Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

Link to this comparison view

Both sides previous revision Previous revision
Next revision
Previous revision
faqs [2014/10/13 22:49]
mdavis
faqs [2016/09/19 13:22] (current)
Line 1: Line 1:
-====== FAQs ======+====== FAQs ======
  
 {{keywords>​start-ups,​ entrepreneurship,​ Offtoa, pro forma, financial statements, capitalization table, IRR, cap table, lean startup, viral growth, organic growth, paid growth, validate assumptions,​ pivot, hypotheses, assumptions,​ Sustainable engines of growth, customer acquisition cost, viral coefficient,​ sticky growth, retention rate, attrition rate, average order size, sales cycle, viral cycle, planning a business, AOS, CAC}} {{keywords>​start-ups,​ entrepreneurship,​ Offtoa, pro forma, financial statements, capitalization table, IRR, cap table, lean startup, viral growth, organic growth, paid growth, validate assumptions,​ pivot, hypotheses, assumptions,​ Sustainable engines of growth, customer acquisition cost, viral coefficient,​ sticky growth, retention rate, attrition rate, average order size, sales cycle, viral cycle, planning a business, AOS, CAC}}
 +<​php>​echo "<​b>​Why "​.$conf['​comp_name'​]."?</​b>";</​php>​
  
-**What is Offtoa?**+  - We generate financial statements from business assumptions 
 +    - Benefit: Saves time; let's you spend your time running your business 
 +    - Benefit: Eliminates errors caused by spreadsheets 
 +    - Benefit: You get all the financial statements that investors and lenders expect 
 +  - __We__ analyze your financial statements 
 +    - Benefit: You learn about problems with your business strategy 
 +    - Benefit: You can hone your business strategy 
 +    - Benefit: You can feel more confident when approaching investors and lenders 
 +  - We allow __you__ to analyze your financial statements 
 +    - Benefit: You can see when you will be profitable 
 +    - Benefit: You can determine how much cash you will need 
 +    - Benefit: You can determine your breakeven point 
 +  - We provide step-by-step guidance to complete your assumptions 
 +    - Benefit: Easy to use (Every software says this! But we bet you'll agree!) 
 +    - Benefit: You can determine which assumptions you should validate during the next stages of your company  
 +    - Benefit: No gotchas; you'll have a list of all your business assumptions (just like %%TurboTax%% ensures you have all your deductions) 
 +  - We facilitate quick changes to financial statements via simple edits to assumptions 
 +    - Benefit: You can compare multiple scenarios for your company (so you can select the best one) 
 +    - Benefit: You can compare multiple pivot alternatives (so you can select the best one)
  
-For taxpayers, ​[[:​turbotax|TurboTax]]® asks questions in a simple, orderly fashion about your earnings, expenses, etc. and generates a tax return.\\ +<​php>​echo "<​b>​What is "​.$conf['​comp_name'​]."?</​b>";</​php>​
-For someone considering starting a new business, Offtoa:+
  
-  ​- Generates //pro forma// ​ financial statements for the business, based on the assumptions of how you expect to run the business. It makes the otherwise arduous task (which you would pay an accounting firm $2000 or more to perform) into a simple and quick "TurboTax®-like" procedure. The //pro forma //  financial statements are designed to present your business in a professional way to prospective investors.+For taxpayers, %%TurboTax%%® asks questions in a simple, orderly fashion about your earnings, expenses, etc. and generates a tax return.\\ 
 +For someone considering starting a new business, <​php>​echo $conf['​comp_name'​];</​php>:​ 
 + 
 +  ​- Generates //pro forma// ​ financial statements for the business, based on the assumptions of how you expect to run the business. It makes the otherwise arduous task (which you would pay an accounting firm $2000 or more to perform) into a simple and quick "%%TurboTax%%®-like" procedure. The //pro forma// ​ financial statements are designed to present your business in a professional way to prospective investors.
   - Performs an exhaustive analysis of the business plan, especially of those things that a potential investor would focus on - and points out potential problems - complete with advice on how to address problems - so that the business plan is solid and defensible BEFORE you enter the shark tank.   - Performs an exhaustive analysis of the business plan, especially of those things that a potential investor would focus on - and points out potential problems - complete with advice on how to address problems - so that the business plan is solid and defensible BEFORE you enter the shark tank.
   - Generates a Capitalization Table and Expected Rates of Return for investors but they are for your eyes, so you can adjust things prior to taking your plan to those investors.   - Generates a Capitalization Table and Expected Rates of Return for investors but they are for your eyes, so you can adjust things prior to taking your plan to those investors.
  
-**Who needs Offtoa?**+For someone running an ongoing business, ​Offtoa:
  
-  ​* Entrepreneurs with or without accounting and/or finance skills +  ​- Generates financial ​statements for the business, based on the assumptions of how you expect to run the business ​in the futureIt makes the otherwise arduous task (which ​you would pay an accounting ​firm $2000 or more to perform) into a simple ​and quick “%%TurboTax%%®-like” procedure. 
-      * If you lack accounting and/or finance skills, Offtoa generates all your pro formafinancial ​statements for you, and explains everything it is doing in plain English. +  - The financial statements are designed to present your business in a professional way to prospective investors and lenders. 
-      * If you have accounting and/or finance skillsOfftoa saves you hours of labor by generating all your pro formafinancial statements for you, so you can spend your time crafting your strategy instead of playing with Excel formulae.+  - Performs an exhaustive analysis of the financial planespecially ​of those things that potential investors and lenders would focus on - and points out potential problems - complete with advice on how to address problems - so that the plan is solid and defensible BEFORE ​you approach them.
  
-  * Advisors to entrepreneurs (mentors, educators, incubators) can use Offtoa to help aspiring entrepreneurs understand their own companies. +<​php>​echo "<​b>​Who needs ".$conf['​comp_name'​]."?</​b>";</​php>​
-  * Investors (VCs, angels) can use Offtoa to verify that candidate portfolio companies make financial sense.+
  
-**What does Offtoa do?**+  ​Founders, business owners and executives with or without accounting and/or finance skills 
 +      ​If you lack accounting and/or finance skills, <​php>​echo $conf['​comp_name'​];</​php>​ generates all your pro forma financial statements for you, and explains everything it is doing in plain English. 
 +      ​If you have accounting and/or finance skills, <​php>​echo $conf['​comp_name'​];</​php>​ saves you hours of labor by generating all your pro forma financial statements for you, so you can spend your time crafting your strategy instead of playing with Excel formulae. 
 +  ​Advisors to founders, business owners and executives (mentors, educators, incubators) can use <​php>​echo $conf['​comp_name'​];</​php>​ to help them understand their own companies. 
 +  * investors and lenders can use <​php>​echo $conf['​comp_name'​];</​php>​ to verify that companies make financial sense.
  
-Offtoa:+<​php>​echo "<​b>​What does "​.$conf['​comp_name'​]."​ do?</​b>";</​php>​ 
 + 
 +<​php>​echo $conf['​comp_name'​];</​php>​:
  
   * Provides step-by-step guidance to craft your business strategy and capture your business strategy as a set of assumptions.   * Provides step-by-step guidance to craft your business strategy and capture your business strategy as a set of assumptions.
   * Automatically creates your //pro forma// ​ financial statements from your business strategy assumptions.   * Automatically creates your //pro forma// ​ financial statements from your business strategy assumptions.
-  * Provides detailed analysis of your pro formas, just like a potential investor would. And we recommend what you need to change in your strategy to fix any problems.+  * Provides detailed analysis of your pro formas, just like a potential investor ​or lender ​would. And we recommend what you need to change in your strategy to fix any problems.
  
-**What Reports does Offtoa Produce?**+<​php>​echo "<​b>​Is "​.$conf['​comp_name'​]."​ compatible with lean startups?</​b>";</​php>​
  
-    Income Statement (aka P&L Statement), with the following options: +<​php>​echo $conf['​comp_name'​];</​php>​ supports lean startup processes in four ways:
-       * Annually, quarterly, or monthly +
-  * Including number of customers per period (or not) +
-  * Including volume of products sold per period (or not) +
-Balance Sheet, with the following options:+
  
-  * Annuallyquarterly or monthly+  ​- Lean entrepreneurs need to **iterate rapidly**. <​php>​echo $conf['​comp_name'​];</​php>​ allows individuals to create professional-looking financial plans in as quickly as 15 minutes. Then as they repeatedly hone their products, they can simultaneously hone their financials. 
 +  - Lean entrepreneurs are driven to **validate assumptions**. <​php>​echo $conf['​comp_name'​];</​php>​ helps by interviewing entrepreneurs about their business ideas and recording all the critical assumptions in one place. 
 +  - **Sustainable engines of growth** ​ are not afterthoughts;​ they should be planned in upfront. <​php>​echo $conf['​comp_name'​];</​php>​ allows you to define your entire revenue model using sticky, viral and paid engines of growth. 
 +  - Innovation accounting is terrific but is even more powerful when used //in conjunction with// ​ traditional accounting. <​php>​echo $conf['​comp_name'​];</​php>​ lets you **pivot with confidence**. Every time you determine that a fundamental assumption is not true, you need to pivot. That pivoting requires you to (a) change that fundamental assumption in your list of assumptionsand (b) change other assumptions until you once again return to a state that can result in solid financial outcomes. <​php>​echo $conf['​comp_name'​];</​php>​ gives you the ability to change those assumptions and instantly see the ramifications.
  
-  * Cash Flow Statement, with the following options: +<​php>​echo "<​b>​Just how does a lean startup use "​.$conf['​comp_name'​]."?</​b>";</​php>​
-      * Annually, quarterly or monthly+
  
-  * Capitalization ("​Cap"​) Table, showing equity distributions after each investment round, and at the time of a liquidity event +A startup company'​s revenue growth occurs as the result of only three activities: paid growth, viral growth, and stickiness. ​<​php>​echo $conf['​comp_name'​];</​php> ​provides the lean entrepreneur with the ability to define (during the planning stage) values for the assumptions underlying these three engines of growth. Then, as the company launches, as experiments are conducted, and as actual values for these assumptions are determined, ​<​php>​echo $conf['​comp_name'​];</​php> ​allows the entrepreneur to replace the values with more accurate values, slowly iterating toward more and more accurate predictions of revenue. As a result, entrepreneurs can be assured at all times that they are on a path that could result in a positive financial outcome. \\  \\ The parameterized assumptions that drive revenue are unique to <​php>​echo $conf['​comp_name'​];</​php> ​and are "​complete"​ in that they completely define all aspects of paid, viral, and sticky growth. The assumptions are:
-  * Valuation and Investor Internal Rates of Return (aka IRR), including:​ +
-      * Company valuation +
-      * Investor liquidation rights +
- +
-  * Per Unit Sold Analysis, showing exact revenue, costs and profit for each single unit of each product sold +
-  * Financial Summary; a perfect summary of key figures for the investor pitch +
-  * Analysis of Customers, showing by month: +
-      * How many customers you acquired through paid marketing and sales efforts +
-      * How many customers you acquired through referrals +
-      * How many customers you lost through attrition +
-      * How many customers you "​have"​ and how many of those purchased during the current month +
-      * Average order size +
- +
-**What does Offtoa cost?** +
- +
-  * For just $20/month (billed $240 annually), you get all the capabilities of Offtoa. You are limited to storing just two companies, . . . or two scenarios for one company. +
-  * For $30/month (billed $360 annually), you can store up to 10 companies or scenarios. +
- +
-**How do you use Offtoa?** +
- +
-  * Go to [[http://​www.offtoa.com|www.offtoa.com]]. +
- +
-  - If you do not already have an Offtoa account: Press **Sign Up**. Enter your email and password. Press **Login**. Wait for the email confirming that you are the owner of the email account, press the link in the email, and your account will be activated. +
-  - If you already have an Offtoa account: Press **Log In**. Enter your email and password and press the **Login** ​ button at the bottom. +
- +
-  * That will take you to the Welcome to Offtoa page. You will be asked to enter assumptions about your company in this order: +
-      - General Assumptions +
-      - Products +
-      - Markets +
-      - Pricing +
-      - Sales Model: Predict the number of units you will sell +
-      - Raw Materials +
-      - Cost of Goods Sold<​sup>​1</​sup>​ +
-      - Personnel +
-      - Commissions<​sup>​1</​sup>​ +
-      - Other Expenses +
-      - Major Purchases<​sup>​1</​sup>​ +
-      - Loans (If you have specific plans for loans, you may enter them now, or you can wait, and Offtoa will tell you when and how much to raise) +
-      - Investments (If you have specific plans for investments,​ you may enter them now, or you can wait, and Offtoa will tell you when and how much to raise) +
-      - Customer Payments +
-      - Supplier Payments +
-      - Cash at Beginning<​sup>​1</​sup>​ +
- +
-  * Use **Back** ​ and **Finished** ​ buttons at the bottom of every screen to navigate among screens. To jump to a specific screen, just select the assumption screen from the menu bar. +
-  * While you enter your assumptions,​ occasionally press the **Toggle the Offtoa Scoreboard** ​ button (in version 2.x) the **Dashboard **  (in version 3.x) on the left to obtain a quick summary of the financial health of your company. +
-  * At any time, click on the (**Financial**) **Reports** <​sup>​2</​sup>​ link to examine your financial state. +
-  * Use the link **Analyze Business** <​sup>​2</​sup>​ at the top of the page (in version 2.x) or **Plan Analysis** <​sup>​2</​sup>​ on the left of the page (in version 3.x) to look for problems in your income statement. Use the **Next Problem** ​ and **Previous Problem** ​ buttons to thumb through all problems. When you find a problem that you wish to fix, press the **Fix This** ​ button, and we'll provide a list of changes you can make to your assumptions that could fix the problem. +
-  * Use the link **Analyze Business** <​sup>​2</​sup>​ at the top of the page (in version 2.x) or **Plan Analysis** <​sup>​2</​sup>​ on the left of the page (in version 3.x) to look for problems in your cash flow statement. Use the **N****ext Problem** ​ and **Previous Problem** ​ buttons to thumb through all the problems. When you find a problem that you wish to fix, press the **Fix This **  button, and we'll provide a list of changes you can make to your assumptions that could fix the problem. It is during this step that you will learn about how much more cash you need to operate your company, and you will be directed, if necessary, to use **Assumptions** ​ to refine your loans and/or investments. +
-  * Use **Analyze Business** <​sup>​2</​sup>​ to look for problems in your balance sheet, capitalization table, and internal rates of return. Fix any problems. +
-  * In many cases, fixing one problem may cause other problems. So before you declare yourself complete, take one more pass through all the **Analyze Business** <​sup>​2</​sup>​ options, fix any remaining problems, and perform the final analysis. +
- +
- \\ <​sup>​1</​sup>​ Offtoa will give you the option to skip this if it isn't applicable to your situation. \\ <​sup>​2</​sup>​ This service is available to paid subscribers only. Free users may determine their financial problems by examining the Offtoa Scoreboard. +
- +
-**Is Offtoa compatible with lean startups?​** +
- +
- \\ Offtoa supports lean startup processes is four ways: +
- +
-  - Lean entrepreneurs need to **iterate rapidly**. Offtoa allows individuals to create professional-looking financial plans in as quickly as 15 minutes. Then as they repeatedly hone their products, they can simultaneously hone their financials. +
-  - Lean entrepreneurs are driven to **validate assumptions**. Offtoa helps by interviewing entrepreneurs about their business ideas and recording all the critical assumptions in one place. +
-  - **Sustainable engines of growth** ​ are not afterthoughts;​ they should be planned in upfront. Offtoa allows you to define your entire revenue model using sticky, viral and paid engines of growth. +
-  - Innovation accounting is terrific but is even more powerful when used //in conjunction with// ​ traditional accounting. Offtoa lets you **pivot with confidence**. Every time you determine that a fundamental assumption is not true, you need to pivot. That pivoting requires you to (a) change that fundamental assumption in your list of assumptions,​ and (b) change other assumptions until you once again return to a state that can result in solid financial outcomes. Offtoa gives you the ability to change those assumptions and instantly see the ramifications. +
- +
-To use this technique, enter three assumptions:​ +
- +
-  - What year do you plan to introduce this product to this market? +
-  - How many units do you expect to sell each month during the first year? +
-  - What will be the annual growth rate for subsequent years? +
- +
-**Just how does a lean startup use Offtoa?** +
- +
- ​\\ ​A startup company'​s revenue growth occurs as the result of only three activities: paid growth, viral growth, and stickiness. ​Offtoa ​provides the lean entrepreneur with the ability to define (during the planning stage) values for the assumptions underlying these three engines of growth. Then, as the company launches, as experiments are conducted, and as actual values for these assumptions are determined, ​Offtoa ​allows the entrepreneur to replace the values with more accurate values, slowly iterating toward more and more accurate predictions of revenue. As a result, entrepreneurs can be assured at all times that they are on a path that could result in a positive financial outcome. \\  \\ The parameterized assumptions that drive revenue are unique to Offtoa ​and are "​complete"​ in that they completely define all aspects of paid, viral, and sticky growth. The assumptions are:+
  
   * Assumptions for Paid Growth   * Assumptions for Paid Growth
- +    ​- Marketing and Sales Activity. Of the many marketing and sales activities that your company may have, which one is going to drive revenue growth? 
-  ​- Marketing and Sales Activity. Of the many marketing and sales activities that your company may have, which one is going to drive revenue growth? +    - Customer acquisition cost (CAC). If spending $10,000 on the specific activity creates, say, 200 leads, and you expect to convert 20% of them into prospects, and 50% of those into paying customers, then CAC should be recorded as $500, i.e., \\  \\ $10,000 / (200 x 20% x 50%)\\ 
-  - Customer acquisition cost (CAC). If spending $10,000 on the specific activity creates, say, 200 leads, and you expect to convert 20% of them into prospects, and 50% of those into paying customers, then CAC should be recorded as $500, i.e., \\  \\ $10,000 / (200 x 20% x 50%). +    - Sales cycle. On average, how months elapse between the marketing and sales activity and the resultant customers are acquired?
-  - Sales cycle. On average, how months elapse between the marketing and sales activity and the resultant customers are acquired? +
   * Assumptions for Viral Growth   * Assumptions for Viral Growth
- +    ​- Viral coefficient. How many new customers will each existing customer attract? 
-  ​- Viral coefficient. How many new customers will each existing customer attract? +    - Viral cycle. How many days elapse between each new generation of customer referrals, i.e., how long does it take (on average) for customers to "​spread the word" and get their friends to become customers?
-  - Viral cycle. How many days elapse between each new generation of customer referrals, i.e., how long does it take (on average) for customers to "​spread the word" and get their friends to become customers? +
   * Assumptions for Sticky Growth   * Assumptions for Sticky Growth
- +    ​- Average order size. What is the average recurring revenue attributed to each customer? This will be an array of average order sizes, one for each year. 
-  ​- Average order size. What is the average recurring revenue attributed to each customer? This will be an array of average order sizes, one for each year. +    - Periodicity. How often will each customer place an order? Daily? Monthly? Quarterly? Annually? Once per lifetime? 
-  - Periodicity. How often will each customer place an order? Daily? Monthly? Quarterly? Annually? Once per lifetime? +    - Annual retention rate. What percent of existing customers remain customers after 12 months?
-  - Annual retention rate. What percent of existing customers remain customers after 12 months?+
  
  \\ Once you start planning your company, choose "Use Marketing and Sales to Drive New Customer Acquisition"​ as your sales model, and you will see the above assumptions. Enjoy!  \\ Once you start planning your company, choose "Use Marketing and Sales to Drive New Customer Acquisition"​ as your sales model, and you will see the above assumptions. Enjoy!
  
 <font 9pt/​arial;;#​000000;;#​ffffff>​{{indexmenu_n>​3}}</​font>​ <font 9pt/​arial;;#​000000;;#​ffffff>​{{indexmenu_n>​3}}</​font>​
- 

Site Tools