by delivering that, Leland, and and by, you know, having the highest Trustpilot scores, by having the ability to punch out to a human being if if you, you know, if both if Velo recognizes that it’s falling short or if the customer wants to talk to a human being, so we’re we’re available. So I think, you know, trust is is something that’s earned, and so, you know, we put a big emphasis on our ability to earn that: making the interface simple, making the the educational content approachable. Um, I think it’s all of those pieces play together in that um, you know, AI by itself, I I I think um, uh, for small businesses is significant because in in other surveys, we’ve seen that customers, their biggest concern is time. Right? I mean, that’s their biggest resource is their is their time, and so if they can get someone to help them answer the questions, uh, someone I say, an agent, Velo help them with their questions and actually do some of that work for them, then it’s it’s a it’s a it’s a it’s a big win. So I think it’s earned trust over time.

And and, you know, we do a fantastic job forming the company and keeping them compliant. That’s stuff we can’t mess up. And so we take it seriously, and we don’t mess it up. And, you know, we we have robots, you know, in the back office that do a lot of the formations through the compliance stuff, uh, but that’s after 11 years of experience of us building that all up as a trusted partner. And that’s what our brand stands for. You know, so…

Leland McFarland: Okay. So, I mean, we’re talking AI here, and one of the biggest issues that can kind of come out of AI is hallucinations. Uh, so how does ZenBusiness um and Velo reduce the risk of AI hallucinations?

Ross Buhrdorf: Well, we have uh AI sitting on the back end of all the interactions looking for in inconsistencies. We have uh staff that looks at all of the—that looks at the flagged interactions that uh may may be suspect, and then correcting those interactions uh for better better better answers. So, you know, we’re constantly uh training the the prompts. And when you, you know, put that—we have actual people looking at that, training the prompts—uh, when you do that, plus all the interactions, you know, the 2 million interactions, the million-plus formations, and the 11 years of of of experience, you know, that’s that’s where, you know, we apply all of that to make sure we give good answers. So it’s a it’s a constant monitoring uh uh process.

Leland McFarland: It’s good to know that there’s a lot of human elements within that whole chain to be able to make sure that things aren’t, you know, you’re not just like, “Well, I’m just going to hand it over to this AI, and then this AI, and…”

Ross Buhrdorf: Yeah. Yeah, and and, you know, we have experts in filings with the states. You know, I mean, these are people, that’s the way we used to do it. Those people still work here. [Laughter] And we’ve used them to, you know, train our prompts.

Leland McFarland: Right. So, the announcement says that Velo resolves about 72% of customers’ needs without human handoff, uh, while righting—while routing users to human when uh judgment, empathy, and certainty is needed. Uh, what type of situations still involve a human?

Ross Buhrdorf: Well, I mean, if if uh if the customer themselves feels uncomfortable, they can always punch out to a human. Or if uh or if Velo knows, “Hey, I can’t answer that question. I don’t have a I don’t have a a good answer,” then um it will it will ask uh to get a human involved.

Leland McFarland: Okay. How can Velo help small business owners separate real obligations from confusing or misleading notices?

Ross Buhrdorf: By asking. [Laughter] I mean, you know, I mean it can by asking. I mean, if someone—you know, and it it does happen, there’s, you know, uh, customers get spammed because these filings go into a state database, and so there are a lot—if you’ve ever done one, I mean, and I’ve done multiple ones because I use—we drink our own champagne, you know—you get, you know, you can get snail mail, you know, we you know, that that that says, “Hey, you need this, you need that,” and it’s some of much of that stuff is is spam and very misleading. So you can ask, and we see it, you know, ask Velo about these these uh spam spam uh either snail mails or emails, and it’ll give you an answer on, “Hey, that’s uh uh, you know, a come-on practice, that’s spam, you know,” uh, and as far as compliance, we’ll create compliance calendars for you. We know what uh state you’re in and what filings have to be done on an annual basis or, you know, uh, or if you even, you know, don’t have to do one on an annual basis. We’ve got all that, and we’ll create compliance calendars for you, and we’ll notify you when you need to to to do something.

And the next question you should ask is like, “Well, why do I even need to notify you if you’re so smart? You should just do it for you.” The reason is is that there in many of these states, you have to pay another state fee, and we don’t we’re not just going to bang against your credit card without notifying you.

Leland McFarland: Well, that’s very handy. And, I mean, I wouldn’t want uh I wouldn’t want my app to go rogue and just start doing stuff. So it’s very nice for it to just be, you know, that human element of, “Okay, all I have to do is go in and check that box and say, ‘Go for it,’ and then it does it.” It’s kind of reassuring.

Ross Buhrdorf: That’s right. Yeah.

Leland McFarland: All right. So, how granular can Velo get when it comes to state, city, licensing, and permit requirements?

Ross Buhrdorf: It depends. It depends on the jurisdiction. Uh, we we do think generally a—and this is, you know, you asked about trust, this is also a trust thing. If if we can’t do it in a jurisdiction, we’ll say, “Hey, listen, we’re we can’t do it.” In many cases, you literally have to walk in a piece of paper in some in some jurisdictions. So, you know, until Elon Musk creates a robot that can walk the piece of paper in for you, you know, you’re going to have to to to to do it yourself. Um, we’ll let you know.

But we but we do, we can in most places generate uh what we call a business license report, so it can say, “Hey, where you’re living, uh, you know, here are the state, here are the city licenses you need for your type of business.” And it’ll give you a a report so that you can either chase them down or, in some cases, we can actually do them for you.

Leland McFarland: Right. So, in the demo that Mo showed me, I saw that Velo can estimate uh startup costs for businesses like a food truck. Uh, are those estimates meant to be rough planning tools or should entrepreneurs treat them as close working budgets?

Ross Buhrdorf: Well, [Laughter] you know, I think uh close working budgets. I mean, you know, um, you know, and and I think it yeah, I would say as close working budgets. But would you would you necessarily—I mean, I’d put it into a spreadsheet, and I’d start. It’s a great starting point. And if you if you think about um, you know, especially if you’re starting out a a new business, it’s a better starting point than you’re going to come up with. Then, I mean, I looked at—I mean, I look at the like the marketing plans that we generate and and we get early on when we first started doing that, people would actually send us uh notes and say, “You know, where are you getting all this information?” They’d be they’d be panicked about, you know, “You’ve got too much information on me. How did you generate this report? It’s so good.” Um, you know, uh, but you know, we can tell a lot from the jurisdiction and where you’re located to generate a a good marketing plan.

So, I mean, I think the stuff is really high quality that gets generated. And um, you know, AI is, you know, doesn’t turn you into a idiot or a zombie. I mean, you still have to make discernments on, you know, uh, what to spend your money on and to modify your your budget, but it’s a great start.

Leland McFarland: So, what tools are built into Velo beyond just the chat experience? And which tools do you think are that would be the most valuable for aspiring entrepreneurs?

Ross Buhrdorf: Well, I think the Blueprint and all of the the tools that are that come along uh with the Velo—the Velo launch, and we’re we’re launching more tools every every day. So, you you brought up the the, you know, the business budget calculator, I think that’s a great a great tool. All of Blueprint and how it guides you through—I mean, that’s a foundational, fundamental tool of stepping you through the process. The the the website builder, the accounting uh tools, the which we call ZenBusiness Money, the, you know, the banking products are uh essential for a small business. Um, um, you know, we have a logo builder. I mean, everything that gets a business launched, and and of course, the formation itself, and the and uh, you know, a EIN that you need for a banking account, or if you’re going to do payroll, and our payroll partners.

I mean, all of those things fit together, and Velo is the glue that glues all of that stuff together so that, you know, you can have a truly customized, you know, business co-founder experience. So, I would say when you you to answer that question, I’d say Velo is essential to pull all of that uh together, and it continues to get better uh as we, you know, modify that those interactions as we continue to have more and more interactions with our customer base with the support of, you know, our AI Velo and constantly improving it.

Leland McFarland: All right. So, users can access Velo without an account, but if they were to sign up for a free account, it allows them to be able to save blueprints and continue across other devices. Uh, what other changes become accessible once Velo uh is able to remember a user’s business journey?

Ross Buhrdorf: Well, it’s everything you do uh, well, that is evolving. This is the first launch, so we hope that uh that they can do, you know, at the end of the day, that they can do everything, they can buy everything from us, they can use all of our free tools that we think should be offered as as free, and then they can buy the tool that they need when they need it, and when it’s appropriate for them, uh, you know, to do a value exchange with ZenBusiness. “Okay, I need a website, so that’s something you need to pay for. I need a domain, I need a email,” those are things that you have to to to, you know, pay for, accounting. Um, and then, so anything um that uh, you know, the customer needs to to to run their business, um, you know, should be available—is available to them.

And then, so anything—uh, we’ll we’ll continue, because it’s all AI-based, we continue to launch products and services as our as we discover those interactions. I mean, you we should really think about, or we think about, Velo’s been around for a year, but this launching and opening it up to non-formation customers, you know, or pre-formation customers, that’s really just the start. So, I would just say, um, stay tuned, Leland, as we discover what our customers need. We’re going to build that, and our our internal AI will tell us what the patterns are, what people want, and we’ll go off and build it.

Leland McFarland: Perfect. So, that’s what I got for you. Those are all the questions I have. Uh, why don’t you tell the audience where they could learn more about Velo, where they can download it, that sort of thing?

Ross Buhrdorf: Well, they can just come to uh zenbusiness.com, and Velo is on all the services. We have a mobile app that is fantastic, uh, the the only one in the industry that has a native mobile app that you can interact with Velo. So, Velo’s on all the surfaces of the the company and use. So, just zenbusiness.com, uh you can download the mobile app if you want to have the mobile experience, and and of course, the desktop app. And what’s great about our Velo, it runs across both of them and it keeps you in context, so you can move from one to the other uh regardless of where you’re at.

Leland McFarland: All right. Sounds good. Well, thank you so much for your time. Uh, appreciate you coming on.

Ross Buhrdorf: Thanks so much for having me.

For small business owners, the broader takeaway is that AI tools are moving beyond general advice and into more specialized, task-oriented support. In ZenBusiness’ case, Velo is being positioned not just as a chatbot, but as a guided business assistant that can help entrepreneurs understand what to do next and take action inside the same platform.

That could be especially useful for aspiring business owners who are still in the early idea stage. Questions about startup costs, business names, licensing, compliance, websites, banking, taxes, and marketing can be intimidating when someone is trying to launch for the first time. Buhrdorf’s argument is that AI can lower that barrier by giving entrepreneurs a place to ask questions without fear of judgment and receive guidance based on where they are in the business journey.

At the same time, the interview highlights an important point for small business owners evaluating AI tools: trust still matters. Business formation, compliance, licenses, and financial decisions can have real consequences. ZenBusiness says Velo is supported by human review, compliance expertise, and the ability to route users to a person when additional judgment or certainty is needed.

As AI becomes more common in small business software, entrepreneurs will likely see more tools that combine education, automation, and personalized recommendations. The value for business owners will depend on how well those tools can provide useful guidance while keeping accuracy, transparency, and human support in place.

For entrepreneurs who are unsure where to begin, Velo represents one example of how AI may help turn a business idea into a more structured plan of action.

This article, “Interview with Ross Buhrdorf, CEO and co-founder of ZenBusiness” was first published on Small Business Trends

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