We get financial data. It’s that simple.
That’s our core strength, and it always has been. We excel at it.
But the Validis I joined 600 days ago, had fallen into the trap of trying to be everything to everyone. To be frank, we did many things, but not all done exceptionally well.
But one thing stood out: our ability to get accounting data. Our deep accounting expertise meant we were unique in the quality and depth of the standardized accounting data we delivered to clients. If you were making high-value decisions and needed high-quality data (e.g. audits, M&As or specialist and large corporate loans), we are the only ones around.
The unicorn question
You’re probably wondering “If you’re so good at this, why aren’t you a unicorn?!” It’s a fair question, and there are two reasons:
- It took about 9 months to figure out. Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20.
- We only covered about 50% of the market, supporting only one language.
It’s difficult to be indispensable when you can’t help 1 in 2 businesses.
Back to basics
As I entered my second year as CEO, we made a decisive choice. We decided to drop the extras and focus exclusively on data ingestion (partnering with other best-in-class providers to do what they do best).
Hence our new strapline: ‘We get financial data.’ Simple, clear, and true. I’d like to take credit for that phrase, but it was actually our old CTO who came up with it!
Expanding our reach
At present, we support 27 major accounting packages, both cloud and desktop. It’s a good start, but it’s not enough.
There are thousands of other packages out there, and we’re missing out on a fair few. This leads to disjointed processes for our clients and lower adoption rates.
So, we got to work. Last year we started trialling new ways of collecting data in Financial Services and achieved over 90% coverage at Barclays.
Next on our list? The world of Audit. We’re aiming to roll out something in the next 6 months.
User experience: Our new frontier
Innovation means very little if people don’t actually use it. So, we have also focused on creating user journeys that drive adoption and integrate easily into existing routines.
Our goal is to make it straightforward and quick for our clients to get standardized data and for businesses to share their financials. We’re streamlining processes, simplifying interfaces, and making data extraction and standardization as painless as possible.
Smart technology. Clever people.
I was worried our people wouldn’t like the change. But the opposite is true. In fact, we get lots of feedback that our focus has actually liberated them! It has allowed the team to focus on roadblocks and problems our clients and their customers face.
Constraints have led to more innovation. The challenge became motivating rather than overwhelming, meaning innovation is no longer just a buzzword at Validis.
What’s next on the horizon?
We won’t be satisfied with 90% coverage. Our target is 100% market coverage, supporting every business regardless of their choice of accounting software.
There are some exciting developments in the pipeline. Watch this space.
Lessons learned:
- The first 100 days? I’d barely scratched the surface of the problems we needed to solve.
- Lean-in to your strengths and partner for the rest.
- Learning to say ‘no’ is far more important than always saying ‘yes’.
- Customers don’t always know how you can help. Spend time educating the market.
I’m genuinely excited for the next 600 days. I’m curious to see where our current strategy might go awry because, let’s be honest, it will somewhere along the line.
But that’s growth. That’s business. That’s life.
We may not be a unicorn. Yet. But we’re certainly on our way. One financial dataset at a time.
If you’d like to be part of this journey, reach out for a chat.
