Runway’s G2 reviews revealed they served small business owners and startups. Pain-points were on the lines of: "Cash flow used to be a guess," "I couldn't trust my numbers," and "We had zero visibility on our runway." Speed wasn't mentioned as frequently as the centralized, Excel-surpassing, superior visibility into financials that Runway enabled. 

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This got me thinking: A startup or small business' motivation is fundamentally different from that of a large enterprise.

A startup's FP&A purpose is pro-survival and risk-mitigation. It's about not making the wrong high-stakes decisions that could kill the company. Forecasts were less about wealth-building and more about what happens if a customer leaves, if a high-cost hire doesn't hit their quota, or if your product's pricing is wrong and conversion rates drop.

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A large enterprise's FP&A focus is instead is on optimization and risk-aversion. It's about making the right decisions to improve specific functions and avoid sub-par optimization. Performance reviews and incentives are often tied to these decisions. An enterprise CFO and their teams are expected to meet local optimization benchmarks that would value a wide range of simulations (aka 'Simulate any business decision') over a CFO/CEO at a startup.

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A startup or small business on the other hand doesn't need to simulate every business decision. Simulating every ordinary decision implies a lack of agility and weak bias for action. The FP&A tool is critical for hygiene, high-stakes decisions that determine survival. FP&A here is a risk management system, a real-time command center, not a 'plan everything' apparatus.

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Here's an alternate positioning for the FP&A capabilities that startups and small businesses may value more:

Note: This entire exercise is an illustrative concept showcasing my approach to messaging and positioning and not a project commissioned by the brand.