Financial Plan and Accounting
“Regular financial analysis can help startups to survive while meeting all liabilities; to make profit, rewarding proprietors and providing adequate finance for the business investments; and to grow, increasing sales, market shares, profits and maximizing the business” value (Carmen Avilés). A complete business analysis should include organizational, financial, marketing and commercial, industrial and technological, and human resources analyses; financial is one of many, but it still remains crucial. When startups talk with investors, they need to be able to explain their financial plan. If a startup representative cannot do so, he or she will lose credibility. This is because, in addition to its day-to-day functions that serve the startup, financial plan is another language with which startups and investors can communicate.
Our experience
Our own Enrico Vidale, wild product specialist, trained our startups which indicators to use to measure their social or environmental impacts.
With our UPM partners
Our Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) partners, Joaquin Garcia, Carmen Avilés, Agustín Rubio and Víctor González, joined us for Week 5. Joaquin is associate professor in the Engineering and Forestry and Environmental Management department (Ingeniería y gestión forestal y ambiental) and general manager of Spain and Portugal Forever Living. Through Natural Bites, he opened up the question, “How to know if the hypothesis of the entrepreneur is true?”, and focused on contacts, retention, productivity and Economic Value Added.
Carmen, professor specializing in company organized, trained our startups to analyze and assess our businesses by taking a hands on approach to financial planning and accounting. From detailed examination of individual items for excel accounting exercises to the bigger picture of the different causes of businesses problems, including internal weaknesses due to cost, organizational, information system problems, she made Week 5 robust.
Agustín, who focuses on soil, and Víctor, on forestry, dropped by Legnaro to mentor our startups.
Our startup’s experience
Training and mentoring, such as on break even point with Carmen and specific problems with business plans were helpful, says Rodrigo Aranda from Sintala design. Financial planning allowed iNergy Agtech not only to double check their metrics and growth perspectives, but also open up and define development opportunities in their field. “As we know that good clean figures and financial statements are like pictures, saying more than a thousand words, I would say that getting us up to speed with best practices in terms of financial reports, statements and all the other tools was one of the key takeaways from this week,” says Razvan Bera who makes agtech accessible to smart producers, cities and communities. “Furthermore, with the help of Carmen, we established reliable, transparent and proactive channels to build trust & relationships within the ecosystem, getting iNergy AgTech ready for smart & sustainable development”.
Wrapping up Week 5 and looking ahead
Week 5 prepared our startups with the hard skills of financial plan and accounting, and it was filled with plenty of opportunities to get even more extensive mentorship besides the regular training sessions. Week 6, our startups will hone their communication skills and strategies.
FIND OUT MORE
WEEK 1 ARTICLE: Why do we hack startup business model?
WEEK 2 ARTICLE: How do we analyze a startup market?
WEEK 3 ARTICLE: How can startups use ‘corporate culture’ to innovate and embrace disruption?
WEEK 4 ARTICLE: How can startups keep customers loyal?
Developed by ECOSTAR and powered by Fledge, the Nature-Accelerator is an intensive eight week acceleration programme for nature-based startups. As part of ECOSTAR initiative, Etifor Srl and the University of Padova, promote and manage the acceleration programme.