Finadeck's story
Idea formation – agile financial management software
Starting in August 2013, the relationship with Excel began to deepen, for better or for worse, which eventually led to the emergence of Finadeck's story. The financial management software that was on the market to integrate with accounting software was difficult to use, rigid and expensive to deploy, which led to the majority of reporting and forecasting being made in Excel. In Excel, updating data, planning the balance sheet and allocating the desired rights to those responsible for profit and loss were particularly problematic if the company happened to have more than one cost location. The number was also the clusters of companies and groups whose Excels became quite large.
You can make a profit budget in itself, even on screen paper, but when you start planning your balance sheet, considering which the company can generate a cash forecast, the grid screen boxes are often low. In summary, even though Excel, with its macros and formulas, is an infinitely good tool for processing data, it is neither the most optimal nor the most dynamic tool for financial management for an SME.
The idea of kett steel and dynamic financial management software began to form in Excel in the context of deepening. At the time, I worked at Trust Kapital Group (now Ropo Capital)where I provided accounting and financial management services to SMEs and got to know more about the software on the market.
Refine your idea
When the accounting firm, which was well under way in Finland, moved away from the Group in connection with the acquisition, I moved to financing SMEs myself at OP Corporate Bank. In connection with the financing negotiations, I noticed that the lack of financial forecasts and reporting for SMEs is also reflected in financiers when companies apply for funding. The fragmentation of the data and the large manual so-called 'fragmentation' of the data. Empowered by the "unnecessary" workload, I decided to start compiling a data model in Excel in the evenings and weekends, where the back-track data on the history of profit and balance sheet, accounting intervals, the profit and loss budget, and the investment plans on the balance sheet side and the planned sources of financing were all combined in a linearly logical model dynamically. The first page of Finadeck's story began to take shape.
The financial management software outlined in Excel created all the charts and graphs for the key figures, as well as the cash flow calculation, but the problem began to be that it took more than half an hour to open Excel itself, and it took more than half an hour to open Excel itself. However, the model had been made and feedback on its functionality was sought from entrepreneurs, accounting firms and accountants who became familiar with it along the way. In fact, we sat several evenings with my accountant, Mika Järvinen, to finalize the data model in Excel before the final decision to establish Finadeck.
Team formation
The idea of incorporating agile and easy-to-use financial management software for SMEs into its current form was refined in those less than three years of business bank work moment forward. However, there was no coding expertise on its own back, which caused the equation to lack one very relevant element in addition to funding. From the outset, it was clear that, when the software served as a stable foundation for the company, the company will need its own development team.
In connection with extensive intelligence activities, I also asked our crossfit hall if the owners of the hall knew any skilled coder. Coincidentally, they linked myself together with one highly qualified big data side coder. At the time, Jari Kemi was still in charge of big data and IT's infrastructure side in China's largest dating application company, which is comparable to Tinder. Despite his strong interest, Jar did not have time to start building the software himself at the time, but he agreed to support developers in the choice of software language and technology, among other things, after the right authors were found.
The search continued and finally I met our already familiar ly skilled coded olli tiihosen, who was responsible for the frontend, at the anniversary celebrations of the economists. Olli had just returned from the United States, where he had been testing the market for startups Caktus Inc. and had moved to Finland to develop insurance brokerage software. After the idea was presented, we agreed on the coffee for the next week, when Olli and I were able to shake hands to build the software. Shortly thereafter, mika, jar and olli and I shook hands with the start of the company and the hard work of programming the data model into software was started in April 2018.
(Pictured from left to right Jari Kemi, Olli Tiihonen, Saku Pöllänen and Mika Järvinen)
Team grinding
We knew that we'd soon need more hands to build the software, and we had dreamed of hiring a backend coder for the company. I had personally heard from my future wife who worked in Luxembourg that she had met his youth friend Thomas Tirrose. Tuomas worked for a European banking application company at the time and, according to my enquiries, was a particularly capable backend coder.
In the summer of 2018, however, the money was tight and recruiting a backend coder from Luxembourg before the funding round was not the strongest idea in mind at the time. One summer Thursday, our mathematician Aleksi Ranta-Pere and I ended up in kalle nightclub in Helsinki by chance, where, when we exchanged news with friends, we also ended up shaking hands with an entourage at the same table. By chance, we noticed that we were sitting at the same table as Tuomas Tirrose. With the same Tuomas Tirrose, who my spouse had recommended to us from Luxembourg. A new chapter in Finadeck's story was ready to be born.
After a pleasant evening, we agreed lunch for the next week, as a result of which Tuomas, who has proved to be worthy of praise, is now responsible for the development of Finadeck as development director. The prototype of Finadeck's first version was built without counting working hours with two coders in less than six months. In connection with the acquisition of then pilot customers, finadeck's seed funding round was also completed, which also helped us to hire our qualified designer and developer Lasse Jokinen to Finadepi from the start.
Good luck, successes and the right timing – the story goes on
These more than four years in Finadeck's tarin have gone quickly and have certainly been one of the most educational years in a certain way. It is a pleasure to see that Finadeck is already helping more than 500 SMEs in financial management and reporting. Thank you partners, customers and partners for welcoming us and our software solutions well.
Thank you also for all the feedback we have used to build the software in the direction you want. I can honestly say I'm also proud of the Finadeck team. We have managed to implement the development ideas from partners and customers in a scalable way, which has made financial management software easy to use despite its expanding features. We have also reached our goal of introducing a maximum of fifteen minutes. The journey is just beginning and we want to build even better cooperation with you in the future and to make even more dynamic and easy-to-use financial management tools.
Wishing you a sunny spring,
Saku Pöllänen
CEO
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