Roast My Startup - Looking for Feedback on Financial Forecasting SaaS
Startup Name: Formulate Website: formulateinc.com
Alright Reddit, roast me. Here's my pitch:
What We're Building
Formulate is AI-assisted financial forecasting software for small business owners and founders who need a real financial model but don't want to build it from scratch in Excel.
Two ways to get started: describe your business in plain language and Formulate generates a complete model from that description, or set a revenue target and build line by line with your own assumptions. Either way, an AI analyst reviews your numbers as you go, flags inconsistencies, and recommends adjustments.
Output is a complete three-statement model: P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow — all linked, all exportable.
Features
- Prompt-to-model: describe your business, get a full financial scaffold in seconds
- Guided build: enter assumptions line by line with AI reviewing in real time
- AI flags inconsistencies and recommends adjustments as you work
- Complete three-statement output (P&L, balance sheet, cash flow)
- Export-ready for banker meetings, investor decks, and loan applications
The Market
33 million small businesses in the US alone. Most do their financial planning in Excel, Google Sheets, or not at all. The tools that exist are either built for accountants (too complex) or too simple to produce something a banker will actually accept. Formulate sits in the gap: real financial model output, without the finance degree.
How We're Different
Competitors: Excel, LivePlan, Finmark, and hiring a fractional CFO. Us: A guided, AI-reviewed three-statement model you can build in one session for $39/month. No consultant fees, no blank spreadsheet, no model that falls apart the first time someone asks a question about it.
Where We're At
Live product, free tier available, early paying customers. Pre-significant-traction.
How We'll Sell
- Organic SEO content targeting small business owners searching for budgeting and forecasting help
- Outreach to fractional CFOs, SBA loan brokers, and accelerator program managers as referral partners
- Free tier converts to $39/month Premium
Why Me
I've modeled financials for the last 15+ years. I built Formulate because the tool I kept wishing existed didn't. Solo founder, no outside funding, building in public.
Tear this apart. What's unclear? What won't work? Why won't a small business owner trust this over a spreadsheet? Be brutal.