PlanHQ: Business Planning SaaS

Welcome to our first opportunity posting – PlanHQ, a Wellington-based Software-as-a-Service play ready to go global.

The Pitch:

PlanHQ is a web-based subscription service that allows business to create, action, track and achieve their business plan. The whole team is focused on execution, completing actions, achieving goals and tracking progress against financial projections. Team members are reminded of – and held accountable for – reaching targets. Board members, investors and advisers are kept informed with regular progress reports. A completely up-to-date comprehensive business plan document can be downloaded in Word or PDF any time.

Accomplishments to date:

In 2007, PlanHQ launched version 1 of their product, reached 100 paying customers, presented at DEMO (see the video), hired a US VP Marketing, and has signed up VC and Business Coaching companies to help these companies better manage their clients. They’ve received NZD 300K in angel funding to date.

Development plans / Key challenges:

PlanHQ plan to expand their NZ market this year, as well as big push into the US market this year, which will require significant resources. Meanwhile product development will continue apace, to continue to add functionality to adapt to clients’ needs and scale for both numbers and sizes of businesses.

Principals & Previous Experience:

See the team profiles on the PlanHQ web site.

What they want from an investor:

• NZD 300-500K
• Experience in closing deals in the US

Dave’s Commentary:

PlanHQ has a real chance of developing into the killer app for managing growing businesses. It’s no secret that business discipline is traditionally a weak point for rapidly growing tech companies in particular, and PlanHQ is sexy enough to make planning more interesting, relevant, transparent and even fun. From my investor’s point of view, anything that increases buy-in and accountability of an entrepreneur has to be good. They’ve clearly captured the imaginations of a number of players in their key target markets, so the challenge is to build on their successes.

Their board of Tim Norton, Rowan Simpson, and Rod Drury can only be described as a Wellington Web 2.0 Dream Team. They’re smart people with a successful track record with great resources bent on making PlanHQ successful. And it all comes from their own experiences trying to get the business plan working for you rather than vice versa.

Contact details:

Tim Norton
Tel: +64 21 463 331
tim@planhq.com

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