Case Study: Embr Labs

In the life of a startup, there are many twists and turns and the company must take massive maturing steps to evolve and meet every challenge. 

Embr Labs, going from pre revenue in 2015 to millions in revenue today has taken many of those big steps and met the challenges in front of them. 

And for a company to make that journey, the financial system has to grow and mature along with the rest of the company. For Embr Labs, they’ve partnered with New Economy CPA since 2015 to help them through multiple funding rounds and to become the mature company they are today. 

Working with Investors

For any startup raising capital is the place to start. And this is ultimately a financial question. Before Embr Labs had raised any money, New Economy was by their side as a helping hand. 

Building a Financial Model

Sam Shames, Co Founder and COO at Embr, put it this way: “They helped us build a financial model. We were engineers, so they really took the time early on to learn how to think about our metrics.”

An Art and Science

Liz the CEO at Embr Labs said the experience New Economy brought through all rounds of financing was helpful:

“When you’re raising capital, one of the most important things is that you can show a financial model that is taking your strategic assumptions and translating them into numbers. And that’s really an art and a science. I think that’s where New Economy really added a lot of value.”

An Extended Part of the Team

New Economy has truly become an extended part of the Embr team, as they’ve been alongside them during growth. And this is helpful for a busy startup that is needing to continuously monitor results and check in on their progress.

‘The Models Look Strong’

“I think a lot of startups don’t appreciate the fact that if you don’t have a good finance and accounting team, things could really fall apart with investors, Sam said. “We are consistently told that our models look strong, our books are in order. These are the things that normally investors will look at and we’ve never had an issue.”

Confident in the Numbers

“New Economy can ramp up the monthly close process to match the complexity of the business,” Sam said. “And today they’re handling revenue recognition from multiple channels, managing deferred revenue prepayments, all that. And we’re able to close our books on time and feel confident in the numbers.”

Staying Focused on What’s Ahead

Ultimately the goal of your financial partner is to work in the background. They are there working for you, but ultimately, you’re focused on what you need to focus on. 

With Embr Labs and New Economy, the partnership works out beautifully like this, as New Economy is always there as Embr Labs continues growing. 

“New Economy has been able to respond to us as our needs have changed,” Liz said of their partnership. “And as a CEO, the last thing I want to think about is our accounting and finance capabilities. And I can tell you that with New Economy,  we see them as an extended part of our team. And we rarely have to think about challenges in those areas. And that allows us to sleep at night and focus on the business.”

Need a Financial Partner that Can Grow With You?

New Economy CPA helps entrepreneurs gain control of their finances to make smart decisions to build and grow their businesses.. If you’d like to work with us, schedule an appointment and learn more about how we serve entrepreneurs.

Case Study: Home Health Smiths Transforms into Data-Driven Machine

From Juggling Tasks, to Alignment and Focus

In any entrepreneurial endeavor, the greatest challenge often becomes managing resources. You always have more moving parts than you have hands to juggle those components. 

This balancing act of maximizing resources often leads to massive amounts of anxiety, and wasted effort. 


Managing cash. 

Managing people.

Managing time. 

But there are businesses that move beyond this constant management, and gain clarity over their efforts and direction. These companies move beyond anxiety and into processes. 

Enter EOS

In this case study, we’ll meet Home Health Smith, a 14-employee company with over $3M in annual revenue who has streamlined operations with EOS, and become a data-driven profitable machine. 

About Home Health Smith

Home Health Smith provides accessibility and mobility solutions for elderly to safely age at home. They have services, and products serving primarily the New England area. They exist to improve people’s lives.

Their founders are a husband and wife combination, Linda and Bill Bombach who have had a successful career selling their first Company and launching HHS 10 years ago.

New Economy CPA

New Economy runs on the EOS process, and part of the financial services with Home Health Smith included improving processes, and moving the company onto a system for data-driven predictable growth. 

In this case study, we’ll walk through the steps taken, and improvements seen by transforming Home Health Smith from a typical scattered company, to a process-driven aligned business with a clear focus.

Setting the Vision

While a big part of EOS is processes and data, none of this can happen until there is alignment about the vision. 

Home Health Smith worked with New Economy to create a 3 year vision and 1 year plan for the business, along with a set of core values that are currently displayed on the website.

The Power of Focus

Creating a vision allowed for the company to completely transform. Bill likes to use an analogy of rowing many different boats separately versus all rowing together in the same direction. 

The vision brought this clarity of purpose, and united the team to work together on a shared mission. 

“It’s changed us immensely.” Linda said of the move to clear goals. “Instead of all moving separately, we work around our goals and core values.”

Focus Brings Accountability and Speed

With the vision in place, the goals can break down at a much more granular level. 

One of the biggest improvements seen due to focus is with quick, meaningful decision-making. Bill said prior to implementing EOS, the company would tolerate mediocrity much longer. 

Now, the business has a vision, core values, and clear weekly measurables leading to quick action when something is not on track.

“The speed has been key for us.” Linda said. “Now we reward, hire and fire based on our core values. It doesn’t take long to to make decisions, where before we’d talk about things for so long.”

Working Together to Reach Goals

This accountability plays out in a variety of ways, but ultimately the team is responsible for specific measurable targets. 

In any business, creating a vision should be tied to data. You are at point A, you want to get to point B. What are the specific daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly steps that have to be taken to get from A to B? 

This is what clarity looks like, and when you are not on track to hit your goals, everyone knows it because the leading indicators are pointing to an issue. That means you can adjust quickly and get things back on track.

Bill said this has also brought the team much closer together, because of the added accountability. 

Scorecard: Using Data to Reach Your Targets

Everything stated above is essential for business growth and success. 

You need a team working together.

All of that sounds great, but ultimately falls flat unless there is a data-driven plan for execution. This is why the EOS system ultimately relies on numbers. 

A major component of EOS is the scorecard. With the scorecard, you break down your long term goals into weekly measurables that are tracked to keep everyone on target. 

For Home Health, their scorecard begins with a cash model that New Economy helped them build. With their cash flow model, now their vision and plans have a direct correlation with adding cash in the business. 

Jeff at New Economy explained this process is often the most powerful piece for businesses. At New Economy it’s built into how they work, as they start with the 3 year vision, and 1 year plan, then break down into projections that support these plans. And out of the plans, they create quarterly measurables around revenue, gross profit % and net profit %.

Finally, the relationship between an accounting advisor and a business comes down to trust. All the data in the world won’t help unless there is a mutual agreement on the direction, and reliable numbers to back it up.

For Home Health, this is the most important aspect New Economy brings to the table, and why they’ve been a crucial partner for the growth of the business. 

Bill agreed and said this level of trust and transparency allows him to do what he does best. 

“I’m the visionary in the company, and have ideas.” Bill said. “So knowing the financial side is covered, and I can trust the numbers allows me to stay focused on the big picture.” 

Work with an Accounting Firm to Help You Reach Your Goals

New Economy CPA is all about helping entrepreneurs gain clarity and grow their businesses just like in the story above. Book at time with us here and we can discuss how we might be able to help.