From idea to first sell in 7 days, creating a Tax Report software for Revolut

Success in the world of innovation and creating new products is not only about having a good idea but getting your timing right. Also, a good idea is helpless without being materialized.

For the last couple of months I’ve been trying to have 10 new ideas every day, it is part of my daily routine. But also, most of them, not all, do not leave my notebook.

This is the story of one idea that from idealization to the first sell took 7 days, and was a “success”.

This is the first part of the series, the second one can be found here:

Creating a Tax Report Software for Revolut users from MVP to First Version

The Problem

Revolut does not have a solution for Stock traders to fill their taxes easily. Revolut just provides you with a monthly PDF statement of all the transactions made, making it impossible to manually calculate your taxes. This was a pain for me, for family, and friends that use it to Buy and Sell Stocks.

The Solution

The solution was to create a software that receives all monthly statements (PDF) exported from Revolut, converts them to a readable format, processes all the math needed, and provides the intermediate and final results to users helping them fill their yearly tax report.

Revolut Capital Gains - Automatic retrieval of your capital gains per year

The solution checks the points for a successful product:

1. It has unique features, there are no other alternatives in the market;
2. It has a mass appeal, Revolut is growing in the EU. It is “commission-free” and easy to use. Also, its adoption is reaching even people that had never been in the stock market;
3. It solves a real problem, not just another SaaS or product that copy or modify ideas that exist for long;
4. It had perfect timing, launched on the exact same date as tax report season in Portugal — and within the dates for many EU countries;
5. It has a supportive cost of goods, the cost of the complete yearly solution (25 €) is cheaper than doing it by hand or hiring an accountant;
6. It’s easy to use, and fixes a huge pain-point, not only my accountant but others that I talked to “refused” to make the tax report for someone that has several thousand stock transactions.

What we usually get wrong when starting something new?

We have what we think are good ideas but the most common action is to have no action, leaving them on “the paper” to later regret.

Several reasons appear: “no time”, “too complex”, “I don’t master everything needed for that”.

I too had “no time”: working full-time + business consulting side-hustle + managing my own software development company. But there are always ways where you can speed up the process, MVPs are supposed to be quick and shortcuts can and should be taken.

Frameworks can be used, there are so many things ready and open-source that we can take advantage of, and more often than not it’s possible to see one trying to reinvent the wheel, for nothing.

I too didn’t master everything needed: to finish this product I had to spend some hours studying tax laws and be on several calls with accountants to make sure that everything was correct in terms of tax reporting and calculation.

The important to remember is to keep it simple and just do it.

Done is better than perfect.

Link: https://tax-wizard.eu/