What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Final internal board pack by Nell Ashcombe for the quarter ending 30 Sep 2023. It reports contracted ARR of £111k from executed order forms, 6 customers on live contracts and headcount of 9.
What it is: an internal BG-Demo board pack dated 17 Oct 2023, prepared by the CEO for the board. It states its rule as "say what happened, say how you know".
What it claims: contracted ARR of £111k, 6 customers and headcount of 9 at 30 Sep 2023. ARR is "built from executed order forms, not from the amount a deal carries in the CRM".
Risks named: concentration across six customers, key people inside BG-Demo and at customers, and usage measures not yet readable at a glance.
Not settled: the pack gives no month-by-month build or customer split of ARR. It is a 2023 snapshot, so it is not current for today's position.
Body
BG-Demo - Board Pack - quarter to 30 Sep 2023
Status: Final Prepared by: Nell Ashcombe, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder Date of pack: 17 Oct 2023 Period covered: the quarter ending 30 Sep 2023
Purpose of this pack
This pack gives the board a plain account of where BG-Demo stood at the end of the quarter on 30 Sep 2023. It is deliberately short. We are a small company, and the numbers are few enough that every one of them should be understood rather than just reported.
The rule for this pack is the one I want us to keep: say what happened, say how you know. Each headline number below says where it comes from.
Headline numbers at 30 Sep 2023
| Measure | Position at 30 Sep 2023 | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Annual recurring revenue (contracted) | £111k | Executed order forms |
| Customers | 6 | Live contracts |
| Headcount | 9 | People records |
Annual recurring revenue
Contracted annual recurring revenue stood at £111k at the quarter end.
Read the whole document (4,689 characters)
- The figure is built from executed order forms, not from the amount a deal carries in the CRM. The order form decides contracted price and terms, and the CRM is a claim to be checked against it.
- It is annual subscription revenue only. The one-off implementation fee that a customer pays when it joins is not part of it.
- A credit note, if we ever issue one, is a one-off and does not move this number.
What this slide does not show: a month-by-month build of the figure, or a split by customer. With so few customers, the board can ask for both at the next meeting.
Customers
We ended the quarter with 6 customers, each on a live contract.
- A customer counts only where there is a live contract. A CRM stage of "Customer" on its own is not enough.
- With a base this small, each account matters a great deal. One renewal, one upgrade or one departure of a customer champion will visibly move the annual figure.
- Our job with each of the six is the same: make sure their teams stop reconciling systems by hand and start asking the brain, and make sure somebody at the customer can say what the brain is worth to them.
Headcount
BG-Demo had 9 people at the end of the quarter.
- The team covers building and running the brain inside each customer's own Snowflake account, selling it, and looking after customers once they are live.
- At this size, many people carry more than one job. That is efficient, but it is also a key-person risk, and I want the board to hold me to account on it.
How the business earns its money
We earn twice from each customer. First comes a fixed-fee implementation when the customer joins. Then comes an annual subscription, billed in advance, which has to be renewed and, ideally, grown.
For a company at our stage the second engine matters most. Implementation fees are welcome, but the subscription is what compounds, and it only compounds if customers keep getting value.
What we are watching on each customer
We judge the health of an account by trajectory, not by level. For every customer we will track:
- Questions asked. The best single measure of value, and who is asking them. One person asking a large share is a risk.
- Connectors configured. Rising means deeper roots. A connector that stops loading usually means a source system changed.
- Records indexed. Flat for weeks means the brain is going stale, even if nobody has complained.
- Active users and admins. Users above the included number are headroom. A fall, or a drop to one admin, is risk.
- Support tickets, read against usage. Few tickets from a shrinking user base can be silence before churn.
Risks and open points
- Concentration. Six customers means a single lost account would be a large share of contracted revenue.
- Key people. Both inside BG-Demo and at our customers, the departure of one person can change an account quickly.
- Evidence. Some of our usage measures are not yet reported in a form the board can read at a glance. That is on us, and we should fix it before it matters.
Asks of the board
- Confirm that contracted ARR, customers and headcount, as set out above, are the three headline measures for this pack going forward.
- Say whether you want a customer-by-customer view of ARR and renewal timing in the next pack.
- Tell me what else you need to see to feel confident that the six customers are getting value.
Next steps
- Add a one-page usage summary for each customer to the next pack.
- Report any change in contracted ARR with the executed order form that supports it.
- Bring the board a view of renewal timing across the six accounts.
Best, Nell