“We’ve got AI in our platform to help you build your pillars of growth, build your vision statement, and your objectives. What we find is a lot of people struggle with these thoughts. They just can’t articulate it. That’s where AI at Empiraa really helps. Gets you from A to B a lot faster”.

– Ash Brown, Founder & CEO at Empiraa

Today I’m speaking with Ash Brown, the Founder & CEO of Empiraa.

Ash Brown is a former leader with 15 years of experience in SME management. Frustrated with the disconnect between business planning and execution, Ash created a solution to help businesses align their plans in a simple and effective way. With a strong belief that work should feel good, Ash is committed to making business simpler.

Empiraa is a business planning and execution tool that takes business planning out of decks and spreadsheets and creates actions around them that your whole team can work on together. Unlike project management tools, which are good for single tasks and projects, Empiraa actually creates vision in your business as you can see what is and isn’t working across the business. This is how Empiraa helps you feel good about business.

In this episode, we talk about . . .

  • Adapting to new situations and building resilience.
  • Career transitions and the development of a business plan execution platform.
  • Using Empiraa to streamline business operations.
  • Leveraging AI in business growth and development.
  • Using an accounting platform to provide coaching and advisory services.
  • Fundraising and product development for a tech startup.
  • Productivity tech tools.

Empiraa Demo links:

Empiraa/Zapier https://empiraa.storylane.io/share/zzyfn0sdoiuv

Empiraa/Partners Zapier https://empiraa.storylane.io/share/d86qplkgmkgt

Empiraa Partner Portal https://empiraa.storylane.io/share/mtkbiuxoujcn

Summary

Adapting to new situations and building resilience. 

  • Ash discusses his business Empiraa, a planning and execution tool for businesses.
  • Describes how moving frequently as a child helped him develop emotional intelligence and adaptability, which served him well in his sales career.

Career transitions and the development of a business plan execution platform 

  • Ash discusses his extensive career in sales, where he grew the business from $1 million to $70 million.
  • He left his successful sales career to start a tech business, citing boredom and a desire to avoid being “stuck in the same role forever.”
  • Also mentions his experience in the corporate world and how he realised the need for a platform to execute business plans effectively.

Using Empiraa to streamline business operations. 

  • Explains that Empiraa solves the problem of lack of clarity and alignment among business teams by distributing KPIs and OKRs throughout the organisation, ensuring everyone knows what they’re working on and why.
  • The platform provides middle management and key staff members with access to the plan and what they’re working on, while also implementing security measures to protect sensitive information.
  • Highlights Empiraa’s ability to connect with various data sources, including sales invoicing, ignition, spreadsheets, Microsoft Teams, and more.

Leveraging AI in business growth and development. 

  • Emphasises the importance of simplicity in using the platform, citing the need for small to medium businesses to easily understand and use it.
  • AI platform to help businesses build pillars, vision statements, and objectives.

Using an accounting platform to provide coaching and advisory services. 

  • Ash highlights the platform’s ability to speed up work and provide valuable insights, making advisors more sticky and trusted with their clients.
  • Ash and Heather discuss the need for accountants and bookkeepers to upskill in providing coaching and advisory services.

Fundraising and product development for a tech startup. 

  • Ash’s sales background helps them think systematically and experiment with solutions in their founding journey.
  • Shares his experience with fundraising, mentioning the challenges of raising money for a startup and the importance of being vulnerable and open with potential investors.
  • Highlights the growth of his company, including the addition of new partners and integrations, and notes that this growth makes it a good time to raise funds.
  • Ash is working on features to better support the partners in the advisory community, including integrations with AI and creating a marketplace for advisory tools.
  • The goal is to help many businesses and enhance the advisory work through the platform, with customisation, branding, and drop-and-drag features.

Productivity tech tools. 

  • Ash mentions that Trello recently added a colourblind Mode, and Heather Smith highlights the importance of considering colour blindness when designing software, as it can be difficult for some users to distinguish between certain colours.
  • Ash likes Trello for productivity tech tools, finding it simple and easy to use compared to other tools like Asana.
  • Ash also prefers Slack over emails, being able to close notifications and use vacation modes.
  • Both discuss using Slack for internal communication and MailChimp for newsletters, with a focus on enriching advisor work and simplifying workflows.

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