Debtor Daddy: Provider of credit control as a service

Debtor Daddy provides credit control as a service, and is one of a very few companies for which you can truly say – switch on their service, and the money will start rolling in. They're currently based in the Lightning Lab Christchurch accelerator programme.

Mark this date in your diary: 5 November 2015 – Lightning Lab Christchurch Demo Day, Jack Mann Auditorium, University of Canterbury. If you're an eligible person, that's where you'll get to see Debtor Daddy and nine other new companies pitch for investment.  More on this below.

If you're a business owner, Debtor Daddy integrates with your cloud-based accounting system (Xero, MYOB, or Intuit), trawling through your accounts receivable (debtors), identifying who's late in paying, and then sends a series of automated reminders to pay, and can ultimately refer recalcitrant debtors to collection agencies. They even provide an optional service to automatically have a real person phone up your debtors and encourage them to pay.  This improves cash flow and also frees up a significant amount of time and mental energy by automating and outsourcing  a job that nobody enjoys. Debtor Daddy claims that debtors reduce on average by 43% after 30 days of use, whilst freeing up two to eight hours per week for business owners. They're the top ranking add-on in the Xero Marketplace debtor tracking category, and the reviews are truly stellar.

One of the things I really like about this business is that it's antifragile – turbulent economic conditions make Debtor Daddy even more valuable, and a potential anticyclical hedge investment.

They already have over 800 customers, the vast majority of them outside New Zealand in 20+ other countries, and are growing mostly organically an average of 20% per month. There's clearly a massive opportunity to greatly accelerate this growth, which is why they're in the Lab.

Cofounders Matt McFedries and Mark Haussmann have extensive startup experience and finance industry experience.  This the third company Matt has founded, and Mark has been his right-hand dev straight  through.  They're a tight team, and have a strong understanding that especially for this business, UX/UI is critical, both for the user and the debtors from whom they're trying to collect.  These guys are very focussed on metrics, and I had a great conversation about their Pirate Metrics, so good in fact that I asked them to present their dashboard as a case study for the rest of the Lab participants when I was in Christchurch recently giving a presentation on startup metrics.

They want to get the word out about the product. They offer a 30-day free trial (no credit card info required), and after that, NZ Startup of the Week subscribers can get a further 50% discount of their first three months by using the discount code SOTW. They're also giving away a practical free e-book on growing your business, not your debt.

They're also looking for a Rails dev, if you're interested, apply here.

And of course, they'll be raising money on Demo Day, 5 November 2015, along with the nine other companies at Lightning Lab Christchurch.  I'm hoping as many investors as possible reading this blog will come down to Christchurch that day.  If you don't have an invite yet, and you're an eligible person or eligible investor, please contact Michelle Panzer at the Lab directly to request an invitation.

Christchurch has reached an important inflection point, just in the last few months. There are now more cranes than bulldozers, more concrete mixers than dump trucks. I've compared the CBD to a once-beautiful tree that's been hard pruned – it's a shadow of its former self, but you can see the new growth sprouting up, and it's clear that what Christchurch is becoming will be even more impressive than what it was. Rather than the backward looking "more English than England", I'm hoping that it can become the most connected, collaborative, creative city in the world. Young people and immigrants are playing a large part in driving the agenda, and especially in the Lab, the results are stunning.

So please do your bit, and come down and see the results of Lightning Lab on Demo Day.  We'll see you there.