A (Hopeful) Sign of the Times: Building Strength Through Adversity

Posted by Adsum on 14th June 2022 -

A glance around the room and things seem tense. Klarna just cut 10% of staff, Gorillas axed half of its workforce, and Forbes is warning us to expect more hiring freezes and layoffs.

So, scrolling through the news, I decided that now is as good a time as any to reflect on Adsum’s journey so far. After all, we hardly had an easy start ourselves, which inspires me to look beyond the doom and gloom of today’s economic outlook to a more positive future for our users.

How we started

Let’s rewind to 2020. You don’t have to picture the scene, but it was about as pessimistic as it is now. And we here at Adsum were in the middle of it all, establishing a new, disruptive B2B fintech application at a time when most of our potential users were cutting costs and battening down the hatches. Interesting times to be launching a business.

While the later stages of the pandemic gave rise to a fintech boom, those early days were no time for ‘bells and whistles’ technology. The market became need-based, and the only way to secure customers was to be highly usable and genuinely need-driven.

Still, I’d be fibbing if I said we had it all worked out from the start. It took us over seven days to complete the first transaction and it was far from the seamless user experience we deliver now.

But, like most successful bootstrapped start-ups, we had a few things going for us. Hard graft, guts, and a generous helping of good fortune. Plus, the most important of all, was our reason to believe – which was that our own success would mean the success of our users and vice versa.

We created Adsum for our users – to remove as much of their cash flow burden as we could at the time that they need it most (which is what wedo best) ), so they could turn their attention to whatever it is they do best including creating insanely popular video games, pioneering sustainable fishing technology – even buying a good old-fashioned warehouse for their growing business.

How it’s going

Two years later, we’ve onboarded all our users onto our market-leading platform and we’re working harder than ever to:

1. Increase their cash flow and
2. Ease their burden of managing it

Predictable and timely cash flow is music to our users’ ears – they can plan projects and allocate spending much further in advance than before, ultimately helping them grow far more quickly. It’s because of this that they can provide and prove value to their users and stakeholders.

Same goals, better means

We’re essentially doing what we set out to achieve, but we’re lightyears ahead of our competitors’ old methods and crucially because we’re so much more efficient we can also afford to be far better value. Our proprietary technology now means we can calculate, predict and advance cash based on our users’ current and planned expenditure quickly and cost-effectively, essentially charging them no more than our accounting peers and advancing them the cash they’re owed back by HMRC for free.

By creating a read-only connection to our users’ accounting software and using clever  technology, we can analyse current patterns of spending and anticipate future spending and income based on a set of rules – in essence, that’s our ‘secret sauce’. It sounds a bit boring, but it’s the magic secret to calculating our user’s future tax credits.

Because there are so many data points and transactions to be mapped, doing it manually would take forever… This is exactly why typical R&D advisors cost so much! Our tech does this near instantaneously, hence we are able to perform the analysis and advance the cash more cheaply than our peers can even calculate what you are owed.

Tech flexes and good deeds

Once we’ve identified and advanced the tax credits to our users, they’re free to do whatever they want with the cash. At the end of the day, it’s our users’ money.

Our technology does all the work and it costs us nothing, so why should our users pay for it? We only charge a fee if they want to receive an advance of the tax credits (most often times that same day). Most of our new users come via referral. Frankly, it’s not hard to see why!

Real solutions (not delayed problems)

Typical sources of capital (such as financing from debt, equity, and revenues) don’t really solve the cash flow problem, despite posing as a lifeline. These methods of financing simply push the cash flow issues further along, where they’ll be waiting to trip you up all over again.

Adsum, on the other hand, provides users with capital upfront and on an ongoing monthly basis, finally solving the cash flow issues that plague so many high-growth companies.

… And where we’re headed

We’re grateful to be here, doing what we do, and that’s why we never lose sight of our ambition to help other companies thrive too. If cash flow is one of the number one reasons that businesses fail, we like to dream about being the number one reason they succeed.

We have a vision of the future for our Adsum users. Stress-free and focused on delighting their customers, growing their revenue, and changing the world for the better, knowing their finances are in safe hands with Adsum.

We’re certain that we’re not just daydreaming when it comes to the value that we provide. It’s a fact that companies that don’t use Adsum are missing out on money and growth opportunities because they don’t know about the service that we provide for little to no overall cost.

Join us in the good fight?

With the hard times coming back thick and fast, a lingering pandemic, and the growing threat of recession, there is more pressure than ever on business leaders and finance executives to fortify their cash position, increase cash flow in real-time, and cut costs.

It’s never easy running a company, but we believe that with the right tools we can all build better, stronger businesses, and sometimes an economic slowdown is an opportunity to do things even better.

Start the fight back today – let Adsum handle your tax credits and boost your cash flow so you can focus on growth, not survival.

Let’s work together.