Date: 30.09.2025 (2025-09-30)
Rory Ribeiro (30.09.2025) Context: • Yababa vs. Vara • Accounting vs. finance
0–10 min | Context Setting • Make clear this is exploratory, you want to learn how finance leaders like him think about automation. 10–40 min | His Experience & Current Practices • Day-to-day reality: What are the most admin-heavy processes in his finance role (invoices, reconciliations, reporting, payroll, compliance, audits)? Automation: • Is he automating today? If yes, which tools (Excel macros, Zapier, RPA, ERP features)? • If no, why not (cost, complexity, lack of time, no clear ROI)? • Past experiences: what worked in the 150-person scale-up, what didn’t. • Legacy systems: does he deal with them (accounting tools, banking interfaces, HRIS, ERP)? How painful are integrations? • Successes & frustrations: if he had a “magic wand,” what would he automate first? 40–55 min | Reaction to Your Concept • Share a simplified version of your pre-read (don’t oversell, just frame). • Ask for his honest reaction: • Would this be relevant in a 30–150 person company? • What’s the first workflow he’d test? • What objections would he raise to buying/adopting it? • Probe: who would be the buyer (finance lead, COO, IT)? Who would actually use it? 55–60 min | Wrap-Up • Summarize what you heard as key pain points. • Ask if he’s open to a follow-up when you have an MVP. • Ask if he can introduce you to 3 peers in similar roles (finance leads in other startups).
Phrase two example processes very concretely!
Notes: • He knows a guy at a nuclear company • Bookkeeping / Accounts payable processing is very crowded • Spendesk • OCR technology for invoice to pay • Intern has to doublecheck the correct data • Finance: you want to one approval step • Datev: receiving data is not a problem • Preparation of transactions before in different tools and then it is -> manual export • We use agicap.com for accounting (they switched from Spendesk) • Vara flow: • All emails to billing@vara.ai go to the tool (even if not necessarily an invoice) • Verify flow is included • Connected with bank account -> direct payment possible • Also a reconciliation tab • Tool also provides credit cards • Preaccounting -> prepare all payments and invoices for datev export • Their OCR is not working really well yet - but its also a cheap solution • Then he exports the transaction line and the documents via a button and it is pushed automatically to Datev • Accounts receivables is missing / worse process • There is no push back from Datev yet • Problem: data from Datev can not be pulled back -> you can only compare at the end of the month when books are closed • If customer does not pay you as expected -> CashFlow is not accurate anymore • Forecasting revenue model is getting more difficult • He gets the data from bank account -> but the agicap.com • Possible to import invoices via PDF • Followup actions can be defined if customers do not pay (templates can be created) • Also letter templates you can print and send physically • Regulation: e invoicing -> every invoice has to be stored digitally -> could be interesting topic for smaller businesses • Some tools create HTML files for invoices -> Datev should do that • New regulations for F&B sector that make you reconcile the CashFlow daily • Automate Working student work -> from 4 to 6h to 30min would help a lot • Datev is monopoly situation -> makes it hard to pull out data from Datev • A lot of forecasting is done in Excel • Many finance tools are matched to big companies (Workday) • A nice tool for him: • Agicap + upload forecast to compare • Deutsche Telekom -> cloud costing -> why is it above budget? • -> this does not exist yet • Check https://www.nominal.so/ • but also focus on book keeping • https://www.helu.io/ -> they figured out a way to pull data from Datev -> it makes it easier to model • OCR is the easy thing to do -> not much value there • Finance SaaS industry is saturated -> digital finance manager would be interesting -> goal to replace working student • Main tools of working student • (40%) Accounts payables -> processing invoices • (20%) Closing process -> push customers to pay payments (not powerful because they automate it) • Vara automated it: • They create Excel sheet with customers • Dominik created a script to automatically create an invoice based on the sheet and creates a Word Document; Rory downloads it; then Rory sends it via email • They are now planning to automate: • Google app scripts -> they try to do it themselves • They automated processes within GoogleSheets for payments of Remote.com • Script within Excel - he built it with ChatGPT • He does a lot of automation but is still missing a digital finance assistant • Many companies (e.g. Yababa) -> they have data warehouse with webshop platform -> internal process automation took a lot of money -> how can that made cheap • Sending invoices to customers is a problem • Not a lot of tools for SMEs • Digital assistant • 40 to 50% of the cost of a headcount of a real person • Integration should be simple (one day workshop max.) • Focussed on Datev • Potential to upgrade platform with growing size of the company -> roadmap for growing company in the future • Task wise: • Invoice processing -> notification on Slack -> invoice is ready to accept incl. link -> go to payments & pre-accounting • NOT: automated payment flow as default -> always manual review -> he would disable that • he can not use ChatGPT for certain automations because of data privacy -> check what exactly he wants to do there • Introduction to people he knows • He will talk to friends • Cashflow / runway calculations