This weeks Haven Newsletter covers:
- How our cracked team sent almost 900,000 slacks last year
- The third chapter of our Tax Code University
- Another new case study
- Fundraising news and investor insights
- Wins from our customers
- The antidote to AI Slop
And much more.
Give it a read so we can keep cooking these up for ya.
https://t.co/LQM9xeN4um
Green Flags to look for in your accountant:
1. Replies to you within 4 minutes
2. Freak in the sheets
3. Knows the difference between Balance Sheet, P&L, and Cash Flow (and how they talk)
4. Always delivers books on-time
5. Accurate Runway Projections
6. Customer Support Forward
7. Trustworthy
8. Has a good group of friends (700+) at VCs and Startups
FYI - I know a ton of these at @usehaven
Each Haven Newsletter is designed to put our own spin on whats happening in and around finance, accounting, and the startup ecosystem.
They all have:
- News from Haven i.e. welcoming the legendary John Martin
- One practical finance insight/takeaway for readers to deep dive into (this week it's cash flow)
- Updates on recent funding announcements
- Customer shoutouts (because we love gassing up our partners cc Harry Blumsack and Infera)
- Content we're loving
- Other quick hits
Let me know what you like, don't like, and what you wanna see more of. This is for you all!
https://t.co/HSZjnrRfoD
Boring businesses are hands down the best companies to build.
Trust me. Iâm two years into building a âboringâ company and weâre already at $9M ARR.
Before I started @usehaven, I was obsessed with @sweatystartup boring business list.
I mustâve looked at it 100+ times. I even incorporated an LLC to start a lawn care company at one point.
Why?
Because I kept seeing the same thing:
Prospective founders spend way too much time trying to âthink upâ a brilliant idea instead of doing the boring, painful, guaranteed-hard thing that people will actually pay for.
Everyone wants the clever moonshot.
- The viral consumer app
- The next era AI solution
- Killer AR/VR
- Trendy bs like web3 and crypto
But nobody wants the actual work.
The real-world ops. The door-to-door grind. The face-to-face, hands-on, unsexy execution that actually turns into cash flow.
My mindset was the opposite:
Fuck it. Iâm just going to do something boring, but do it exceptionally well.
The fact of this matter is⊠boring compounds.
Every day you show up, you get a little better.
Every client you save creates two more.
Every small refinement snowballs.
There is no silver bullet.
You donât need a 6-month idea hunt, and you definitely donât need the perfect concept.
You need to pick something real, painful, and valuable.
And then out-execute everyone else for a long time.
Most people are looking for leverage in the idea, but the actual leverage is in the consistency.
So hereâs my advice to you:
Do the boring thing. Do it better than everyone else. And let compound interest do the rest.
This growth hack that got Haven from 0 to 3 million in revenue.
No ads. No automation. No marketing. Just a year of showing up, meeting people, and building a space founders actually wanted to be a part of.
Hereâs the full story:
When I started Haven, I was already part of a bunch of founder communities.
Slack groups, WhatsApp chats, little circles of people building real companies.
I was spending an enormous amount of time talking to founders directly. Probably 10 founders a day.
And I was meeting a ton of VCs too, not because I was raising, just organically getting to know people in the ecosystem.
At some point I realized:
Why donât I just create my own group with the best people Iâm meeting?
So I did.
The first 30â50 people were just my existing friends. Founders and investors I already liked, trusted, and talked to regularly.
But after that, every new person came through one rule:
The only way in was an introduction. And if you got in, you HAD to introduce me to one more founder or VC you thought should be there too.
That was it.
That tiny requirement turned into a compounding machine.
From November 2023 through the summer of 2024, my calendar was slammed.
I took every call. I met every person. I hosted small events in New York. I added every great builder I met into the group.
And over 9â12 months, those introductions kept stacking.
50 people turned into 500. Founders met other founders. VCs met operators. Everyone got value from everyone else.
The reason it worked wasnât because we were plotting to turn all these people into Haven customers.
Itâs because we knew that while we couldnât solve all of their problems, we could solve one of the biggest and most universal problems in entrepreneurship:
Loneliness.
The truth is, as a founder, you spend most of your time dealing with problems the people around you donât understand.
What you really want is to talk to someone whoâs in the trenches like you are.
By giving people a place to do that, the relationships became real. And because they were real, they compounded.
We met founders before they were ready to become customers.
Theyâd join the community, go back to building, raise money five months later, and then theyâd come back to us asking to become a Haven client.
The group became a flywheel for the business. Not because we pushed Haven on anyone. But because trust compounds faster than CAC.
Thatâs how we got from 0 to 3M.
Not by optimizing funnels. Not by running ads. Not by automating every touchpoint like everyone else.
Just by showing up every day, talking to people, and creating a place founders actually wanted to be, long before they needed us.
Legacy accounting firms have hoodwinked and bamboozled their clients for far too long.
If you or a loved one has been a victim of:
- âStrategic advisoryâ thatâs really just billable hours
- Verbal neglect by an AI help desk agent
- Email threads longer than your runway
- Broken QuickBooks integration âgetting fixedâ for six months
Then it's time to move on.
Haven is putting an end to it - once and for all!
Because finance should move as fast as your business does.
Huge shout to the @trygoodword team, who just launched publicly and announced a $4M raise led by HUMAN CAPITAL to bring back the art of real networking!
We're stoked to continue working with you as you scale!
Full story here: https://t.co/BxtLsa7mqT
New case study from the Haven team just dropped.
Check it out to see how we helped @floraai save 150+ hours in bookkeeping, and uncover $17k in R&D credits.
#taxtwitter
Pumped to announce the launch of The Haven Newsletter!
Hereâs 5 reasons why weâre doing this:
1. Founders deserve financial clarity.
Most business owners are building in the dark when it comes to their numbers. Weâre here to change that.
2. The pace is insane.
Weâre launching, hiring, and scaling faster than we can post. The newsletter is where everything lands.
3. The rules are changing.
AI, automation, and new tax policy are rewriting startup finance. Weâll help you stay ahead.
4. We want more real conversations.
The best insights come from builders, operators, and investors swapping notes. We plan to keep that going here.
5. Accountability matters.
Publishing what weâre building keeps us sharp and transparent.
Give it a subscribe!
Haven Weekly Newsletter 10/31 https://t.co/LfIPguGfxP
It's pretty cool when our customers become Unicorns...
Huge congrats to the team at https://t.co/1p9J9OGa4p on raising $103M to transform plaintiff law, and hitting a $1B+ valuation along the way!
Some stats:
- 450+ firms use Eve
- 200,000+ cases processed this year
- $3.5B+ recovered for clients
The round was lead by @sparkcapital , with participation from @a16z , @lightspeedvp , and @MenloVentures.
We're proud to support teams building real leverage with AI, talking to you @jayanthmadhesw1 and Natalie