Taylor Swift, Data, & Startups ✌️

This is your monthly dose of Full Send.

Greetings 👋. It's our May edition of No Half Sends. We’ve had Taylor Swift on repeat while we work, and WE’VE BEEN WORKING. In April, we hosted a great Colorado startup event, participated in industry-fueling advisory councils, and spent Earth Day cleaning up our local open spaces. We’re making moves.

To frame our update: we help growth companies elevate their financial data through tech-forward accounting and finance services.

A client last week said: “Whoa, this is great.” Simple, yet effective feedback.

Let’s Dive In 👇.

💥 TL;DR

1. Why Data Strategy Should be in Every Layer of Your Operations
2. Taylor Swift and The Tortured Accounting Department
3. Become an Irresistible Founder
4. Colorado Homegrown IPO
5. We Absolutely Sent it in April

☝️ Humans drive strategy, data drives decisions.

Happy National Small Business Week! In this ‘Land of Opportunity,’ small businesses make up 99% of all US businesses - yet only half of new startups survive their first year. As we celebrate the resilience and innovation of small businesses, it's crucial to recognize the power of data in driving growth and scalability - to get you past that first year & beyond.

At Full Send, we use data as part of our financial engine to serve businesses; things like showcasing financial health, automating journal entries, and providing data-driven forecasts. With the right technology, innovative mindsets, and streamlined processes, your business becomes more efficient, precise, and visionary. After all, isn't that what CFOs daydream about?

But this impacts much more than just the financials…

What about beyond the office of the CFO? McKinsey’s study reveals that ‘breakaway’ companies invest in embedded analytics across every layer of their operations - the silver thread of all aspects of your business. This is known as your "digital twin,” a way to represent your business in a digital manner so you can convert it to insights, then to actionable decisions.

Here are a few examples we like:

• Inventory Planning: Imagine having 1,000 bags of light roast coffee in your inventory. Online, 700 people have viewed this product, and 170 have placed it in their cart. Oh, and you’re about to bring on a new grocery chain. Utilize your data across various sales channels and incorporate seasonal trends & recurring purchase behaviors to craft a comprehensive sales forecast. This will help you determine when to replenish in order to balance your overhead while still meeting customer demand!
• Data-Driven Growth: Imagine providing a range of subscription products, and you've recently achieved profitability. Utilizing your data, you can assess profit margins, monitor adoption rates, and forecast the growth path for each individual product. This analysis aids in pricing strategies and determining areas for ongoing investment as your business expands!

We are fully committed to the vision of “Elevating your data to be more, do more and push your limits.” We want data-driven intelligence to be made available to all, regardless of organizational size or expertise. Our goal is to foster data-driven mindsets to improve outcomes. Stay tuned for more exciting news as we continue to push the boundaries of what Full Send can offer.

👌 Taylor Swift & Accounting

Channel your inner Swiftie for this one. In the first week of Taylor’s “The Tortured Poets Department” album, she sold 2.61M album and streaming units, 859k vinyl sales, and 891M official streams. To top it off, she also released a surprise double album with 15 more songs. Absolutely dominating the airwaves.

The tailwinds of the recent album drop has made its way into the accounting realm - of course. Don’t become a tortured accounting department 🤣.

Us accountants can learn A TON from megastars like Taylor Swift.

• Target Market Understanding - The Swift team has mastered the use of product marketing and delivery to her fans. Notice how she sold over 800k in vinyl records? Nope, it’s not 1977 anymore, but her team recognized a consumer shift in the market towards physical products and the consumption of music through vinyls.
• Innovation - Sure, Taylor Swift started as a little country singer out of Nashville. She’s now headlining across a variety of genre’s and with some of the world’s biggest stars in Country, Pop, and Hip-Hop. She’s breaking the mold of what people expect of her. Leaning into accounting technology, AI, and forward-thinking services can help improve client outcomes and drive industry excellence with every small step that you take.
• Building a Brand - Ok, maybe not a Taylor Swift size brand, but we all see the kids wearing friendship bracelets around and feel like they are part of a community. Brand building is incredibly challenging in the accounting space as most accountants are so heads down doing tax returns that they forget about their clients’ brand experience with their firms. Build a high quality brand for your target audience and create an environment that propels them to wear your friendship bracelets and participate in your community

Give us feedback on what’s working, what could use improvement, and how we can better serve our clients, community, and industry - howdy@fullsendfinance.com.

🚀 Need to know: Startups

> Accounting Tech made Crunchbase! There are many familiar names on the fundraise list for our industry, but still so far to go for many of them. While we are pro-AI in controlled and secure environments, many of the AI-driven accounting startups quickly claim to have ‘automated’ accounting. Be wary. We’ll be the first to hop on the train when there is a sufficient tool that meets our standards of operation. Until then, we’ll continue to stay close to the movements in our industry. (Over $450M funding to accounting-related categories)

> The Goldrush (and Graveyard) of AI startups. We’re all familiar with OpenAI, Claude, Gemini…but have you heard of Character AI, Magic AI, or Inflection AI? They’ve all raised $100M+ rounds and in Inflection’s case, $1.5B. The funding rush, paired with a lag in product adoption, has resulted in skewed economics for generative AI startups. (VC’s are predicting…future revenue)

> Become an Irresistible Founder. “When an investor passes on you, they will not tell you the real reason.” Mic drop. Learn from Tom Blomfield, group partner at Y Combinator shares why investor feedback can be misleading and how to do due diligence on investors. (Y Combinator Partner speaks out)

Are you fundraising/hiring? Know someone who is? We want to feature those in our network who are seeking capital, connections, or resources. Reach out to us at howdy@fullsendfinance.com for more information!

🏗️ Colorado Startups: Our Backyard

> We’ve got another IPO in our backyard. Founded in 2011, Ibotta has established countless partnerships with grocers and other retailers to put money back in the pockets of consumers. Their IPO opens up another $577M of fresh capital to continue to expand beyond their public offering. (Ibotta Rings the Bell on the NYSE)

> Colorado School of Mines opened the Beck Venture Center. Golden, Colorado is now home to a new 31,000 sqft facility to spur community collaboration and entrepreneurship in our backyard. Alongside the Beck Venture Center, the space will house the Mines Venture Program — a partner for startups with the intention open up access to a network of mentors, advisors, and a location for demo days. Zack Bennett is bringing 20+ years of experience to lead the new Venture Center. (Put this under the ‘You Love to See It’ Category)

> There’s a lot happening outside of the front range. Startup Colorado helps entrepreneurs across the state, but focus on entrepreneurs in rural Colorado. They recently featured Jane and Louise Barden and their journey of building Farm to Summit and landing their products in 400+ Sprouts stores nationwide. (Here’s Their Story of Absolutely Sending it)

🏔️ Sending it in the Wild

> April was BUSY for Full Send. We kicked things off with hosting an event with our partners at DA Ventures, Stout Street Capital, Holland & Hart, and Bridge Bank. We celebrated the Colorado Startup Community and the 2024 Masters - two of my favorite things!

> We celebrated our partnership with our Non-Profit partner - First Descents at their annual gala. We are thrilled to continue to expand our partnership with First Descents and shared ethos behind the power of adventure.

> Our Colorado team spent time with mother nature to celebrate Earth Day to help our local Boulder Open Space team take care of our precious land!

Clickbait: What would you do if you’re driving on the highway about 30 minutes east of Seattle and spot a few zebras just grazing alongside the road? You call the rodeo professionals.

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✌️ Roman @ Full Send

Why Full Send? We’re on a mission to elevate financial data through high quality accounting and finance services, building more knowledgeable and engaged team members, and engaging in our industry to move accounting and finance forward.

Send us your feedback at howdy@fullsendfinance.com and help us stay as sendy as humanly possible. We’re ready to listen.