Yorkshire entrepreneur Michael Gould has launched a new venture, Kaleidoscope, which he says will transform business planning for small enterprises.
After earning a Mathematics degree and a MSc in Computation from Oxford University, Gould has been working as a software engineer and technology entrepreneur for more than 40 years, most recently as founder and CTO of tech unicorn Anaplan.
He works from his home in North Yorkshire, where he lives with his wife and large family. The couple have birth and adopted children, grandchildren and have been fostering young refugees for the last seven years, as well as hosting families from Ukraine.
After the successful IPO of Anaplan on the New York Stock Exchange, Gould took just two weeks off work before starting work on his next venture, a new business planning software company, Kaleidoscope.
Kaleidoscope is designed to give businesses confidence in their decisions. From deciding what products to offer and planning stock levels, to understanding production costs and managing cash flow, it offers a simple, affordable and powerful solution that allows businesses to plan and operate effectively.
The company’s mission is to streamline the processes of analysis, forecasting, and planning in a complex and uncertain world, allowing businesses to focus on what truly matters. The software aims to help decision-makers gain a clearer understanding of their world, whether in business, philanthropy, government or beyond and explore possible futures that lead to better, more informed decisions.
The Kaleidoscope team are working with a number of small businesses in a unique early adopter program, offering complimentary access to the planning tools in return for providing feedback on user experience.
Gould said: “I finished with Anaplan intending to start again because I recognised that there was an unsolved problem. It was always my intention to build a system where users can create a logical data model that naturally reflects what is happening in the real world, and we made some progress toward that at Anaplan. But we found that the system still wasn’t a match for the complexity of the real world. This time around we have a good idea of how to solve this.
“We’ve also recognised that most modelling software out there is not accessible to smaller businesses. They can’t afford to bring in external consultants to implement such complex, heavy-duty systems. So initially we’re trying to provide a modelling platform for these smaller companies.”
One of the ways Kaleidoscope intends to make this accessible to small businesses is by providing out-of-the-box templates, so that businesses can get started easily. However, they are approaching it differently than it’s been done in the past.
“This has been tried many times over the years in our industry, but it has never been done successfully. Out-of-the-box solutions are either too simple – trying to solve only the most basic things that everyone has in common – or too complex – trying to do everything for everyone. We recognised that users need to be able to assemble their solutions from smaller building blocks that plug together, so they can get to a solution that really works for their business. This is a problem that just hasn’t been solved, either in spreadsheets or any of the bigger enterprise systems”
One of Gould’s missions is to help businesses replace the use of spreadsheets when it comes to business planning. He explains:
“Spreadsheets are incredibly easy to get started with, but then they quickly become very complicated if you’re trying to plan your business with them. That’s why we want Kaleidoscope to replace the use of spreadsheets for business planning.”
Asked what he will be doing differently this time around, he said: “We are taking our time to get to the point where we have a product that starts to get traction in the market. This is in contrast to a VC funded company that expects very fast growth by ramping up the sales team and engineering team, and is only focused on bringing the next customer deal. Our approach involves improving the product until it begins to sell itself. It will take a longer time to get there, but we believe the product will be better.”
Kaleidoscope is a fully remote business based in the UK, with 18 staff. They are currently hiring.
