#501 - Nikola Jakic - Compass AI

Financial Intelligence. Nikola Jakic from Compass App AI combines your financial data with context to give you confident decision-making.Summary of PodcastIntroductions and backgroundKevin and Graham introduce themselves and welcome their guest Nikola Jakic. Nikola is the founder of a financial AI tool called Compass AI. He provides background on how he came up with the idea for Compass AI based on his experience as a CEO of a software company. Then he discusses the limitations he faced in managing the financial aspects of the business.Overview of Compass AINikola explains that Compass AI combines a company's financial data with business context. Doing this provides insights and recommendations to help founders and fractional CFOs make better decisions. The tool can connect to accounting systems like Xero and QuickBooks, categorise transactions, generate forecasts, and allow users to interact with the data through natural language prompts.Target market and positioningKevin and Graham discuss how Compass AI is positioned to serve small and medium-sized businesses. This as opposed to targeting the enterprise market that many financial software tools focus on. Nikola shares that his initial target audience was founders, but he has also found interest from fractional CFOs who can use the tool to provide more value to their clients.Competitive landscape and growth strategyThe group explores Compass AI's competitive landscape, noting that while there are tools targeting CFOs and larger enterprises. He explains there is less focus on the small business market that Nikola is pursuing. They discuss Nikola's strategy of starting with founders and growing with them as their businesses scale, rather than chasing the enterprise market directly.Recap and next stepsGraham and Kevin provide a positive recap of the discussion and encourage Nikola to continue focusing on his target market and leveraging the natural, conversational style he demonstrated during the podcast. They express enthusiasm for the product and suggest ways Nikola could use snippets of the conversation for marketing purposes.The Next 100 Days Podcast Co-HostsGraham ArrowsmithGraham founded Finely Fettled ten years ago to help business owners and marketers market to affluent and high-net-worth customers. He's the founder of MicroYES, a Partner for MeclabsAI, where he introduces AI Agents that you can talk to, that increase engagement, dwell time, leads and conversions. Now, Graham is offering Answer Engine Optimisation that gets you ready to be found by LLM search.Kevin ApplebyKevin specialises in finance transformation and implementing business change. He's the COO of GrowCFO, which provides both community and CPD-accredited training designed to grow the next generation of finance leaders. You can find Kevin on LinkedIn and at kevinappleby.com