Interview by Skyla Valade
Orchid B is a Game Changer for Freelancer and Small Business Administration
So, you want to start a business or take one of your skills to the next level. Where do you go? You’ll have to understand legal and tax requirements specific to you and your customers’ locations. You’ll have to find invoicing platforms, sign up for banking, organize payroll, and figure out what type of business to register, not to mention figuring out if you want to do the bookkeeping and accounting yourself or passing this on to another party.
The chances are, you’ll be spending weeks or months sorting through each of these requirements and buying decisions, sometimes subscribing to a Ferrari when you only need a bicycle ; platform procurement changes also come with challenges like data migration and managing historical banking and accounting records.. That’s where Claudio Romano found himself after leaving the corporate world in an endeavour to work as a freelancer. He wondered why aspiring entrepreneurs were forced in a dozen different directions just to get started.
It’s time for a one-stop-shop solution
Orchid B was conceived to bring all the business administration essentials under one roof, seamlessly. The result? Saving up to 60 days per year in administrative headaches and thousands of dollars which would normally be spent on an array of tools and applications. Every entrepreneurial journey has its challenges – Orchid B is striving to make the administration much easier.
Taking the first steps
Claudio first started working on his idea in 2020, and has spent the last 2 years talking to customers, fundraising, building a multi-disciplinary team, working with partners, and designing the platform. They’ve raised $150,000 so far and are expanding their efforts this year, as team members across Ontario, Quebec, and Mexico execute on the Orchid B vision.
Their first milestone? The Orchid B invoicing tool “Invoices by ORCHID B” which is now available on IOS and Android and being used by Canadian and US businesses across multiple industries.
The Orchid B advantage
Orchid B is standing out in the world of fintech for entrepreneurs by doing something that other platforms choose to ignore – a single system of record for business administration. What really sets their platform apart is its ability to tie business administration services together while optimizing the client experience and audit trail; most other “competitors” are primarily standalone services and it is up to the user to integrate and reconcile applications and data.
Fintech Hub & Fintech Cadence impact
From cybersecurity experts to investors, Fintech Cadence is fully connected to the Fintech ecosystem. This is what makes their coaching and training real!
What’s next?
Claudio and the Orchid B team are taking their mission one piece at a time, first aiming to master a subcontractor to client invoicing tool, which has been resonating particularly well in the creative and consulting industries – 2 admin journeys for 2 parties with one app. As they expand their offer and work with industries ranging from cybersecurity to film, Claudio is most excited by his conversations with his customers who have had enough of antiquated and unilateral tools.
“It’s so easy to have awesome ideas, but until your customer tells you ‘I want it, I understand it, I want to buy it’, it’s hard to find scalable traction. We’re getting a good sense of product-market fit in the creative and consulting worlds - and it's just the beginning.”
