Billflo is an app to create, manage and email invoices. My attention was drawn to Billflo by their CEO who commented on one of my posts. I’m looking forward to meeting up with them in San Francisco next week, and discussing their plans for the business.
Outside of that they actually do, I was interested to read a post on their blog where they give some observations at the end of 42 days in operation as a start-up. It’s an interesting post – their main points are;
1. Customers are great…but tough
2. We need to sleep!
3. Innovation is not everything
4. Enjoy the ride
Check out the full post and I’ll report back some more on Billflo after I meet them.
Ben Kepes is an analyst, an entrepreneur, a commentator and a business adviser. His business interests include a diverse range of industries from manufacturing to property to technology. As a technology commentator he has a broad presence both in the traditional media and extensively online. Ben covers the convergance of technology, mobile, ubiquity and agility, all enabled by the Cloud. His areas of interest extend to enterprise software, software integration, financial/accounting software, platforms and infrastructure as well as articulating technology simply for everyday users. 
Just posted this on Billflo’s blog…
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Hi Ian,
Good job on the points… Here’s some thoughts from my view, 4 years into a SaaS, web based project management software company.
1. Customers are great…but tough
- They always are and always will be – and guess what! They’ll also contradict each other. So you have to make sure you don’t become a ‘Yes’ man, but at that same time make sure they know they are heard. You will never make them all happy, all you can do is to try to recognize the best ROI suggestions to add…
2. We need to sleep!
You’re in the wrong business then. I’m still answering calls and emails through the night, even though we have staff… SaaS + 24/7 = No sleep. The best time to relax is actually the middle of the day.
3. Innovation is not everything
Agreed, but ‘Implementation’ is everything. I’ve seen some great ideas come and go, and to be honest, it’s usually the implementation that kills them. Even the ugliest solutions will sell if implemented well. But a good idea poorly implemented equals declining credability.
4. Enjoy the ride
You don’t have to neccesarily ‘Enjoy the ride’, rather understand that it ‘is a ride’. Fast, slow, ups, downs etc… it is definately a ride, so you need to hang in and hold on.
Enjoyment helps, but there will be times when you don’t enjoy it, so you need to persevere through these times…
“Success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration”
Julian Stone, CEO
http://www.proworkflow.com