War report: May 2022

Posted on June 9, 2022, by Antonio Rodríguez

We share our milestone numbers and objectives in our May 2022 War Report, as well as the learnings and advice we have collected. We hope they will be useful in providing lessons for others who are in similar situations to ours or can benefit from their publication. Building in public is not easy, but we pretend our best.

If March was the month of releases, and April was the “landing to Earth again” month, May has been a transitional one. In May, we have kept building the next job-searching platform, we have achieved the sales targets we set (moreover, we made a new sales record on Manfred sales), new fredders joined our team, and we have drawn up the acting plan for the coming months. Definitely, May was a transitional month. We review everything

Manfred team — Part of the Manfred's team

Sales (without taxes): big punch! We have reached our month goal, but also we’ve made Manfred’s sales record, by having sold 234.046€ in a month. This is great news, not just because of the record, but also because it means our (bigger-each-day) plane is reaching cruising speed.
Billing (without taxes): Also great news. We have balanced the difference between what we sell and what we invoice. Last month’s billing was bigger than sales, and it meant a little lag between both quantities. Now, it is more consistent.
Current: Stabilished. We have under control the total amount of assets and a good balance between what we are selling and what we are invoicing.

MONTH	SALES	BILLING	CURRENT VARIATION
APRIL	185.472€	208.321€	141.866,69€
VARIATION	+26,1%	+6,23%	-56%
MAY	234.046€	221.310€	62.376€

Sales (without taxes): consulting services, Manfred Daily offers, or commissions coming from hiring processes.
Billing (without taxes): invoices sent out. They tend to match sales, but we still have a certain time gap and, in addition, the invoicing assumes the possible corrective invoices that have to be made.
Current: the company's total assets and economic rights (cash, assets, outstanding receivables, and dividends).

Our month goals

As you may know, we don’t like talking just about numbers. They are important, but also the goals our team achieves month by month.

Therefore, May has led us the possibility to reach some important goals. We finally got the first version of our multi-language web page. Such an important step in our internationalization process. For the last two months, our site was just available in English, although the biggest part of our Community is still Spanish. Now you can choose the language and that's a big step.

In this internationalization highway we have also participated in some conferences around Europe, thanks to our wonderful Developer Advocate, Sven Peters. He's been leading talks at JNation, in Portugal, SDDConf, in United Kingdom, and Digit Dev Conference, in Estonia.

Also, in May we have reached an important number: there are already 15.000 of you on our database. Let us a quick moment to dry our tears. This is BIG. Thank you all!

May's goals

Sales

To sell and invoice at least €190K (😊). We did it! And it couldn’t be greater news. Increasing our sales goal and being able to achieve it means our boat is reaching cruising speed. GREAT NEWS. However, we must grow our team to achieve bigger goals.

Development

Finally, enable multi-language version at getmanfred.com (😊). YAAAAAAAAY. Our website is finally multi-language. Each of you can choose whether English or Spanish. We’re still sharpening the translations, as well as fixing some typos.

Marketing

Run our new “data pills” from our database strategy (😊). YAY! We have posted some pills talking about insights from our database, as well as other insights that our recruiters have learned during their careers.
First batch of Montaraz deliveries (😞). NOPE. Ready, but not delivered. Montaraz project is finally ready, and its first batch is almost sent, but we are waiting and depending on some providers and its delivery time.
Translating the website into Spanish (😊). YAY! As said before, our website is now available in both English and Spanish. Our Marketing team has made a great effort in checking and revising all the copies to make sure it is consistent. Anyway, if you find any typos, please, let us know!
First approach to our international expansion (😊). We’re doing great when talking about international presence. United Kingdom, Estonia or Portugal have been some of the destinies he has visited talking about what we’re doing here at Manfred.

Happiness

Focusing on internal hiring (😊). YEP. 6 new fredders will join Manfred in the first weeks of June. Hiring some of them was one of the tasks that Happiness acomplished during May.
New fredder’s onboardings (🤔). Well, there weren’t new fredders who join our boat during May, so there was no need to carry out any onboardings. Any way, May was the month when Lucía, our new Scout, finished her onboarding process and started to fly alone!
Manage monthly Brown Bags (😊). YAY. Totally acomplished. During the month of May we had three Brown Bags: Ángel Garrorena, who head a talk about the “importance of structuring a commercial process”; José Ayllón, who talked about programming languages and frameworks; and, finally, David Bonilla, who held an AMA to clearify some doubts the Fredders could have about Manfred.

June goals

Sales

To sale and invoice at least €220K. Sales goals are increasing as our team grows. In May, we proved that’s something achievable.

Development & Product

Multi-language offers. After having our website available in English, we have to face the challenge of designing a system that allows us to have the offers in both languages, as well.
Allow different views for Manfredite's profiles.
Working with the first batch of beta-testers for the Updating from Asgard to LinkedIn. Our product continues growing. As you may know, our online CV's synchronization already works. Anyway, we need to keep trying with our beta testers.

Marketing

Participating in JNation, VLCSofting, Hired!BCN, Pamplona Software Crafters. We will be participating in many events this month, at least this four. It is a great opportunity for Manfred to take part in this kind of events. Our Marketing team is doing a great job by organizing everything that is necessary.
Organizing the FredCon. LISTEN UP! This is IMPORTANT! June will be the month in which our first conference will take place. We’re REALLY thrilled about it. It will take place on June the 29th at Teamlabs, Madrid. The main theme will turn around HR in the technical world. Tickets are available. IT’S PRETTY FREE!
Building a growth plan for boosting Manfred abroad.
Hire a new marketing intern. As Manfred grows, the requirements for the Marketing team are larger. We do need more hands. For the moment we are 4 Fredders (Coral, Cris, Antonio, and Sven) building Manfred’s communication strategy. A new Marketing intern will be joining us during June to help us.

Happiness

Take care of six new fredder’s onboardings. Yes. As it sounds. In June six new people will join our team. We’re REALLY thrilled about it. Our amazing CHO, Marta Lora, will carry out their onboardings.
Keep the focus on hiring. We don’t stop. We need more people to achieve our goals. Manfred’s doors are always open.
Organize and kick off our second Xuntanza. After our first team-building meeting we had on February, June will be the second time our team manages to gather in the same place. We will be meeting in Madrid at the end of June. Candela and Allison (from operations) are organizing everything, but the Happiness Department is, as well, helping carrying out everything.