About
Could this be a case of Digital World Alchemy?
Q: What do you get if you combine 1) an Acupuncturist with amazing healing potential and poor business skills 2) a small business guy with mad computer skills and wellness problems, and 3) a Telecom Software Sales guy with a monstrous heart who's lacking a product he can call his own?
A: Accounting Software. Yep. You heard that right. Accounting Software. But not just any Accounting Software. This is one heck of an amazing Accounting Software Solution with a consumer-centric Marketing model designed with ginormous reach and mathematical healing in mind -- and once you become familiar with it -- you too might find it to be a near perfect fit for the rising tides of the Digital Age.
We are currently a small but dedicated team of Sales and Engineering oriented, self-employed Professionals operating well outside the realm of the traditional software peddlers, but please don't let our lowly head count of three fool you!
A: Accounting Software. Yep. You heard that right. Accounting Software. But not just any Accounting Software. This is one heck of an amazing Accounting Software Solution with a consumer-centric Marketing model designed with ginormous reach and mathematical healing in mind -- and once you become familiar with it -- you too might find it to be a near perfect fit for the rising tides of the Digital Age.
We are currently a small but dedicated team of Sales and Engineering oriented, self-employed Professionals operating well outside the realm of the traditional software peddlers, but please don't let our lowly head count of three fool you!
James Hilyer
James is the Front Man
- Sales and Licensing -- Primary
- Marketing -- Primary
- Publicity -- Primary
- Education -- Primary
- Tech Support -- Secondary (with first being the website, the internet, and your favorite accounting professional)
- Linked In
Bryan Canary
Bryan is the behind the scenes guy
- Technology -- Primary
- Sales and Licensing -- Support
- Marketing -- Support
- Publicity -- Support
- Education -- Support
- Tech Support -- Referal Only
- Linked In
Ric Valentine
Ric is Chief Chemist. From Catalyst to Mad Mixer of Methodologies for wellness.
- Technology -- Lead Victim and Beta Tester
- Sales and Licensing -- Support
- Marketing -- Support
- Publicity -- Support
- Education -- Support
- Tech Support -- Industry Specific
- Linked In
Backstory -- Alchemy in the Digital Age -- Part 1
James (the sales guy) and Bryan (the computer guy) have known each other since the 1980s at Virginia Tech.
James has a few years on Bryan. Upon leaving college James spent time in Heidelberg Germany, Munich and elsewhere in Europe working on some of our first Digital Telecom networks -- a strange coincidence given Bryan spent 4 years in Heidelberg Germany as an army brat in the 1970s. From 1990 to 2016 James has spent his working hours involved in Software and diagnostic tools for the wireless industry. James has called Southern California home since the early 2000's.
Bryan got involved with web based Database Systems in the mid 1990s. In 2002, while living in Baltimore MD, Bryan built his own web based Accounting Software for his own use after getting fully fed up with Quickbooks. The software bloat, the complexity of navigation, the complexity of reporting and those constant costly upgrades were energetic robbery back then, and it really hasn't gotten better since then. Since that time Bryan has envisioned launching a commercial version of his Accounting Software. Unfortunately, a 2007 real estate crash and the 2008 mortgage crisis got in the way along with an avalanche of other stuff.
In the late 2000's James reconnected with Bryan after seeing some of Bryan's metal art on Facebook. The two had some commercial dialogue. Bryan didn't have anything that was scalable that made sense to pursue with James, but the two kept in touch.
In 2012, via a wonderful stroke of Good Fortune, Bryan's significant other earned a great opportunity to move to the central coast of California for science related work and she allowed Bryan to tag along! James and Bryan were now on the same coast, but Bryan was in tatters physically, he was emotionally empty, and financially he'd seen far better days...
James has a few years on Bryan. Upon leaving college James spent time in Heidelberg Germany, Munich and elsewhere in Europe working on some of our first Digital Telecom networks -- a strange coincidence given Bryan spent 4 years in Heidelberg Germany as an army brat in the 1970s. From 1990 to 2016 James has spent his working hours involved in Software and diagnostic tools for the wireless industry. James has called Southern California home since the early 2000's.
Bryan got involved with web based Database Systems in the mid 1990s. In 2002, while living in Baltimore MD, Bryan built his own web based Accounting Software for his own use after getting fully fed up with Quickbooks. The software bloat, the complexity of navigation, the complexity of reporting and those constant costly upgrades were energetic robbery back then, and it really hasn't gotten better since then. Since that time Bryan has envisioned launching a commercial version of his Accounting Software. Unfortunately, a 2007 real estate crash and the 2008 mortgage crisis got in the way along with an avalanche of other stuff.
In the late 2000's James reconnected with Bryan after seeing some of Bryan's metal art on Facebook. The two had some commercial dialogue. Bryan didn't have anything that was scalable that made sense to pursue with James, but the two kept in touch.
In 2012, via a wonderful stroke of Good Fortune, Bryan's significant other earned a great opportunity to move to the central coast of California for science related work and she allowed Bryan to tag along! James and Bryan were now on the same coast, but Bryan was in tatters physically, he was emotionally empty, and financially he'd seen far better days...
And this is where Ric (the Acupuncturist) comes in...
With the help of some x-rays in late 2013, Bryan's 15 year bout with "something physical" finally got diagnosed as malformed hip balls. His were egg shaped when most everyone else got the round ones. Bryan had already had 8 surgeries for various ailments prior to this diagnosis (mostly orthopedic) , and facing what turned out to be another 6 surgical procedures in 2014, Bryan went in search of some healing support, and that's when he stumbled into Ric's place.
Bryan knew he was at the right place when Ric started going off the deep-end with muscle testing within 2 minutes of meeting Bryan and before ever asking Bryan what ailed him or if Bryan had any clue what muscle testing was (which he did). When Ric's help totally screwed up the check out process Bryan realized he was looking at a match made in Heaven. Bryan needed Ric and Ric needed Bryan -- only Ric didn't know how much he needed Bryan and that took some time to work through...
After a few months of working together, Ric let his employee go and he committed to becoming a fully formed and well rounded Soloprenuer.
When Bryan started working with Ric, one of the first tasks was to get him off of the PC based version of Quickbooks. Bryan didn't want Ric on his own accounting solution for various reasons so he scanned the internet to check out cloud offerings. After about 6 hours of trial and error, he reluctantly conceded that Quickbooks cloud was the only real option. Bryan proceeded with the horrifically painful task of getting Ric onto Quickbooks cloud solution. After up and running, Bryan slowly introduced Ric to transaction entry, and as long as he made no mistakes and as long as he didn't need to make any adjustments to settings, it was all "okay".
Fast forward to fall of 2016 -- Bryan had built Ric an Enterprise Business System with GSheets on Google Drive to streamline his work. The goal was a functional system that Ric could maintain and add on to as needed, without the need for significant outside programming help. Generally speaking Ric's never been happier about his business, but it didn't come without a lot of self inflicted bamboo lashings.
As the end of the year approached, Bryan was faced with the daunting task of helping Ric with Quickbooks cloud solution for yet another year. One night in late 2016 Bryan got bored and he decided to try to build an Accounting System in Google Sheets -- ( and yes... that is the kind of thing he does when gets board, believe it or not) -- Within a few hours he was shocked at how far he had gotten so he kept putting time in over a few week period and low and behold, out popped Accounting Software!!!
The solution turned out to be so efficient that Bryan did his own 2016 Tax Accounting with it instead of using his own web based system, and that's when he realized the flexible, user friendly and powerful Accounting Solution he had always wanted to provide for others was staring him in the face -- with the only problem being it was in Spreadsheet form and on this thing called Google Drive.
So, how could this be marketed? An intellectual property nightmare, right? Yes, it is, if you look at this from a traditional perspective. Fortunately, none of the guys involved in this are traditional types.
Bryan and Ric had conversations about the SAAS industry and marketing this solution. Bryan had been observing the Venture Capital Markets since the early 2000's, and he'd been watching the Software As a Service (SAAS) Market grow over the past decade. With the exception of Google Drive, Weebly and a few others, he had not seen a lot of cloud based software solutions that had the details right -- and maybe more importantly -- he'd seen very few that truly had the user's long term best interest at heart.
After bouncing some ideas around, they came up with a novel idea. Bryan called James and asked if he wanted to sell Accounting Software that had no required purchase price. James, being very wise, wasn't sure what to make of that "offer". Here he had been asking Bryan for years when he might be ready to offer up some SAAS software, and this is the offer he gets!?!
Over a period of a few weeks Bryan shared more with James, and James slowly began to see some light at the end of the tunnel.
We fully acknowledge that this approach to software is unorthodox. We also fully acknowledge we have no clue how this might turn out, but with a quick glimpse around our business world as it stands today, we feel there's a chance this might in fact be exactly what the doctor ordered.
Welcome to ZAP Accounting Software.
March 27, 2017
With the help of some x-rays in late 2013, Bryan's 15 year bout with "something physical" finally got diagnosed as malformed hip balls. His were egg shaped when most everyone else got the round ones. Bryan had already had 8 surgeries for various ailments prior to this diagnosis (mostly orthopedic) , and facing what turned out to be another 6 surgical procedures in 2014, Bryan went in search of some healing support, and that's when he stumbled into Ric's place.
Bryan knew he was at the right place when Ric started going off the deep-end with muscle testing within 2 minutes of meeting Bryan and before ever asking Bryan what ailed him or if Bryan had any clue what muscle testing was (which he did). When Ric's help totally screwed up the check out process Bryan realized he was looking at a match made in Heaven. Bryan needed Ric and Ric needed Bryan -- only Ric didn't know how much he needed Bryan and that took some time to work through...
After a few months of working together, Ric let his employee go and he committed to becoming a fully formed and well rounded Soloprenuer.
When Bryan started working with Ric, one of the first tasks was to get him off of the PC based version of Quickbooks. Bryan didn't want Ric on his own accounting solution for various reasons so he scanned the internet to check out cloud offerings. After about 6 hours of trial and error, he reluctantly conceded that Quickbooks cloud was the only real option. Bryan proceeded with the horrifically painful task of getting Ric onto Quickbooks cloud solution. After up and running, Bryan slowly introduced Ric to transaction entry, and as long as he made no mistakes and as long as he didn't need to make any adjustments to settings, it was all "okay".
Fast forward to fall of 2016 -- Bryan had built Ric an Enterprise Business System with GSheets on Google Drive to streamline his work. The goal was a functional system that Ric could maintain and add on to as needed, without the need for significant outside programming help. Generally speaking Ric's never been happier about his business, but it didn't come without a lot of self inflicted bamboo lashings.
As the end of the year approached, Bryan was faced with the daunting task of helping Ric with Quickbooks cloud solution for yet another year. One night in late 2016 Bryan got bored and he decided to try to build an Accounting System in Google Sheets -- ( and yes... that is the kind of thing he does when gets board, believe it or not) -- Within a few hours he was shocked at how far he had gotten so he kept putting time in over a few week period and low and behold, out popped Accounting Software!!!
The solution turned out to be so efficient that Bryan did his own 2016 Tax Accounting with it instead of using his own web based system, and that's when he realized the flexible, user friendly and powerful Accounting Solution he had always wanted to provide for others was staring him in the face -- with the only problem being it was in Spreadsheet form and on this thing called Google Drive.
So, how could this be marketed? An intellectual property nightmare, right? Yes, it is, if you look at this from a traditional perspective. Fortunately, none of the guys involved in this are traditional types.
Bryan and Ric had conversations about the SAAS industry and marketing this solution. Bryan had been observing the Venture Capital Markets since the early 2000's, and he'd been watching the Software As a Service (SAAS) Market grow over the past decade. With the exception of Google Drive, Weebly and a few others, he had not seen a lot of cloud based software solutions that had the details right -- and maybe more importantly -- he'd seen very few that truly had the user's long term best interest at heart.
After bouncing some ideas around, they came up with a novel idea. Bryan called James and asked if he wanted to sell Accounting Software that had no required purchase price. James, being very wise, wasn't sure what to make of that "offer". Here he had been asking Bryan for years when he might be ready to offer up some SAAS software, and this is the offer he gets!?!
Over a period of a few weeks Bryan shared more with James, and James slowly began to see some light at the end of the tunnel.
We fully acknowledge that this approach to software is unorthodox. We also fully acknowledge we have no clue how this might turn out, but with a quick glimpse around our business world as it stands today, we feel there's a chance this might in fact be exactly what the doctor ordered.
Welcome to ZAP Accounting Software.
March 27, 2017