Whether you’re a start-up or scaling up, a B2B founder has to handle the company accounts a little differently to the average business-owner. Because the landscape of the business is always changing, meticulous planning and strategy are important at all times. Whether it’s in the early pre-seed days, seed phase or you’re series A, there’s very little “rest on your laurels” when it comes to the finances.
As a B2B tech business-owner, you almost certainly fall into one of the following three camps.
You’re either:
- Forecasting, modeling and marketing your business to investors
- Monitoring spending and sales traction, while building your product
- Scaling up your business
One thing remains the same at each stage; there will be stakeholders watching the growth of your company at every point. Your business is constantly evolving and that’s why a traditional accountant just won’t cut it; you need a specialist for your B2B tech business. Someone capable and experienced in your industry, advising you at every step so you can graduate onwards, realising your specific vision.
The right accountant can change the course of your B2B business.
An experienced B2B accountant will know how to raise finance, scale up and manage investments. An excellent one will have the next stage of your business in mind at all times. Both need to be exemplary bookkeepers with a skill for making every penny work. Depending on the stage of your business, you can always bring in the ‘right’ firm. Here’s how hiring the right accountant can hugely improve the chance of your business’s success.
The pre-seed phase
The early days are a time of great uncertainty. Plot your course with the right accountant from the beginning.
A lot of B2B business-owners receive offers for a period of free accounting in the pre-seed phase. Bear in mind, when it’s free, very little focus will be on the specifics of your business model and its future. If you don’t have the right finance team behind you, opportunities will be missed and when investment is how you get started, you can’t afford to miss out on anything. Additionally, if you don’t have the right numbers, an investor might see your potential but lowball their offer.
Thrive can help you get off the ground and build investor potential. We’ll give you advice based on experience and will maximise opportunities as you work towards raising funds. We will make sure your business model is scalable which means you’ll be able to take your idea to the seed funding round. Best of all, when you secure investment, you’re equipped to execute your vision as you intended from the start because we were with you at the beginning. You can find out more on how Thrive works with you in the pre-see phase here.
The seed phase
You’ve secured your funding. Now it’s time to secure your business’s future.
We know securing funding can be an incredible feeling. We also know it can be unsettling too. You have your seed investment and a (probably) limited amount of money in which to achieve a lot. You’re moving to a new phase of product development, seeking market feedback and ultimately selling the product.
Thrive can help prove you have achieved a market fit product through sales traction, meaning you’re more likely to raise a series A or go revenue-funded. We can monitor the data and help prove these aspects of your business. Most valuably, you can invest your time in sales and development rather than worrying about handling the finances. You can find out more on how Thrive works with you in the seed phase here.
Series A
You’re doing great, you’ve proved a lot, but there’s a big demand on you as founder.
You’ve convinced the right people you have something worth backing with their money. You’re successfully generating revenue and retaining customers. You’re showing all the signs you can scale it further to a point of profitability.
Thrive will focus your attention on scalability. You need to prove what you have is scalable, and any time your focus is elsewhere, you’re lessening your chance of being able to do that. We know how to help you scale up. You can find out more on how Thrive works with series A businesses here.
Ideally you’re armed with the right accountant before you achieve funding. But, ultimately, the right financial team will hugely improve the performance and trajectory of your business at any given entry point. Whatever stage your business is at, Thrive’s team has extensive experience at each stage of a B2B business’s life cycle.
Where does my tech business fit in with Thrive?
We’re a techy bunch of finance experts really into B2B businesses and we know your business idea deserves the best chance of succeeding. At Thrive, we live for this stuff and we have a hunch you do too.
Get in touch here, if you want to see how a partnership with Thrive could benefit your tech business.