48 - Progress, Problems, Plans - F25
When I first sat down to write this post, I was all set to summarise a very solid couple of weeks. Then I got a call that made it a spectacular two weeks. The middle of last week, I was getting restless. We were in need of a big win. That Thursday, we got one. Our first annual plan customer subscription. This Thursday morning (when I first sat down to write this post), we got another. We’ve had a commitment from an investor that can hopefully prove a gamechanger: both short term in the context of raising this initial round of funding, as well as long term with the value they bring. So excited to carry this momentum forward now. 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 (I’m away for half term).
Goals For the Last Two Weeks
These were the goals set in the previous PPP post:
Make great progress on funding. My (granted, stretch) goal is to close it by the end of October - met (on the progress, the timing is not going to happen);
We’ve set a goal of 50 active users by the end of the year - across Xerocon follow ups, outbound and partnerships, I want to have momentum building for us to achieve that goal - met.
Progress
Funding first. I’ve been in a bit of a holding pattern for the last two weeks. There was an investor I spoke to just over two weeks ago. That pitch felt like it went really well. We have prior links with that investor, as do a number of the seven investors we already have. We were exchanging emails and WhatsApp messages off the back of the pitch. They have the potential to be a gamechanger and lynchpin for the rest of the round we’re raising. For every investor in my pipeline list, I could more confidently approach them with this investor committed. So I waited. That couldn’t go on indefinitely, but with a decision apparently imminent, I felt it the right call. This Thursday morning, I got the call. They were committed. A benefit of being a second time Founder is that you are better able to recognise, and celebrate, the lollapalooza moments in real time. This was one. Griff and I are dispositionally pretty mild mannered and composed. Our Slack exchange below is a testament to the significance of this commitment. With the, now eight, fantastic investors we have committed, I’m optimistic we can leverage that in closing the rest of the round;
We were thrilled to get the annual plan commitment from one of our customers. We offer 12 months for the price of 10 if you subscribe to an annual plan. It’s a compelling cost saving….if you are confident enough in the product and team that you’ll be with them for the year. It’s a great endorsement for us;
We’re forming a couple of distinct ideal customer profiles which is great for targeting purposes in reaching our goal of 50 active users by the end of the year. We met up with Harriet from one of our users this week (photo below). We learnt so much from the discussion. It was a great reminder to make sure that we are doing this as regularly as we can;
I’m fully on top of our CRM and follow ups now, which is great. Lots of demos and new trialists coming through off the back of this. Having Grace start in November has been a great forcing factor to get the house in order;
Grace is doing a brilliant job of hitting the ground running: taking over our social media and preparing some marketing assets. She was in London and so able to join for the meeting with Harriet and took the initiative to head to an industry trade show near enough to her family home as part of getting up to speed;
We’ve got some great insights from users, including Harriet, about their needs in relation to our next product to help with the reconciliation of intercompany loan accounts. We’ll aim to scope this and put together an initial roadmap in the coming days.
Problems
No major ones. A few delays in setting up trialists where they’ve had other things come up. It’s when not if. But would always like the when to be sooner!
We’re releasing a new onboarding experience which will be great. But it’s been a big job, consequently having more bugs, which in turn has led to a longer testing period and more delayed release than we’d planned;
Our aspiration, subject to funding, is to have someone in Australia to cater to the ANZ market sooner rather than later. We met someone on our trip last month who would have been brilliant. We had a couple of great conversations about the role. Alas it doesn’t fit with their broader life plans so there isn’t the opportunity. It’s a shame, but I’ve learnt from experience that it’s folly to try and fight timing.
Plans
Goals for the next three weeks are:
Make great progress on funding. I’m not sure the end of October goal is realistic with me away for a week. But I’d hope we can build great momentum now and close it comfortably before the end of the year;
Continue to be on track for 50 active users by the end of the year. We effectively have two month ends left now in October and November for people to start using us this year;
Release BRAG (bank reconciliation across the group) to our first users, have a v1 spec for our loan account product and release our new onboarding flow.
Thanks for reading. Look forward to the next post in three weeks’ time.