First Post. (Jason's Version)
“I’m no good at writing blog posts” I tried to tell Drew as he excitedly told us about this Substack. I write slowly, and stare at the screen for ages with the damnedable cursor blinking back at me and reminding me how much remains unwritten.
Whelp. Here goes nothing.
Starting a fintech startup was not on my bucket list. I’ve spent the last 12+ years building Aerorock, a services company based on organic growth, and working closely with the startup sector but always sitting just outside it. Watching all of the highs and lows and tumult and drama that the last decade has brought. But the upside of all of that startup chaos are the amazing people that you meet and I slowly found myself making a short list of people that I would love to work with one day. And pretty high up on that list was Drew Broadley.
I first met Drew back when he was just starting Common Ledger. Back then one of Aerorock’s main target verticals was accountants, so there was a lot of overlap in terms of our target markets, and Drew and I hit it off immediately.
Over the last 6 years or so we would meet up whenever Drew came to Auckland (assuming he remembered to tell me) and over bowls of ramen or fried chicken sandos he would read out from a long list of startup ideas that he’d emailed himself. We’d discuss technical feasibility and commercial viability and I would reprise my normal role as the sceptic - poking holes in ideas where they could be poked.
For the record, the original Simple Balance (the name Usable Balance was originally pitched under) was 100% Drew’s idea. I was hooked from the first time I heard the pitch: how much of that money in your bank account is actually safe to spend? I’ve spent my career as a small business owner who works closely with other small business owners, so I know how hard it is to keep on top of cash flow and how quickly a seemingly healthy bank balance can just evaporate after payroll and GST and income tax and ACC and on and on and on. The idea of giving business owners real time visibility into their actual cash position felt like shining light in a dark place.
The concept has evolved a lot since then, the improvements of which I will lay some claim to, but the underlying ethos is the same. I like to distil it down to this:
Our aim is to automate the tedious administrivia of running a business.
Usable Balance is our first foray (and where we’re currently pouring all of our blood, sweat, and tears - so many tears), but it won’t be our last.
New Zealand small businesses deserve better. And we aim to enable an ecosystem that gives it to them.