Now that we announced our Series A round, the work has REALLY started. And we thought the team was busy before the funding :-).

Besides designing and testing the product, I wear a couple of other hats here at Coupa. I tend to do most of the Costco trips for drinks/snacks and be our CFO/Operations guy. I’m not sure how I got saddled with the last thing, but my guess is that Dave realized that I’m incredibly cost-conscious and would get into those little details. And there are so many details associated with starting up a company. The list seems to grow and grow. Fortunately, I wasn’t alone. Like all entrepreneurs, we leveraged our network of friends, business contacts and random people on the street to figure out how to get these things done. Without naming names, I thank each of them for their past and continued help!

Nothing here is going to be “strategic” to our business but they are probably things that you’ll face in your first year or two. And since I have a couple young children, I figured I would put this in an “alphabet” theme. So onto the details:

• “A” is for accounting. Two rules on accounting. First, get a package like Quickbooks once you need to keep track of finances (3 guys in a coffee shop do not require audited books). Second, don’t do it yourself. I often hear “get an outside resource because you can’t waste your valuable time on something like that”. That’s 50% correct. You actually can’t do it. 2 classes in accounting doesn’t qualify you to put together your chart of accounts, figure out how to enter a simple thing like a rent deposit, etc. So, pay someone ~$50/hour for probably 2 hours per week (at the start) to get it right.
• “B” is for business checking. Very easy to open up a business checking account and they are all pretty much the same. Just make sure they can easily integrate with Quickbooks and have online bill pay. And get your series A money to be earning some better interest rate than a 1% money market. Talk to a banker, since you’ll want some account that is earning at least 4%.
• “C” is for computers. We went the refurbished/remarketed route with laptops and our first server. Definitely a cost savings. Laptops were fine..the 2 processor HP server was loud in Dave’s living room (one of our early work locations), so we eventually sent it to colo. Nowadays, all our developers seem to want a Mac, so we’re pretty much stuck paying retail.
• “D” is for design stuff. Unless you are some design genius, you’ll probably want to outsource much of the identity work (e.g., logos, business cards, website). We used DesignOutpost a bunch, where you can post your requirements and how much you can pay and designers compete for your business.
• “E” is for Eisners. My family has stood by and supported me through the very intense startup phase. It’s often hard to separate home time and work time. But my wife and kids are the best.

More to come over the next week!