First Sound Bank

Susan and I tend to be very methodical about making decisions. Excel gets used a lot. A LOT. For analyzing everything from what bags the lollipops would be packed in to which food websites will get samples to which blogging software met our needs. So when it was time to pick out a bank, of course we created a spreadsheet. We plotted and compared the major banks, talked about what our needs were and prepared to make a decision.

Then Susan went to a conference called Small and Special; we were both completely inspired by it (and we'll be posting more about that eventually). One of its sponsors was a local Seattle bank called First Sound. I added them to the spreadsheet and took a quick look at their terms and the decision took almost no time at all: their rates were competitive and we wanted to support another small business.

It turned out to be one of the best decisions we've made. We've both had nothing but good experiences with them. The employees of First Sound are warm, sincere, and encouraging in a way that I've never been treated by a banker before - nice but distant is about the best I've gotten in the past. I had to call to ask them a question, and the receptionist who answered the phone was able to quickly answer it; they were patient with us when we were moving slowly because this is our first business and we've never done this before. When I used the wrong account number on a deposit, they gave us a call just to make sure we knew what the right one was.

I'll stop gushing now, but I'd recommend First Sound to anyone.