Typically corporate trips are great – you get to use someone else’s credit card for travel and meals. There’s only one time that corporate travel sucks – and that’s the time it takes to put together the expense report for the trip. As a former accountant and auditor, I got the bonus of having to review and let employees know when their steak and vodka was over the corporate limit.

Startup ExpenseBay aims to make reporting expenses easier and less painful. ExpenseBay allows you to connect to your personal or corporate credit card. Your transactions are downloaded into ExpenseBay and then you can assign them as needed into the different categories (e.g. meals, hotels, escort services, etc.). The mobile app also allows you to note cash transactions as they happen which is typically the biggest issue with expense reporting. 

You can attach receipts into each expense transaction which makes it easy to submit the expenses once complete. In addition, expenses can be submitted into your account via email.

ExpenseBay connects directly with some of the popular corporate accounting and expense reporting packages. They can also provide in-house company expense report management.

There’s a free basic ExpenseBay account — the premium accounts include the mobile version for $5/month and the pro version for $10/month which includes the accounting software integrations.

For a funny bit, have a look at how they explain their TripIt integration. Part of the explanation includes, “Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum tortor quam, feugiat vitae, ultricies eget, tempor sit amet, ante.” Update: The interesting text has been replaced with typical English text.

With a strong marketing and bizdev staff, I could see ExpenseBay doing very, very well.

ExpenseBay is located in Santa Monica and has seven employees and additional contractors. The service is currently available only in the U.S. – I assume this has to do with the credit card transaction download. Here’s a video overview of how the service works and check out the company interview with RWW’s Jolie O’Dell.

Find more stories about: ExpenseBay, FreshBooks, money, startups, TripIt

One of the most practical talks at FOWA London came from the CEO of Freshbooks, an online invoicing app for individuals and small businesses. Mike McDerment reminded the audience of designers, developers and wannabe web 2.0 rock-stars that the excel number-crunchers of the corporate world can teach us a lot about how to measure business performance. When you’re trying to create the next widgetized social aggregation platform which is powered by supercharged virality it might not seem very sexy to fire up excel and start facing those cold white boxes. However, Mike urged everyone there to cook a monitoring system directly into their web-apps so that they know where their visitors are coming from, how many of them are signing up, and, crucially, how many of them are actually sticking around. Importantly, he urged everyone there not to assume that Google Analytics is the answer to all your measuring needs. Measuring is a business philosophy and Mike practices what he preaches. Freshbooks ads are all over the web and the ones that aren’t delivering ROI quickly are cut with the ruthlessness of a ninja swordsman.

This kind of obsession over the numbers is common among successfully bootstrapped companies. When you don’t have an enormous pile of green bills to cover in petrol and set alight, you don’t – simple as that. After spending the first two years in his parents’ basement, Mike has built Freshbooks into an extremely successful business with dozens of employees, thousands of paying users and, most importantly, extremely happy customers. Viral growth is a rare and elusive feat achieved by very few companies. Predictable growth is driven by regular measurement and informed improvement. In any case, if your app is growing like a weed, wouldn’t be nice to measure that?

@HelloApp – Almost awesome
I’ve been to a fair few conferences in the last couple of years and met hundreds of people. I don’t usually go with any kind of objective in mind other than to chat to as many interesting people as possible. However, if I had the ability to sift through the thousands of attendees to see if there was a core group of people that should definitely speak to that would be awesome. That’s where I’d hoped that Hello App would come in for FOWA 2009 (http://hello.carsonified.com). When I first read about Hello App on Think Vitamin I thought it was a brilliant concept. HelloApp is essentially Twitter-powered web-app that lets people “check in” to the conference, tag themselves, and start meeting one another. I thought it would be like conference networking on crack. However, I think that HelloApp tried to do too much. To demonstrate, here’s the list of instructions on how to interact with the app.

Checkin
@helloapp sat XXX
Categorise and tag yourself
@helloapp hello ![des/dev/biz] #tag #tag #tag
Met someone
@helloapp hello @their-username
Post message
@helloapp message your-message
Give High Five
@helloapp hi5 @their-username
Claim a token
@helloapp claim XXX

Personally I think that all it needed were the first two features. The other ones turned it into a game where people tried to “meet” as many people as possible or find tokens around the conference. It went from being really useful to being a touch gimmicky. All I really wanted to do on HelloApp was meet people who were rails coders. Although I could do this with HelloApp I think that a lot of other people didn’t bother because they saw HelloApp as more of a game than a serious networking tool. What a shame.

Cut back and make it awesome
When it comes to software, Dave McClure seems to hate unnecessary features with a passion. Instead of adding more functionality, Dave stressed that you must hack away at your app like the grim reaper until it is a simple and functional as it can be. His talk was dubbed, “Startup Metrics for Pirates”. Almost every techie I’ve ever chatted to for any length of time about an app has said: “Wouldn’t it be cool if …”. By the sounds of it Dave would like to remove this phrase from all techies’ vocabulary. His line of reasoning is similar to the philosophy adopted by 37signals where they argue that you should “underdo”, not outdo the competition in terms of features so that you can deliver a more elegant, usable solution to your customers. Although the idea of setting out to offer less than your competition might initially feel uncomfortable, it actually allows you to focus and create better, not bigger software. As McClure puts it: “Cut a feature and if your customers don’t scream, let it die”.

Find more stories about: analytics, fowa, fowalondon07, FreshBooks, future of web apps, Richard Burton, startups

Here are today’s startup updates from the humid, moist New York City.

Worldwide startup updates

• Regator launches iPhone app – Regator
• How to create a mind map – Creately
• New templates added for invoicing – Invoicera
• Devver code tool moves into beta – Devver
• Freshbooks decorated their office for cheap – Freshbooks
• Tungle calendar app moves into Ning – Tungle
• Get tags and search now – Task.fm
• Tr.im URL shortener to be community owned – Tr.im
• A look at redesigning search – WebMynd

New York startup updates

• Pingg partners with Patrick McMullan for new designs – Pingg

Find more stories about: FreshBooks, NYC, Pingg, Regator, startups

Editor’s note: The following post is from Mike McDerment, the co-founder and CEO of online invoicing app FreshBooks. Since launching in May 2004 FreshBooks has touched over 900,000 lives.

I meet lots of web entrepreneurs who tell me they want to raise venture capital. Most of these people are first time entrepreneurs and they just assume that once they’ve got an idea, the next thing to do is raise venture capital. That’s naive. I always ask myself is, “is this person/company ready to raise money?” and 99 times out of 100 the answer is “no”. I’m writing this post in an effort to explain what goes through my head at those times and when it is right to raise institutional capital.

So, when is the time to raise Venture capital?

When: you don’t need the money

This may seem counter-intuitive on a whole bunch of levels, but the time to raise money is when you don’t need it. What I mean by “don’t need it” is you can carry on without it, or you have alternatives (like other people who want to invest, or a house you will mortgage). Many entrepreneurs don’t understand the value of finding their way without VC money, or they think they need the money more than they actually do, or they think they need it sooner than they do, or all of the above! (READ: the 7 ways I’ve almost killed FreshBooks) The result is they spend a lot of time too early in their businesses lifecycle focused on serving VCs instead of serving their customers. Raising money is a negotiation. You need options when you are sitting at the bargaining table – you need a path without capital, a legitimate path.

When: you have a product

Don’t talk to a VC until you have a product. There are exceptions to every rule, but unless you have built a successful business before, or your business requires millions and millions of dollars to build V1 of your product (think microchips), don’t talk to VCs before you have a working product or prototype.

I’ve met entrepreneurs who tell me, “I’ve got this great idea, I’m going to start shopping it around to VCs.” Thanks to the web, it’s incredibly cheap to build a business. VCs know this too and their role in building businesses have changed since the first internet bubble. Back then entrepreneurs with ideas needed VCs to pay for infrastructure and servers and bandwidth – these things used to be expensive –today they are not. The consequence, VCs have no incentive to fund ideas…they can wait till later in the process of building a business. And it’s important that they do because they want to be sure…

When: You know your customer better than anyone

I personally believe this is the most misunderstood milestone on the path to raising Venture Capital for both VCs and entrepreneurs – the “I know my customers better than anyone” stage. If you know your customers, or perhaps you’ve scratched your own itch and you ARE your customer, you are now enormously valuable to yourself and anyone who is going to invest in you. The difference between VCs and entrepreneurs is customers: entrepreneurs have them, VCs don’t (though I’d argue their LPs are their customers, and the best of the VCs know that entrepreneurs are their customers and they serve them accordingly…but I digress). Knowledge of your customer is what is going to make you a better strategic decision maker and product designer than your VCs could ever hope to be. Remember Facebook Beacon? From what I gather Zuckerberg was against it because he knew his customer, the VCs…well, let’s just say Beacon looked great on paper.

Knowing your customer better than anyone is valuable. You should use it as a bargaining chip when it does come time to negotiate, but you have to invest in it. You need to phone your users, take them out to lunch and surveys are not enough. It doesn’t come fast or easy. So build your product and get to know your customers – I’d suggest 100 conversations (not emails!) is a good start. And don’t try to tell me they won’t talk to you on the phone. Have you asked? Email them an invite to speak with the founder of the service they are using about their experience. Your early adopters will be all over that. And if you have enough early adopters…

When: You have traction

If you have a product and you know your customers better than anyone, you are on your path to traction. But if people don’t become repeat users of your site or service, then you need to make sure they do. Do your customers refer you? Do you have early adopters who champion you? Do people write you up in blogs or on twitter of their own free will? Repeatedly? Do people actually pay for your service?!! Those are signs of traction. VCs have enough good opportunities in front of them that they can choose from companies that have traction – you better make sure you do, and your friends using the service does not count.

Finally, when: you know what you’re getting yourself into

Don’t raise money if you think it means you’re going to stay in control. Raising money is the first step on the path to loss of control – know that. It starts with equity and a board seat. It’s my belief that if you raise money once you’ll raise money three times. If that’s the case…you might like the terms at round one, but have you thought about the terms at rounds two and three? If you have and you like your place at that stage of the race, proceed. If not, don’t. Really…you should be asking yourself, do I want to build something big or do I want control. IF you want control, you’re going to be very unhappy with the VC path, so do the gut check before you proceed.

Disclaimer: I have never raised Venture Capital and FreshBooks has no institutional backing. That said, I have raised money and I do spend a lot of time thinking about capital, and I handle a lot of calls from VCs who would like to invest in FreshBooks. Bottom line: take my advice as you will.

Originally posted on the Freshbooks Blog.

Find more stories about: FreshBooks, Venture Capital

FreshBooks takes Day 5 in the CenterNetworks Holiday Gifts. Check out all of our FreshBooks coverage. Here’s a brief overview of FreshBooks from the company:

Stop invoicing in Word! FreshBooks is an online billing service for webprofessionals. Track your time, create invoices, collect payments online,and give your clients peace of mind with organized records they can access at any time.

FreshBooks is offering CN readers $20 off any new paid subscription. The code below is valid through to Dec 31, 2008. Enter code:  FRESHCLAUS08 during the registration process.

Find more stories about: FreshBooks, holiday gifts, Quick News

Toronto-based online invoicing service FreshBooks has announced the launch of an industry benchmarking service to help freelancers and small businesses make better decisions about their business. The service seems very similar to what PubMatic offers with their AdPrice Index. Basically FreshBooks takes anonymous data, aggregates the data and provides it back to site visitors so they can compare their actual numbers with the reported data.

The data will be updated quarterly and can be broken down into segments. FreshBooks explains how they get the data, "the data you see above is only collected from FreshBooks accounts that collect in US Dollars. We have removed the top ten 10% and the bottom 10% of the populations to eliminate outliers that might undermine the accuracy of the group as a whole. Also, we only include businesses we deem to be credible FreshBooks accounts."

Anyone can access the basic industry benchmark data and FreshBooks customers can request a "Report Card" which is tailored to their specific business.

This new program is smart on several levels. It helps everyone understand where they stand. It helps FreshBooks potentially gain a new service subscriber base. It also helps establish FreshBooks as a data service which can help drive new subscribers as the data is shared across the Web.

Find more stories about: Canada, FreshBooks, money, Quick News

If you live in NYC and ride the subway, you’ve seen the advertisements for the Freelancers Union. Their tagline is, "A federation of the unaffiliated." and they define the service as, "a nonprofit organization that represents the needs of America’s independent workforce though advocacy, information, and service." The Freelancers Union claims that over 30% of the entire U.S. workforce are indie workers. Most of the services the Freelancers Union provides are available nationwide.

There are no fees to be a Freelancers Union member and frankly anyone who works for themselves (blogger, web developer, designer, writer, etc.) should be a member. The benefits the group offers are just awesome. Health insurance is the number one benefit in my opinion.

When I lived in Atlanta my health insurance for a good plan ran about $140/month. The same plan in NYC was 10x more or $1,400/month (no I am not kidding). An even better plan (also with Blue Cross) with the Freelancers Union runs around $210/month. Please note that these are single rates. There’s also a dental savings plan that normally is $7.50/month but with FU it’s $3/month.

Another awesome benefit is for Zipcar rentals. In NYC the normal Zipcar rates for an average car are $10.50-12.50/hour Mon-Thurs and $12.50-$14.50 Friday. When you join the Freelancers Union, that rate drops to $8.00 on all weekdays. This has already saved me a good bit of money and you get a wider selection of cars. From my testing this morning, discounts in other cities that Zipcar serves are similar.

There are a ton of other discounts including Web services Harvest (our coverage) and FreshBooks (our coverage). The Staples corporate pricing is pretty sweet.

There are also a variety of networking events/meetups, educational courses and a job/gig board.

To become a member you need to demonstrate income over $10,000 within the past six months. Seriously, even if you just use it for the Zipcar discounts, the Freelancers Union membership is very much worth the cost (which is free).

Find more stories about: Freelancers Union, FreshBooks, Harvest, Insights, NYC

As online invoicing tools including FreshBooks continue to rise, are they putting pressure on Intuit’s (INTU) product lineup including Quickbooks and Quicken?

Quickbooks began offering "Quickbooks Simple Start" about three years ago and their 2008 version has just been released. Amazon sells the product for $79 which includes a plus pack (the plus is some stationary). Over the past couple of weeks, Intuit has begun to offer the product completely free as a download on the Web site. The Simple Start version is crippled compared to the $179 regular Quickbooks version but it’s enough for the small business owner to use for invoicing and basic record keeping.

The downloadable version matches identically what you can purchase and there are no ads or any notices to upgrade. If this is the case, why did Intuit offer it for free? It’s not a trial version either!

So please share your thoughts, could it be because of the growth of online invoicing and financial management tools?

Find more stories about: FreshBooks, Insights, Quicken

Many of the startups I’ve dealt with since starting CN have one strategy on their marketing plan: hit Digg frontpage as many times as possible. Today I found an interesting blog post by the fine folks over at Canadian-based FreshBooks. FreshBooks is an invoicing tool and you can check out my interview with CEO Mike McDerment.

FreshBooks is going to rent a RV and hit the road from Miami to Austin this March. They will leave from Miami and the Future of Web Apps and head west to Austin for SXSW. Here are their goals:

• Meet as many users as we can, introduce the “south” to FreshBooks and what we offer
• eat a Texas-sized donut
• eat a country fried steak
• get interviewed on a small town “morning show” (I am looking at you WPMI in Mobile, Alabama)
• pick up a hitchhiker
• and of course, we want to be elected POTUS.

I think it’s an interesting idea and should help to get FreshBooks "noticed" outside of their comfort-zone – that is the Web community. While I think most people think of FreshBooks as a tool for indy web people, there’s a whole other world out there with people who need to invoice their clients. This type of marketing could help FreshBooks gain more mainstream acceptance – something critical for growth and success.

I am sharing this with you so  you can think about out-of-the-box marketing tactics for your product or service.

Find more stories about: FreshBooks, Quick News, startups

Canadian online invoicing service FreshBooks is announcing a new partnership with Authorize.net today. Over 185,000 merchants use the Authorize.Net Payment Gateway to accept payments and this will put FreshBooks service in front of them in the Authorize.net Merchant Toolbox.

Distribution is king folks.

Check out our interview with FreshBooks CEO Mike McDerment to learn more about the company and their service.

If you decide to sign up for FreshBooks, check out the holiday gift they provided to CN readers before registering — 30% off for the life of the account!

Find more stories about: FreshBooks, Quick News

FreshBooks takes Day 1 in the CenterNetworks Ten Days of Holiday Gifts. Check out our interview with CEO Michael McDerment from last year to learn more about FreshBooks. Here is the holiday gift from the FreshBooks team:

Stop invoicing in Word! FreshBooks is an online billing service for webprofessionals. Track your time, create invoices, collect payments online,and give your clients peace of mind with organized records they can accessat any time.

(the code has expired, thanks for your interest!)

Find more stories about: FreshBooks, holiday gifts, Quick News

I’d like to thank each one of you for your loyalty and patronage over the past year. I’ve got a full recap coming but it’s simply amazing where CN has grown and of course it’s thanks to each of you. Like the Wine Man says, "It’s a lot of you and a little of me and together we are changing the tech industry." (I tweaked it a bit).

With that said, I’ve been working hard to line up a variety of exclusive Holiday Gifts for you. Over the next ten business days, there will be one gift each day. From service discounts, to premium beta access to free conference passes, we’ve got something you will like!

In the graphic below, you will note one slot with ??? in it. That’s because I have left one slot open. I’d like your feedback on who should fill that slot and I will go after them! Leave your ideas in the comments. And if you have a service to offer as a treat, contact us. It can’t be a free service is the only rule.

Here’s who’s participating — pretty impressive lineup!:

• OurStage – 12 free song downloads – get holiday gift
• Compete – free credits towards the search analytics tool – get holiday gift
• Clicky – two free pro accounts – get holiday gift
• Freshbooks – 30% off new subscriptions – get holiday gift
• TapeFailure – 40% off new subscriptions – get holiday gift
• Drop.io – free premium upgrade codes – get holiday gift
• CrazyEgg – Some pro accounts – get holiday gift
• Future of Web Apps in Miami – 5 free conference passes – get holiday gift
• CenterNetworks – 50% off job board posts – get holiday gift

Update: Please DO NOT signup for TapeFailure – the site will be closing at the end of this month :(

You won’t know which Holiday Gift will come which day nor what time – so be on the lookout! Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to All!

Find more stories about: CenterNetworks, Clicky, Compete, CrazyEgg, Drop.io, FreshBooks, future of web apps, OurStage, Quick News, TapeFailure

As a former accountant, I know how important it is that client billing is done correctly. I have read a lot of positive stories about FreshBooks and wanted to find out more about the tool. I gave Michael McDerment, FreshBooks CEO a call. We discuss the tool, why FreshBooks is better than the competition, and some tips for entrepreneurs and what’s necessary for success.

Grab the RSS Feed and always know the instant we post other interviews.

Below is a partial text transcript of the audio interview. Please listen to the audio for the entire discussion.

Allen: Can you provide a brief background about yourself?
Mike: My name is Mike McDerment and I am the CEO of Freshbooks. We are an online invoicing and billing service. I am an entreprenur and FreshBooks was technically my 3rd business. We made a transition from a web design consultancy, to FreshBooks, an application service provider. My background is in business.

Allen: What would you say is the hardest part about working for yourself?
Mike: I really like working for myself, my mom started buying me entreprenur textbooks when I was in High School. I started out working independently. The challenges change as you change and evolve. The hardest in the beginning was trying to set some discipline in terms of the work day. I really tried to not work on weekends and after 7pm and cleaned my desk off at the end of the day. When you work for yourself you can think that you need to work 24 hrs a day. But you lose out on the ability to be refreshed and focused. I had to teach myself and I didn’t have a mentor. I think that was hard in not having people around you to show you the way.

Allen: Who are the competitors in your space that you consider real competitors and why should I use your tool over a QuickBooks, Quicken or Money?
Alex: I think there are two classes of competitors. There are traditional accounting software providers. The other group is other startups like BillingOrchard and BlinkSale.

I think reasons you would want to choose Freshbooks over other traditional accounting software providers. In QuickBooks you have to jump through a lot of hoops, it is a formal accounting software. This is what we need, but this is not what we need. We want to make things simple and quick for ourselves. We get a lot of people coming over from QuickBooks because they feel like it is a pain and their staff does not use it. I like to say that FreshBooks is so easy to use, people actually use it.

Other reasons would be personalization and customization – you can brand FreshBooks to look like your web site and brand. And it helps small companies to look more professional.

Now versus the other startups. I like to believe we have done a good job between what you need and what you don’t need. We have customers coming from other services say that we have the right amount of features and functionality. I think we deliver things like sending invoices via email and by the postal service. Some clients like to receive invoices via hardcopy.

We also have a lot of really exciting things in the pipeline.

Interesting note, that more people are using Word and Excel to create their invoices than QuickBooks.

Another things that differentiates us is our customer service. We are old school in our thinking that you should have good customer service. If you call during our business hours, you will speak to someone. If you email us, we will send a detailed reply. We have also done a lot of work around management of data and encryption, backing up and versus others we have done more due diligence than they have. This is reflected in both what customers are saying plus what the competitors are saying in some cases.

Allen: How does the payment process work for my invoices? Is it paypal or another credit card method?
Michael: That is a very interesting point. I think as it stands today we integrate with 9 or 10 services including Verisign, Paypal, Paypal Payments Pro, etc. If you have an account with that company, you add it to your FreshBooks account. And then you add a checkbox to your invoice and clients can then pay the invoice via the online payment processor you have selected.

Allen: I think customer service is of the utmost importance. Where do you place customer service in the value chain?
Mike: For us it is not an even an option to do things any other way. I think that it keeps us very close to our customers and close to our core principles. We get a lot of word of mouth referrals and they are happy to recommend us. Online, all your PR and press are just a click away, just do a search for FreshBooks and you will see what people think of you right away. If you don’t server you customers well, people will find out. I think you need to be good to people to be able to be sustainable and build your business. For any business, especially if you are online, it is vital to being successful.

Allen: How do you market FreshBooks – you mentioned in another interview that a recent PR campaign didn’t work out as well as you wanted – what have you learned from that experience?
Mike: It wasn’t recent actually in November 2004. We learned that we were ahead of the curve. Web 2.0 wasn’t a common term at that point. We basically had nothing to show for it. We decided to focus on this Web 2.0 thing. Emily Chang’s eHub had just launched. And it was around that time that we ended the engagement with the PR company.

Allen: Can I export your reports into my tax accounting software or import my customer lists?
Mike: There are a couple different ways to do that. One of the most common ways people use FreshBooks is in addition to a regular accounting software package. They will still use QuickBooks with us, but use FreshBooks for the invoicing because that’s where the painpoints are. And then at the end of the reporting period, you can export your revenue and taxes in 2 easy reports and put those numbers into your tax program. And of course your accountant can access your FreshBooks account.

Allen: Do you offer any services for international clients? Any expansion plans on the horizon?
Mike: It is a funny thing that you say that. We are going to change our registration form to allow people to identify your currency. A lof people think the service is only for USA or Canada but we actually have clients in over 90 countries. It is totally international in being able to set it up.

Allen: Any thoughts about tying into other Web 2.0 apps like 37signals basecamp?
Mike: We do some integration right now and what I can tell you is that we having some interesting things coming together for people like designer and developers. We are in the final process of redeveloping our timesheet tool. And we have had so much feedback. So you can go and track your time and there is this one area of creating a project that is revolutionary. It is the ability to invite people and staff to projects and we are now going to let clients add freelancers and consultants to be part of a project but stay within their own account. Because freelancers typically work on multiple accounts at one time. This is kind of like a socialization of timesheets. I am really excited about this whole new dimension of the way people work.

We are going to put time against working to integrate other Web 2.0 services soon.

Allen: What are the most important things that a startup must have to be successful?
Mike: Good question. Maybe I will steal from Paul Graham. He says that you have to build something that people want. You have to have a good product. You have to be good at it. Another guy named John Jantsch who runs a site called DuctTapeMarketing talks about referrals. He talked about being worthy of referrals. If you are building something that people want, then you are worthy of referrals. The most fundamental thing is to build something people want.

I think the other thing is that you have to love what you do. It is going to take energy and time. You have to learn from your customers and your competition and keep innovating within your business.

Thank you Alex for spending the time with me today. I am going to have my mom try goowy next time I see her. Maybe we can finally get her away from AOL :)

If you would like to participate in a conversation on CenterNetworks, or if you have any comments or questions, let me know.

Find more stories about: FreshBooks, Interviews, Web 2.0