Hey all, Thinks are getting busier than usual as we approach the end of our second quarter since launching the startup. We have been working tirelessly in terms of design and product development in the past 6 weeks. Here’s a quick update and we’d really appreciate it if you could take a look and see if there’s any way you can support us with our current asks. |
🚀 Primary Updates |
We’ve just rolled out a new smart invoicing module, designed with a user experience inspired by Stripe, but with our own improvements under the hood. The UI is clean and intuitive, but what really sets it apart is how it integrates seamlessly with our internal data pipeline. This feature is now live for our beta users, who will get 2 months of free access. Beyond that, invoicing remains free unless integrated with third-party payment gateways, in which case a usage-based fee applies. In the next 3–4 weeks, we’ll be rolling it out to the public. We’re expecting a surge in demand on our technical infrastructure, as a large number of users from our waitlist will be onboarded through this feature while we continue fine-tuning our R&D in the background. We’re also excited to announce our partnership with Cradle Fund Malaysia, starting June 1st, 2025. Through this, we’re supporting startups—especially those in Cohort 4 and beyond—by solving a pain point most founders still struggle with: manual bookkeeping. With Cynco, founders no longer need to worry about data entry or account classification. Our platform handles the dirty work so they can focus on growth, not spreadsheets. |
We had the pleasure of joining a Ramadan dinner with Artem Ventures and their portfolio companies. As part of their shadow portfolio from the first cohort Bootcamp, we’ve been fortunate to receive continuous support and new opportunities. This time, we were introduced to several established founders from Kiddocare, Ejen2u, and Perwarisan—whom we’ve already started collaborating with over the past two weeks.
Special thanks to Omar for the introduction and his ongoing efforts.
We’re also excited to share that the renowned BFM89.9 has come on board as one of our early adopters. Their accounting department is now transitioning to the cloud using our platform and adopting workflow automation. We’re truly grateful for the trust and the opportunity to serve such a respected brand.
📈 Customer & Revenue Growth
• MRR Growth: Our Monthly Recurring Revenue hit $9.7K, up to almost $2K over the past two months thanks to converting more waitlist folks into paying users.
• Other income: We’ve generated some additional revenue through enterprise consultations with various startups and firms. While this revenue stream is variable and somewhat ambiguous, it carries a very healthy margin. Since we currently have the bandwidth, we’re actively working with these clients to understand why they need this kind of solution, and whether the problem can be solved using a similar approach to how we built Cynco.
• We’re in the process of finalising the problem statement. Although the specifics vary, the general pattern we’re seeing is that these businesses lack visibility into what’s actually happening within their accounting and finance departments.
• Currently we have a good problem, after Hazli’s LinkedIn post went viral with over 150,000 impressions and some controversy, we experienced our highest website traffic to date—8,589 unique visitors—which led to 372 new sign-ups on our waiting list; we’re now actively engaging with them, asking key questions, and expect to be busy over the next few weeks speaking with potential customers.
You may find the post below.
🤖 AI & Tech Updates
• We recently invested $9.5K in three new GPUs to accelerate our AI development to specifically focusing on our categorization model, as we’ve identified the sweet spot for training and fine-tuning. We see this as a valuable long-term investment and believe it’s best to make the move now while we’re still cash-positive.
Here’s our CTO hard at work (after we treated him to a big lunch).
We had to relocate our GPUs to Ipoh, about two hours from our office, as the maintenance costs of space, utilities, and occasional on-site monitoring—were getting too high. Shukri will be on the ground from time to time to help keep an eye on things.
And,
• Our AI categorization now hits higher accuracy for invoices and bank statements. Plus, we’ve expanded into real-time financial insights and predictive analytics.
We’re doubling down on AI, focusing on building a smaller, faster model that can solve highly complex problems while remaining cost-efficient to maintain. After completing the categorization phase, we’ll move on to developing a few multimodal components to streamline output—particularly in automated financial report generation. We also want to ensure the system works seamlessly with professional accountants, as many customers have asked whether experts can be granted access.
💡 Pricing
• Our new credit-based pricing is live, but we believe customers would prefer the fixed pricing model we’ve proposed. We’re still fine-tuning everything based on their feedback!
🎉 Events & Community Fun
• We've opened a waitlist for a fun gathering event aimed at accountants—already 69 people have signed up! (mostly from our community on whatsapp, we’ll be launching our campaign on social media soon to attract more sign-ups. Clearly, there's a real interest even without marketing.
• Our blog and YouTube channel are launching soon (Early May) expect plenty of helpful tips and stories for startups and SMEs. We're also inspired by companies like Buffer and are exploring ways to share our startup journey openly, including finances and salaries.
Oh, and one more thing… Cynco will be running an internal bootcamp. I (Hazli) and the co-founders, Hazqeel and Shukri, that we’re heading to a quiet location for two days to focus—just shipping for 12 hours a day, with some time for exercise and good food. The goal is to see how much we can achieve in a short, focused sprint. Hazli also be presenting the product roadmap, along with some personal frustration around the urgency to accelerate our progress. We have many customers waiting, and it’s critical that we deliver consistently and sustainably.
🤝 How You Can Help
• Know any big firms looking for AI solutions for their accounting operations? We'd love an intro!
• Any introductions to VCs, angel investor syndicates, or potential collaborators such as accelerators or government agencies—that we could engage with to explore opportunities for our tech would be greatly appreciated.
• Opportunities to showcase Cynco? We’re open to booth expos & events from July onwards. Let us know!
BFM Radio Feature 🎙️
📅 March 13, 2025 – Hazli recorded a session with BFM 89.9, one of Malaysia’s leading business radio stations.
💡 During the interview, Hazli shared the story behind how and why we started Cynco, what we do, and how we’ve grown—scaling revenue from $1K MRR to $2K to $5K and beyond. We also touched on our competitive landscape and the risks we face. Since time was limited, we couldn’t cover everything, but we hope to share more in the future!
Hazli with Roshan, who was complaining about being tired since our recording was scheduled at 5 PM.
Gratitude 🙌
A huge thank you to our stakeholders who have been tirelessly making introductions for us—we’re working just as hard to serve and deliver value to them.
Special thanks to our new intern, Ariz. He’s incredibly talented—he redesigned our wireframe and even created a demo video for us! Out of 89 applications, we conducted 15 interviews and selected Ariz because he showed exceptional potential. We’re excited to monitor his progress and support his growth. 😊
Thanks a lot and see you in our next update! 🚀
Hazli is currently in Tokyo, attending Spring Summit on Open Problems for AI
We’re looking forward to hearing updates on AI development from top AI researchers and founders from Silicon Valley, Tokyo, and Beijing.
