There isn’t a single business owner or individual who hasn’t felt the friction created around the tax preparation process.  Even accounting and tax professional get a bit of a headache when thinking about managing tax data.  Today, I sit with Matt Parker of Modern Tax, who is on a mission to automate many of that data intensive processes around tax planning and preparation.   Matt is a former Division 1 basketball player who discovered a passion for entrepreneurship given his knack for creativity and high-performance personality.  He shares with us his journey – from stumbling through corporate America to finding his footing as a tech founder.   Founder Bio: Matt Park is the founder and CEO of Modern Tax, a startup building a suite of API and no-code solutions that provide a better way to engage with tax data for financial institutions and FinTech platforms. Each product allows businesses to verify income, report and confirm income with the IRS, automate tax service switching and form population, verify identity, and decrease fraudulent income reporting.   Most recently, Matt is running ModernTax, in which he has raised over $3M in venture capital to date. He lives in San Francisco with his wife Whitney and his newborn son Cain.   2:55 How basketball shaped Matt’s early days and his future as an entrepreneur 7:39 How Matt chose his next career path post hoop dreams 9:58 Launching his first entrepreneurial endeavor empowering athletes 13:08 Origins of Modern Tax 15:40 What is Modern Tax and what is the core problem it’s solving? 19:00 Why tax automation software and tax experts work better together 23:15 The value of finding a co-founder with a complimentary skillset 25:36 Building an engineering organization and finding the right talent 28:28 The importance of resilience in a startups workforce 30:31  Approaching Series A | Matt’s thoughts on fundraising 35:24 What is the best type of investor for Modern Tax?