138 - Progress, Problems, Plans - F35
A brilliant two weeks. Thrilled with where we end the quarter and the momentum we carry into the next one. So excited about the team we’re building. Capital and fundraising, is the only limiting factor. I’m completely confident it is when, not if. I’d just like the when to be sooner! Here’s the latest progress, problems, plans (PPP) post. It covers progress and problems from building Mayday over the last two weeks. And plans for the coming three.
Goals For the Last Two Weeks
These were the goals set in the previous PPP post:
Be on track for Great Friday to close this funding round - may still be, but unlikely to be, met;
Set our Q2 OKRs - met.
Progress
We’ve had less trials expire in the last couple of weeks with month-end timings. But still 3 more new customers, now 25 total;
We’ve had 9 more Xero App Store reviews. Now 40 total (all 5*). Just thrilled with the quality of what people are posting about us;
We’re in great shape on the team front. Zoe is completing her 2.5 weeks working with us before her two week pre-booked trip away and subsequent full-time start on 17 April. She’s made a phenomenal start, picking things up really quickly and delivering really high quality work. Josh joins next week as our Head of Design. Initially, this is a 50% role as we don’t yet have a full design remit. We’ve been so impressed by him. Can’t wait to start working together. Our Head of Growth is all set to join in the coming months. She needs to complete a house move before she can resign. We’ve made great progress with the commercial candidate we met who didn’t fit any roles we were hiring for. Griff and I are really excited to be opportunistic and build a role so we can work together;
We’ve had another A* value add angel commit to invest. We now have £65k of investment we will close next week. This will take us to £350k of the £800k round. I’m really proud of the quality of investor we get to work with. Now to convert that quality to quantity!
The exciting product partnership is moving really well. It is at the core of our product plans for Q2 with the OKRs we worked on this week. It’s great. It is 100% aligned with where we were already planning to go. And offers an amazing opportunity to deliver a great customer experience;
Product development momentum is great. We’re putting Balancer, our third product for keeping intercompany loan accounts in balance and the final part of our suite of multi-entity functionality, live in beta next week.
Problems
As with last time, the only problem is fundraising. It’s a paradox. We’ve closed £350k from the most incredible collection of investors. I had a clarifying exchange with one earlier this week. He said: “To be honest, Mayday is one of the strangest situations I’ve seen. Normally with that type of cap table, closing shouldn’t be an issue. I’d expect you to be oversubscribed by now.” I have a good, but not great, volume of ongoing conversations. I haven’t yet been able to build the requisite urgency and volume to close out this round. I’ll continue to explore all avenues to generate more volume. The fundamentals of where we are as a business are great, and only getting better. I’m completely confident it’s when, not if. But I need to accelerate the when or it in turn will compromise our ability to accelerate in the way that we have the exciting opportunity to now.
Plans
Goals for the next three weeks (I’m away for a week for Easter):
Close the funding round;
Release Balancer in beta.
Look forward to updating in three weeks!