Cone GTM brain

category

market profile

• text: Small accounting firms use separate tools and manual processes to move from proposals to client work and payment.
• text: Practice management competitors bundle workflow, client communications, proposals and billing in varying combinations.

personas

• title: Accounting firm managing partner
  pains:

  • Inconsistent pricing and proposal creation slow client acquisition
  • Disconnected software increases overhead and obscures work in progress
• title: Practice manager
  pains:

  • Tasks, due dates and client requests need manual coordination
  • Signed engagements must be turned into projects and invoices
• title: Bookkeeping firm owner
  pains:

  • Chasing client documents and overdue payments consumes billable time
  • Needs professional proposals without enterprise software costs

icp

• text: Small and growing accounting and bookkeeping firms with recurring client work and multiple staff.
• text: Professional services firms using Xero, QuickBooks Online or Zoho that want proposals tied to billing.

message pillars

• text: Unify proposals, billing and payments to win and collect faster.
• text: Trigger work once a proposal is accepted.
• text: Give managers visibility into team workload and deadlines.

objections

• objection: Switching might break our accounting and payments workflow.
  response: Cone lists QuickBooks Online, Xero, Zoho, Stripe and GoCardless integrations; check regional and workflow coverage.
• objection: Our small firm cannot justify another subscription.
  response: The proposal product publishes per-user pricing and offers a trial; compare total costs with the tools replaced.

competitors

• name: Ignition
  why: Proposals, engagements and payments for accounting firms.
• name: Karbon
  why: Accounting practice workflow, email and billing management.
• name: TaxDome
  why: Accounting firm practice management with client portal, proposals and payments.
• name: Financial Cents
  why: Accounting workflow and client management for small firms.

keywords

• accounting practice management software
• bookkeeping proposal software
• accounting engagement letters
• accounting workflow automation
• recurring billing for accountants
• client portal for accountants

voice

• Practical and upbeat
• Efficiency focused
• Price conscious

signals

• text: A growing accounting practice is hiring staff and struggling to track work and deadlines.
• text: A firm is standardizing proposals and collecting recurring payments through Xero or QuickBooks.

stack

• Xero
• QuickBooks Online
• Zoho
• Stripe
• GoCardless
• Zapier

pricing

motion

channels

• SEO
• LinkedIn
• customer testimonials
• product-led trial

confidence

Founders

• name: Jahangir Mohammed
  title: Founder
  role: Founder
  bio: Jahangir is the co-founder of Cone. Before Cone, Jahangir was the co-founder of Joveo - the leading platform that finds companies worldwide the most qualified hires in the least amount of time. From 4 to 300 employees, he helped the company scale and find product-market fit. He worked across all functions of the company. He has held several technical and product leadership roles. He also advises early-stage startups. He has a MS degree in Computer Science from Stony Brook University.
• name: Bharath Kumar Reddy
  title: Founder
  role: Founder
  bio: Bharath is the co-founder of Cone. Before Cone, he was a founding engineer at Rialtic. He led the engineering team to build a scalable and extensible platform for healthcare claims (raising $45 million in series A). Before that, he co-founded adaptive.team, which allowed businesses to manage OKRs through conversational bots. He has a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Madras.