[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":451},["ShallowReactive",2],{"project-39755858":3},{"id":4,"name":5,"line":6,"line_source":7,"title":8,"url":9,"domain":10,"maker":11,"posted_at":12,"year":13,"points":14,"comments":15,"rank_in_year":16,"shown_in_year":17,"top":18,"tier":19,"category":20,"subcategory":21,"format":22,"keywords":23,"reception":28,"sentiment":29,"stance_mix":30,"scored_comments":35,"aspects":36,"strip":48,"post_text":49,"what":50,"said":83,"maker_in_thread":221,"shape":232,"grid":237,"attempts":408,"same_week":414,"maker_shows":38,"maker_hidden":443,"reader_version":444,"card":445},"39755858","Causal 2.0","Modern Financial Planning for Startups","title","Show HN: Causal 2.0 – Modern Financial Planning for Startups","https:\u002F\u002Fcausal.app","causal.app","refrigerator",1710857185,2024,261,71,282,3515,9,"legend","web_saas","financial planning software","web_app",[24,25,26,27],"financial planning","financial modelling","spreadsheet alternative","scenario planning","loved",0.346,{"positive":31,"neutral":32,"mixed":33,"critical":34},23,21,1,4,49,{"design":37,"idea":40,"execution":42,"docs":44,"pricing":46,"privacy":47},{"positive":38,"critical":39},6,0,{"positive":41,"critical":33},5,{"positive":34,"critical":43},2,{"positive":45,"critical":39},3,{"positive":33,"critical":39},{"positive":39,"critical":33},[39,41,41,41,39,45,41,41,41,41,41,41,45,41,41,45,41,33,45,45,45,33,39,41,45,45,39,41,39,45,41,41,45,45,41,39,41,41,45,33],null,{"problem":51,"audience":62,"pricing":69,"motivation":75,"time_to_build":49,"stack":79,"openness":80,"stage":81,"team_size":82},{"value":52,"source":53,"evidence":54},"Financial planning and modelling in Excel-style grids is hard to build and scale across dimensions like products, months and countries","maker",[55,58],{"id":56,"by":11,"text":57},"39757142","Hi everyone, I'm one of the Causal founders — we actually launched a super barebones MVP here on HN in 2019[1], back when we were still tinkering around on nights and weekends,…",{"id":59,"by":60,"text":61},"39757901","Lukas1994","Great question! Quite often in financial models, you're dealing with \"dimensions\" (e.g. your revenue is broken down by product, geography, and time). To model this in Excel you…",{"value":63,"source":53,"evidence":64},"Early-stage startups and small businesses, also some bigger companies",[65,66],{"id":56,"by":11,"text":57},{"id":67,"by":11,"text":68},"39757794","We do actually have a bunch of bigger companies using Causal (incl. public companies) so it definitely works for bigger companies depending on exactly what they need. If they're…",{"value":70,"source":53,"evidence":71},"Plans from $250\u002Fmo; $99\u002Fmo plans offered to early-stage companies under 10 people or under $500k raised via a startup programme form",[72],{"id":73,"by":11,"text":74},"39757410","Totally get it — we know the $250 is too big a jump and we're currently trying to figure out the mechanics of a starter plan at $99\u002Fmo. In the meantime, we're pretty chill about…",{"value":76,"source":53,"evidence":77},"Founders quit jobs to go full-time after an earlier HN launch got strong reception",[78],{"id":56,"by":11,"text":57},[],"unknown","launched","company",{"praise":84,"objections":111,"requests":147,"questions":169,"alternatives":191},[85,93,104],{"value":86,"source":87,"evidence":88},"Product video praised as excellent","commenter",[89],{"id":90,"by":91,"text":92},"39758584","bryanmgreen","One thing I have to really congratulate you on is your product video. I honestly think it's one of the best I've seen for any software. It showcases the functionality, displays…",{"value":94,"source":87,"evidence":95},"Monte Carlo simulation support is appealing",[96,100],{"id":97,"by":98,"text":99},"39759591","habitue","That's amazing",{"id":101,"by":102,"text":103},"39760373","ttul","This alone makes me want to try Causal. I run my business with a gargantuan Google Sheet. It works - we nail our numbers. But scenario testing is very hard.",{"value":105,"source":87,"evidence":106},"Multidimensional modelling seen as a better approach than Excel",[107,108],{"id":59,"by":60,"text":61},{"id":109,"by":60,"text":110},"39761281","IMO this still doesn't change the fact that Excel is a 2D grid. Dealing with multi-dimensional data will always be tricky in that paradigm. Also, you'll still have cell…",[112,119,130,140],{"value":113,"source":87,"evidence":114},"Pricing jump to $250\u002Fmo is too expensive",[115],{"id":116,"by":117,"text":118},"39757375","parkaboy","Very excited by this and congratulations. I've been an avid causal user on the free plan at the early-stage startup I work for, and used it at my startup before that. It's been…",{"value":120,"source":87,"evidence":121},"UI looks copied from Runway and Linear",[122,126],{"id":123,"by":124,"text":125},"39768587","I_am_tiberius","Seriously, don't you think Runway is copying your product exactly?",{"id":127,"by":128,"text":129},"39759557","jtwaleson","First thing I noticed is that the UI looks exactly like Linear. Have seen more companies copy the same UI but not sure if it was actually Linear that started it.",{"value":131,"source":87,"evidence":132},"Does not work in Firefox for some users",[133,137],{"id":134,"by":135,"text":136},"39759970","1oooqooq","WOW! congrats! it's been ages I didn't see anyone actually manage to make a website that doesn't work with the non-dominant browser! I cannot even login using firefox.",{"id":138,"by":135,"text":139},"39770925","i registered before ok. now i can only see the alert on top to use chrome. no other content.",{"value":141,"source":87,"evidence":142},"Data confidentiality and security concerns for sensitive financials",[143],{"id":144,"by":145,"text":146},"39765915","gillesjacobs","Looks great, but I have my reservations about confidentiality of the data. The financial model, expenses, hiring\u002F salary plan and basically all thin ledger financials of most…",[148,155],{"value":149,"source":87,"evidence":150},"Python in Excel support on macOS",[151],{"id":152,"by":153,"text":154},"39777509","Terretta","> looking for new problems that Python in Excel could solve You could solve releasing Python in Excel for MacOS.",{"value":156,"source":87,"evidence":157},"Live data integrations with billing, expense and bank tools such as Ramp or SimpleFin",[158,162,165],{"id":159,"by":160,"text":161},"39758086","seels","Congrats, Causal! I'm a fan and excited to see the 2.0 launch. A big part of our financial planning comes from manual syncing data from the tools we use for billing, expenses,…",{"id":163,"by":11,"text":164},"39761233","We’ve done some marketing partnerships with Ramp before, would be great to eventually get that data live in Causal!",{"id":166,"by":167,"text":168},"39761917","djbusby","Or plug in a feed from SimpleFin?",[170,177,184],{"value":171,"source":87,"evidence":172},"How does it differ from Excel formulas and SUM over cells",[173],{"id":174,"by":175,"text":176},"39757815","sksk","I am curious about your comment on 100-1000x fewer formulas. Is there a simpler example you can show how your product will do it relative to Excel? When I read your comment, I…",{"value":178,"source":87,"evidence":179},"Where the name comes from",[180],{"id":181,"by":182,"text":183},"39757839","slinkypinky","Couple questions: 1. Where does the name come from? 2. I’ve seen a lot of startups with the business model of serving other startups. These remind me a lot of derivatives in the…",{"value":185,"source":87,"evidence":186},"Whether it works for personal financial planning",[187],{"id":188,"by":189,"text":190},"39762702","jgorn","Understand this is targetted at financial planning for startups\u002FSMBs, but I'm curious as to if it could be adapted to work for personal financial planning (retirement wealth…",[192,200,207,214],{"value":193,"source":87,"evidence":194},"Excel and Google Sheets",[195,199],{"id":196,"by":197,"text":198},"39760854","localhost","For your use case, what if you could use Python in Excel with pandas, numpy and the Anaconda ecosystem readily available? How would that change things? Disclosure: I was a…",{"id":101,"by":102,"text":103},{"value":201,"source":87,"evidence":202},"Pigment",[203],{"id":204,"by":205,"text":206},"39758617","ig1","If you're looking for something more enterprise focused then https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pigment.com\u002F might be a good fit",{"value":208,"source":87,"evidence":209},"Rows, Equals, Rowzero spreadsheet startups",[210],{"id":211,"by":212,"text":213},"39756862","skadamat","I've been following Taimur's work for many years and it's neat to see Causal evolve their messaging. Overall, it's cool to see lots of startups creating the next generation of…",{"value":215,"source":87,"evidence":216},"Maybe personal finance app",[217],{"id":218,"by":219,"text":220},"39761474","satvikpendem","This reminds me a lot of calculators I use for FIRE, ie the ones shown here [0]. Perhaps I should try Causal for personal use as well as for business use. I've also seen Maybe…",{"comments":222,"answered":223,"key":224},17,11,[225,226,229],{"id":56,"text":57},{"id":227,"text":228},"39768640","The UI is definitely similar and no doubt that we're competitors, but under the hood I think we've taken somewhat different approaches to how the product works :)",{"id":230,"text":231},"39758886","Ahh thanks, glad you liked it! We made it internally with the help of a video editor.",{"commenters":233,"max_depth":234,"maker_replies":222,"first_comment_mins":235,"lifespan_hours":236},40,7,90,183,[238,240,242,244,246,248,250,253,255,257,258,259,261,265,269,272,274,277,281,284,285,286,289,292,295,298,300,302,306,309,311,313,315,317,319,321,324,325,327,330,332,334,336,339,340,341,343,345,349,351,353,357,361,364,366,367,368,370,371,374,377,381,385,387,391,394,396,398,401,404,407],[56,39,39,239,11,33],"maker\u002Fpositive\u002Fidea",[174,39,45,241,175,39],"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fdesign",[59,39,41,243,60,39],"project\u002Fpositive\u002Fdesign",[245,39,41,243,175,39],"39759374",[196,39,45,247,197,39],"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fidea",[109,39,41,249,60,39],"project\u002Fpositive\u002Fidea",[251,39,39,252,153,39],"39777522","commenter\u002Fneutral\u002Fidea",[152,39,39,254,153,39],"other\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone",[256,39,39,254,197,39],"39778890",[123,39,45,241,124,39],[227,39,39,241,11,33],[260,39,41,243,124,39],"39768736",[262,33,41,263,264,39],"39757061","project\u002Fpositive\u002Fexecution","dark_ph0enix",[266,33,41,267,268,39],"39760636","maker\u002Fpositive\u002Fdocs","swyx",[270,33,41,271,60,39],"39761290","project\u002Fpositive\u002Fdocs",[273,33,41,267,167,39],"39761908",[275,33,41,263,276,39],"39762781","rossjudson",[278,33,45,279,280,39],"39761435","maker\u002Fneutral\u002Fdesign","no_wizard",[282,33,41,263,283,39],"39762630","obeavs",[90,43,41,243,91,39],[230,43,39,279,11,33],[287,43,45,279,288,39],"39759934","killion",[290,43,39,291,11,33],"39760598","maker\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone",[293,43,41,243,294,39],"39759236","zuhayeer",[296,43,41,243,297,39],"39760975","pedalpete",[116,45,45,299,117,39],"project\u002Fmixed\u002Fpricing",[73,45,39,301,11,33],"maker\u002Fneutral\u002Fpricing",[303,45,45,304,305,39],"39761194","project\u002Fneutral\u002Fpricing","toomuchtodo",[307,45,39,308,11,33],"39761221","maker\u002Fpositive\u002Fpricing",[310,45,41,308,305,39],"39761251",[144,34,33,312,145,39],"project\u002Fcritical\u002Fprivacy",[181,41,45,314,182,39],"maker\u002Fneutral\u002Fidea",[316,41,39,314,11,33],"39757935",[318,41,45,314,182,39],"39758184",[320,41,39,254,219,39],"39761478",[322,38,45,314,323,39],"39757719","loremchecksum",[67,38,39,314,11,33],[204,38,33,326,205,39],"project\u002Fcritical\u002Fidea",[328,234,45,314,329,39],"39761463","lharries",[331,234,39,314,11,33],"39764765",[159,333,41,249,160,39],8,[335,333,39,291,11,33],"39758228",[337,18,45,247,338,39],"39760750","durmanhoth",[163,18,39,247,11,33],[166,18,45,247,167,39],[188,342,45,247,189,39],10,[344,342,39,314,11,33],"39764838",[346,223,41,347,348,39],"39759962","project\u002Fpositive\u002Fnone","thecharleskerr",[127,350,45,241,128,39],12,[352,350,39,279,11,33],"39759697",[354,350,39,355,356,39],"39760651","commenter\u002Fneutral\u002Fdesign","deathanatos",[358,350,45,359,360,39],"39765864","maker\u002Fneutral\u002Fexecution","thearrow",[362,363,45,247,98,39],"39759524",13,[365,363,39,249,11,33],"39759547",[97,363,41,249,98,39],[101,363,41,249,102,39],[369,363,39,249,11,33],"39760567",[218,363,45,247,219,39],[372,363,45,373,60,39],"39766582","maker\u002Fneutral\u002Fdocs",[375,363,45,376,219,39],"39835883","project\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone",[378,379,41,347,380,39],"39798802",14,"mahsima",[382,383,45,247,384,39],"39759657",15,"monkeydust",[386,383,39,247,11,33],"39759664",[388,389,41,347,390,39],"39757149",16,"varadhjain",[392,222,41,347,393,39],"39757632","martykausas",[211,395,41,249,212,39],18,[397,395,39,373,11,33],"39756880",[134,399,33,400,135,39],19,"project\u002Fcritical\u002Fexecution",[402,399,41,263,403,39],"39761246","MattJ100",[405,399,45,406,264,39],"39763533","project\u002Fneutral\u002Fexecution",[138,399,33,400,135,39],[409,413],{"id":410,"t":411,"points":412,"comments":45},"23155321",1589298553,22,{"id":4,"t":12,"points":14,"comments":15},[415,420,425,430,435,439],{"id":416,"name":417,"points":418,"category":419},"39706004","Skyvern",422,"ai",{"id":421,"name":422,"points":423,"category":424},"39759325","jnv",373,"dev_tools",{"id":426,"name":427,"points":428,"category":429},"39756325","Godspeed",328,"productivity",{"id":431,"name":432,"points":433,"category":434},"39714053","algebraic-nnhw",310,"hardware",{"id":436,"name":437,"points":438,"category":424},"39770908","GritQL",280,{"id":440,"name":441,"points":442,"category":419},"39726781","flash-attention-minimal",230,false,"v2",{"id":446,"name":5,"line":6,"ai":443,"cat":20,"year":13,"points":14,"comments":15,"rec":28,"s":447,"top":18,"kw":448,"maker":11,"domain":10,"tier":19,"attempts":43,"strip":449,"url":9,"mix":450,"praise":86,"objection":113,"sub":21},39755858,0.35,[24,25,26,27],"0555035555553553513331053305035533505531",[31,32,33,34],1793991086966]