Startups #nofilter had the pleasure to interview finfo co-founder Anthony Devine on his game-changing startup company. finfo delivers bespoke infographic reports, proven to curb mobile over-spending, directly to company teams without the need for fussy logins, portals, or passwords. 

After learning about finfo, we realized that they offer an extremely valuable service that virtually every company could benefit from.

1. How did the idea for finfo start?

The leadership team have an extensive background with working with and for enterprise organisations.

1. Your site mentions that you reduce business costs by bringing expenditure transparency to employees, managers and executives. Can you give an example of figures and usage habits that are made public to employees?

That’s right, our three-tier approach ensures all levels of an organisation are engaged when it comes to corporate expenses. Each of our reports are designed with the employee in mind, whether that’s a member of the board, a team leader or any other employee. Providing this visibility to employees along with providing leaders with actionable insights reduces costs by up to 30% in year one alone. I’ll go into how this is achieved:

OFCOM research suggests that 42% of business usage is from personal calls;

Around 20% of all business mobiles are unused;

Around 48% of business usage is from around 10% of employees.

If these areas can be reduced through employee engagement and enhanced account management it offers the potential for significant savings.

3. Aren’t there some risks with exposing all figures to employees? Isn’t there some data that should be kept confidential?

We’re registered with the ICO and are ISO 27001 accredited which ensures all our values, objectives and processes have data protection at the heart of them. Our clients data is solely used for the service we provide them and no data is provided to third-parties.

4. Did you accept any startup funding at the outset? If so, how many rounds?

No start-up funding all. finfo was bootstrapped from the beginning.

5. Did you employ any startup principles to succeed, such as establishing an MVP, bootstrapping, or lean startup methodology?

Yes, we begun with a basic MVP of the employee report and learning more about what our client’s needs and pains were and then slowly developed more products and services inline with their requirements.

6. Can you share any data with us? Number of users, revenue, profits, etc?

We provide between 900 and 4000 reports per client every month. Our commercials start at 99p per report, however, our commercial do vary depending on the number of reports and the term of the agreement. We have been profitable since our 3rd year.

7. What are you most excited about for finfo’s future?

We’re developing our products and services every day and this requires a team of likeminded, skilled individuals to be able to work together with our clients in mind.

8. Speaking of the future, do you foresee blockchain technology converging with finfo’s area of expenditure reporting?

Blockchain is still being developed around the world and until it is tested and proven to enhance technology in the space we operate in we won’t be developing using blockchain.

9. As a startup founder, what is your biggest fear?

Good question. We have to continue to innovate to ensure we keep up with the finance world of today and ensure our MVP continues to be aligned with any changes. Take mobile phone for example. The markets are very different over the world.

10. For fun: What is your go-to website for both regular news and hi-tech news?

The BBC for regular news and several Podcasts for hi-tech news. (e.g. CFO Though Leader, TWiT)

11. For fun: What is the first thing you eat and drink in the morning?

Double espresso. Scrambled eggs and sausages. Protein Shake.

12. For fun: What website do you go to check when your internet isn’t working?

Speedtest.net

13. For fun: Any advice for Startups #nofilter, in our quest to become the mecca of startup founder interviews?

Network, network, network. There are lots of start-up hubs with interesting, enthusiastic and passionate founders who want to spread their message.