How Science On Call Used a
Financial Model To Find
Stability in a Volatile Market

You never know what tomorrow will bring. It’s as true in business as it is in life, and no founders have learned this lesson better than Luisa Castellanos and her co-founders at Science On Call in Chicago. They launched a new service for restaurants in January 2020, about three months before Illinois prohibited all indoor dining in March.

Science on Call provides tech support to restaurants. In January, the founders felt that the timing of their launch was ideal. Many restaurant owners were overwhelmed. Their networks had become increasingly complex as they moved from simple credit card terminals to a range of point-of-sale solutions, online ordering systems, delivery services, loyalty programs, and more. Providing a single point of contact for all of their technical issues was a great value proposition.

Then, in March, the pandemic brought everything to an abrupt halt. With some of their customer base closing up shop and others looking for any opportunity to cut costs, the founding team knew that they needed to take swift action.

Adopting a Financial Model

Luisa had completed a financial modeling workshop, and she used those skills to create a spreadsheet financial model for Science On Call. That model served the company well during its crisis. It allowed the team to plan their runway with a much slower rate of growth, delayed hiring plans, and many other changes.

In Luisa’s words, “It seemed like a great way for our team to collaborate and visualize the business together. Just the simplicity of being able to access it and make updates on an ongoing basis, and add new scenarios when you’re considering big changes. It’s a really easy way to do that.”

After implementing Forecastr, the team at Science On Call embraced the ability to easily track their cash flow, balance sheet, and income statement over time. “The team members found it really simple to use,” said Luisa.

And it didn’t take long for the team at Science to find other uses for the model. Luisa explained, “The modeled hires tool has been really helpful for us. We’re growing pretty quickly and we use it to figure out appropriate salaries and make sure we’re hiring at the right time. Our new process is much cleaner.”