Survival Hacks for Startups

We love hacks and need them in our busy life. It often translates into startup world when entrepreneurs are busy and can use help to run their daily operations. More often than not, I see the entire company is being run on spreadsheet, turbo-charged ones with macro embedded along with Google sheets that capture their finances, banking, notes, AP, invoice and approval processes, pitch deck information, and even cap tables.

The upside of this phenomenon is it is simple and to an extent, economical. Everyone knows how to operate in Excel and/or Google sheet, they can run a simple model with calculations and capture and share with an extended team within the startup. Sure, why not?

The trouble is the downside of an excel-run company outweighs its upside much more. As there are multiple sheets to track of, it is hard to share and control, and there are many versions of it. Just as the company tries to keep up with the billing status, it is an endless chase of an email thread, hence multiplying the complication.

A way to address this chaotic process is to sign up for apps and there are a handful of tools/systems to choose from. Instead of chasing email threads and vendors, I implemented Bill.com to address AP process, approval, disbursements and it worked! Expensify for expense reporting and QuickBooks or NetSuite for financial reporting and invoicing, and so forth. You get the picture.

Just as hiring the right people at the right time is critical for startups, employing the right tools at the right time saves significant resources down the road and you will have the peace of mind that your financials are stored in a safe place and password protected at minimum and your company is building a scalable operations for the future and ready to tackle the next challenges.