Start-ups should not cut costs on their IT infrastructure as the right system is an invaluable resource says Clare Flynn, president at Beauchamp Financial Technology
A start-up manager without a robust technology infrastructure is at a competitive disadvantage when it counts most. Increasingly, investors will not allocate capital without proof of integrated IT systems, complete with disaster recovery provisions. Regulators, too, require evidence of fully auditable, time-stamped data.
Start-ups tend to be particularly disinclined to spend money on infrastructure, but they are also least well-placed to deal with errors resulting from manually-intensive business processes, "fat fingers" or unnoticed investment exposures. Any such mistakes can spell the difference between success and failure for an early-stage fund.
Unless the principals have experienced it before, start-ups tend not to understand at the outset just how stressful and expensive it will be to change systems at a later date. Putting the right IT infrastructure...