Adding a +1 for building your first models by hand, before using something "on rails". Perhaps until say $5M ARR for B2B SaaS.
My experience was that I have a much better command of the important levers in my business -- and can more easily scenario plan -- with a robust model that I built myself. Much easier to derive key metrics out of it too. And once you have a starting point, it's easy to iterate and expand it as the business grows.
My limited experience with the "financial model as a service" apps are that they make a bunch of assumptions for you and make it a lot harder to ad hoc plan. i.e. What if we delayed our hiring round of 5 headcount 2 months? What's the impact on ending cash balance? What's the impact if I move part of my ARR pricing into an up-front setup cost? What if we offer quarterly payments instead of annual pre-paid, and 30% of our clients opt for that (where does that leave cash)? etc. These are things that you could do in Excel in about 10 minutes with even a basic model, but would be challenging to do in another person's app.
IMO an early-stage SaaS startup's initial model should be focused on ARR/cash burn, looked at Monthly, with true planning cycles quarterly or maybe every 6-months if progress is more or less on plan.
I don't think I was asked in a single board meeting until $4M ARR or so about Revenue. ARR and cash are king.
My experience was that I have a much better command of the important levers in my business -- and can more easily scenario plan -- with a robust model that I built myself. Much easier to derive key metrics out of it too. And once you have a starting point, it's easy to iterate and expand it as the business grows.
My limited experience with the "financial model as a service" apps are that they make a bunch of assumptions for you and make it a lot harder to ad hoc plan. i.e. What if we delayed our hiring round of 5 headcount 2 months? What's the impact on ending cash balance? What's the impact if I move part of my ARR pricing into an up-front setup cost? What if we offer quarterly payments instead of annual pre-paid, and 30% of our clients opt for that (where does that leave cash)? etc. These are things that you could do in Excel in about 10 minutes with even a basic model, but would be challenging to do in another person's app.
IMO an early-stage SaaS startup's initial model should be focused on ARR/cash burn, looked at Monthly, with true planning cycles quarterly or maybe every 6-months if progress is more or less on plan.
I don't think I was asked in a single board meeting until $4M ARR or so about Revenue. ARR and cash are king.