M13’s RECOMMENDATIONS FOR

AI for accounting & finance

Lots of AI-tools are competing to automate various portions of the accounting and financial pipelines, although we have yet to demo any that are ready for the startup use case. There is no universal approach, with different companies targeting AR/AP, compliance, collections, reporting, messaging and alerts, and more. An area to monitor as interest in this space is picking up.

Updated 5/28/24 by ROB & ZACH


Maturity: ●●○○○ Highly Limited

Startup Impact: ●●○○○ Low

  • Finance departments have stayed largely the same for decades; these tools provide a rare sizable jump in productivity via technology

  • Given the different areas where AI can contribute, startups can choose specific solutions based on current workflow bottlenecks

Areas of Improvement:

  • Finance pipelines can be very bespoke, and what works for one company might not apply smoothly to another

  • Cost of an error is very high in this area, so tools need to be thoroughly vetted

🔥 Top trending tools:

Paro

Best for teams looking for supplemental accounting expertise.

  • Paro uses AI to match businesses with professionals with precise experience and skillsets, allowing companies find accounting partners faster.

Zeni

Best for teams looking for an automated, cost-effective way to manage finance.

  • Zeni's AI platform caters to startups and small businesses. It automates bookkeeping tasks, provides real-time financial insights through a central dashboard, and offers features like bill payments and reimbursements. This all-in-one solution is designed to be cost-effective and scalable, making it a good fit for businesses looking to streamline their finances and focus on growth.

Glean

Best for high-growth companies looking to improve AP processes.

  • Glean provides a central platform for managing invoices, approvals, and vendor communication. By automating asks like invoice processing and data extraction, teams can increase control and efficiency measures around spending.

AI BI/analytics tools

Business Intelligence tools have usually been only accessible at a relatively larger scale than most early stage startups. With AI and reduced cost to gather and maintain data, tools are emerging that will put advanced analytics at the fingertips of small executive teams at startups, without large investments in data engineering and analytics headcount. These AI-powered products usually provide a prompting interface to ask questions of your data and get contextual answers in near real time. While still in the early days, this field is evolving rapidly, and somewhere we're paying particular interest to at the startup and enterprise levels.

Updated 7/2/24 by ROB & ZACH


Maturity: ●●●○○ Useful Point Solution

Startup Impact: ●●●●○ High

  • Can power analytics for startups for product, marketing, sales, operations and save hundreds of human-hours

  • Better data based decision making can be highly impactful for early stage startups

Areas of Improvement:

  • Many products require a data warehouse that may or may not exist at some startups.

  • Answers to inquiries, sometimes requires a deeper analysis that these products are incapable of at this early stage.

Zenlytic

Best for teams looking for insights on top of an internal data warehouse.

  • Zenlytic's AI-Powered Cognitive Layer has the ability to generate definitions for metrics across a team's data warehouse. These metrics can then be communicated across an entire team via Zoe, their embedded data analyst. By creating standard definitions, Zenlytic allows data teams to make the data warehouse self-service for business users, making sure all team members have clear vision to calculations and metrics without humans as a bottleneck.

CorralData

Best for teams looking for out-of-the-box reporting capabilities.

  • CorralData offers a robust library of third-party integrations that enable users to access out-of-the-box reports with standardized metrics based on their system of record. This eliminates the need for building custom data pipelines, saving teams significant time and effort. By providing quick access to accurate information, CorralData helps drive business impact efficiently, allowing teams to focus on decision-making and strategy rather than data management.

Supper

Best for teams looking to unify data across multiple systems without owning their own data pipelines.

  • Supper allows teams to integrate data from all of their systems of record and action without owning their own data infrastructure and pipelines. The platform then offers the ability for both execs and individual functional areas to ask questions and prepare information. As part of their onboarding, they also offer data analyst support to vet answers and ensure adoption.

AI file querying

Companies store tons of information in hard-to-access digital mediums like PDFs, tabular formats like Google Sheets and Excel, and multimedia formats. Historically, it's been difficult to search across these files within an organization to answer common questions like, "What was the value of our last contract with customer X?" or "How many square feet is our New York office?". AI solutions now exist that can answer those questions quickly and accurately, and are worth a look if this is a problem you find bottlenecking your startup.

Updated 6/27/24 by ROB & ZACH


Maturity: ●●●○○ Useful Point Solution

Startup Impact: ●●●●● High

  • Can cut down on hours spent sifting through dozens of digital documents

  • Can answer complex business intelligence questions that were previously difficult or impossible to answer in a time- and cost-effective manner

Areas of Improvement:

  • Quality of output in this space has been hit or miss; more vertical specific solutions have generally yielded better results

  • Security concerns for LLMs looking through highly sensitive files—check with your legal/infosec advisors to see if this is a good idea for your company

Gemini Drive (Google)

Best for teams operating completely on Google Workspace (G-Suite).

  • Google Gemini Drive excels in its ability to search across Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and more, using AI to understand and respond to complex queries. Its integration with the broader Google ecosystem ensures seamless access to a wide range of files, making it an indispensable tool for businesses looking to quickly retrieve specific information. While it's great for existing Google Workspace users, it can be limiting for others.

Humata

Best for startups looking to extract specific information from multiple files and diverse document types.

  • Humata.ai excels in its ability to understand complex queries and deliver precise answers, significantly reducing the time required to sift through large documents. It also offers an embeddable SDK (software development kit) to turn Q&A into an internal- or external-facing knowledge tool. (Note: Humata.ai is an M13 portfolio company.)

Sinequa

Best for unified information access and search within large enterprises.

  • Sinequa offers a comprehensive platform for enterprise search, combining AI, NLP, and machine learning to deliver highly relevant search results. It integrates seamlessly with a wide range of data sources and provides rich analytics to enhance decision-making. Sinequa’s ability to handle large-scale, complex queries makes it a strong competitor in the enterprise search space.

Briefcase

Small teams looking to quickly take action on their internal documents.

  • Briefcase allows teams and individuals to interact with an AI agent on top of their documents to complete a variety of tasks. This tool streamlines processes from scenario analysis to contract preparation to drafting communications, saving time and effort. It's especially valuable for small teams needing to efficiently manage and utilize their internal documents for various business operations.

AI financial modeling

AI financial modeling is an emerging space with significant potential to transform how businesses manage their finances. By making advanced financial analysis accessible, efficient, and accurate, these tools are poised to become indispensable resources for startups and established companies alike. The future of AI-powered financial modeling looks promising, with ongoing advancements in machine learning and data analytics. As these technologies continue to evolve, we can expect even greater accuracy and sophistication in financial forecasts making cash flow management and sales projections more accurate for startups, a notoriously tricky thing to accomplish in the past.

Updated 5/24/24 by MARY & ROB


Maturity: ●●●○○ Useful Point Solution

Startup Impact: ●●●○○ Medium

  • The automation of complex processes dramatically improves efficiency and cost

  • Accessibility to real-time insights and scenario analysis helps move the needle towards better decision-making

  • Sophisticated yet cost effective tools are now more accessible to startups and SMBs, reducing the barrier to entry for advanced financial analysis

Areas of Improvement:

  • Accuracy is particularly important to minimize the risk of erroneous financial forecasts

  • Complex user experiences can make these tools inaccessible to non-financial experts

  • Tools need to integrate seamlessly with other business software and data sources

🔥 Top trending tools:

Sturppy

Best for startup founders with limited experience looking to create financial models, forecasts, and pitch decks.

  • Sturppy is tailored for startups, making it easy for founders to create professional financial models and forecasts without needing deep financial expertise. Its user-friendly interface and customizable templates make it accessible and quick to use, which is ideal for early-stage companies needing to prepare investor-ready financial documents.

DataRails

Best for startups needing robust data consolidation and for automating Excel-based financial workflows.

  • Datarails transforms Excel into a powerful financial analysis tool by automating data consolidation and reporting. This allows startups to maintain the flexibility of Excel while benefiting from advanced FP&A capabilities. It’s particularly useful for startups that have already established financial processes in Excel but need more efficient and error-free workflows.

Mosaic

Best for startups looking for advanced analytics, real-time financial insights, and strategic planning.

  • Mosaic's integration with various data sources allows it to provide a comprehensive view of a startup's financial status. It excels in automating data collection and analysis, which significantly reduces the manual workload. The platform’s user-friendly interface and real-time dashboards make it accessible even for those without a deep financial background.

AI meeting assistants

AI-powered meeting assistants have been on the forefront of automating meeting efficiency, taking notes and automating some time-consuming administrative tasks like assigning action items. These solutions are becoming increasingly commoditized, reducing cost and increasing accuracy. These solutions are highly usable, but we'd recommend double checking notes for accuracy.

Updated 5/21/24 by MARY & ROB


Maturity: ●●●●○ Partial Workflow Replacement

Startup Impact: ●●●○○ Medium

  • Less time spent on administrative tasks in and after meetings

  • More focus on conversation during the meeting (vs. focus on note taking)

Areas of Improvement:

  • Accuracy of notes is good, but not great

  • Voice detection and attribution is still a work in progress

  • Privacy concerns are real, and many companies and individuals opt out when offered the chance

  • Many note takers only work in virtual meetings, not IRL

🔥 Our top picks:

Read Ai

Best for business professionals seeking AI-powered meeting insights, video recordings, and summaries to enhance productivity and decision-making during and after meetings.

  • Read AI captured our attention with its advanced ability to provide video recordings, summaries, and actionable insights during and after meetings. It proved to be a standout solution for specific use cases, especially ones that require video footage recaps (e.g. sales pitch calls). While its feature set is robust, its UI/UX is a bit dense to new users and requires some poking around to fully understand.

TimeOS

Best for teams looking for a simple AI tool that seamlessly integrates into existing workflows.

  • TimeOS has emerged as a promising solution for individuals and teams looking to integrate AI into their meeting processes. After downloading their browser extension, we found it seamlessly integrated into existing workflows better than other tools, leading us to organically rely on it more over time. Despite its somewhat limited feature set, its intuitive UX sets it apart as a promising player in a saturated space.

Fireflies Ai

Best for teams and individuals looking to automate meeting transcription, note-taking, and action item tracking with AI-driven meeting assistant features.

  • Fireflies.ai has gained traction as a reliable solution in the AI meeting assistant space, demonstrating steady growth and adoption among teams and organizations. While it hasn't been the go-to in our organization, it seems to be a more viable solution for enterprises and those seeking more collaborative capabilities.

Enjoying RocketGuides?

Have a burning topic you’d like us to explore? We're all ears! Share your thoughts and ideas by taking our quick, :30s survey. We’re eager to hear your feedback (good or bad!) to help us improve.