Flinq's journey from Product to Platform

As part of our technology series, we wanted to share our journey from building a minimum viable product (MVP) to evolving into a multi-capability platform. It’s been a ride, and there are some lessons that might resonate with anyone building technology products in a niche market.

MVP

When we started Flinq, we had a clear vision of what we wanted the platform to become. But we also knew that trying to build everything at once was a recipe for failure. So we focused on our MVP — the smallest, most impactful thing we could build to solve a real problem for TCSPs.

For us, that was bank statement processing. TCSPs spend an extraordinary amount of time downloading, formatting, and importing bank statements into their administration systems. It’s repetitive, error-prone, and adds no value. If we could automate that, we’d have something worth paying for.

So that’s what we built. A secure connection to banking partners via SFTP, automated retrieval of bank statements, parsing them into structured data, and delivering them in a format ready for import into administration platforms.

It wasn’t glamorous. It wasn’t a full platform. But it solved a real problem, and our early clients loved it.

The lesson? Start with the pain point that hurts the most. Don’t try to boil the ocean.

Before launch we already had a roadmap

Even before we launched the MVP, we had a roadmap. Not a vague “wouldn’t it be nice” list, but a structured view of where we wanted to take the platform over the next 12-24 months.

Our roadmap was built around a simple principle: follow the money. Bank statements come in, payments go out. If we could handle both sides of that equation, we’d have something genuinely powerful.

The roadmap looked something like this:

• Phase 1: Bank statement retrieval and processing (the MVP)
• Phase 2: Payment file generation and submission
• Phase 3: Multi-bank connectivity and format support
• Phase 4: Reconciliation and cash management tools
• Phase 5: Treasury services (FX, pooling, optimisation)

Having this roadmap was crucial. It gave us direction, helped us prioritise, and allowed us to have honest conversations with clients and prospects about where we were and where we were heading.

The art of saying no

This is perhaps the hardest lesson in building a product. When you’re a small company with a growing client base, every client has ideas, requests, and “must-haves.” And many of them are genuinely good ideas.

But you can’t build everything. And more importantly, you shouldn’t.

We learned early on that saying yes to every request would pull us in a dozen different directions, slow down our core roadmap, and result in a product that was a mile wide and an inch deep. Instead, we developed a framework for evaluating requests:

• Does it align with our roadmap? If yes, it might accelerate something we were already planning.
• Does it benefit multiple clients? We’re building a platform, not bespoke solutions. Features need to work for the many, not the few.
• Does it deepen our core value proposition? If it makes our banking connectivity and cash management capabilities stronger, it’s worth considering.
• Can we build it well? A half-baked feature is worse than no feature at all.

If a request didn’t pass these filters, we said no — politely, with explanation, and often with a suggestion for an alternative approach. It’s not easy, but it’s essential.

So where are we on our roadmap?

We’re pleased to say we’ve delivered on the core phases of our original roadmap. Flinq now handles:

• Automated bank statement retrieval and processing across multiple banks and formats
• Payment file generation in ISO 20022 and bank-specific formats
• Multi-bank SFTP connectivity with growing API capabilities
• Reconciliation tools that match transactions across systems
• Treasury services including FX management and cash pooling

But the roadmap doesn’t stop. We’re constantly evolving based on client feedback, market developments, and our own vision for what TCSPs need.

Current areas of focus include:

• Deeper integration with administration platforms
• Enhanced reporting and analytics
• Broader bank connectivity (more banks, more jurisdictions)
• Advanced cash management and optimisation tools

Recap

Building a product in a niche market is challenging but rewarding. Here are our three key takeaways:

1. Start with an MVP that solves a real, painful problem. Don’t over-engineer. Get something into the hands of users as quickly as possible and learn from their feedback.
2. Have a roadmap, but hold it loosely. Know where you’re going, but be prepared to adapt based on what you learn. The roadmap is a guide, not a contract.
3. Learn to say no. Not every good idea is the right idea for right now. Stay focused on your core value proposition and build depth before breadth.

We’re proud of how far Flinq has come, and we’re excited about where we’re going. If you’d like to learn more about our platform and how it can help your TCSP, let’s talk.