Date: 10.10.2025 (2025-10-10)
Renan Duarte (10.10.2025) • https://www.linkedin.com/in/renanrodriguesduarte/ • Director of Engineering • Infra for hotel bookings
Intro: • Working on an automation platform - similar to Zapier, n8n, UIPath, make.com • Disclaimer: early, discovery phase -> some questions, please be honest
Context: • Team size and which roles? • • Which tools are they using? •
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)? • • Is he automating today? If yes, which tools (Excel macros, Zapier, RPA, ERP features)? • If yes: who does it? Which tools? What works? What does not work? • If no, why not (cost, complexity, lack of time, no clear ROI)? • More processes to automate: • • Other automations from other people / departments: • • 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? • • Ask if he can introduce you to 3 peers in similar roles (finance leads in other startups). • Other: •
Phrase two example processes very concretely!
• What are processes he would automate:
• He did not come up with a certain process -> bad signal
• He worked before in an investment bank → a lot to automate (he left 2018 → unclear how it is today)
• Bank: one person: they keep notes of their trades → one person at the end to book system → check later
• All banks built integrations from Bloomberg etc. → complex integrations
• He build robots → tons of Excel spreadsheets
• Startup → tons of stuff to automate
• Accounting: external accountant
• Matching invoices is a nightmare
• He could do intro to founder of the accounting software they used
• He was part of Founder Factory
• Focus on niche:
• Finance is crowded
• Hotel industry → many old platforms are used → large chains have tech teams → ask Carla friend
• Shipping / logistics → checking data for a container → very manual process
Intro to accounting entrepreneur he wants to make Intro to someone at this company knowing hotels Intro to Sensirion Intro to bank