Over the last 25 years, I’ve started, grown and run a number of businesses — from early-stage ideas through to a business with revenues into the £30m range.
In that time, I’ve used a lot of business software. I’ve always liked tools that genuinely add value: software that helps you think clearly, make better decisions and scale without creating more work than it saves. But I kept coming back to the same frustration. Two of the things every business needs — a financial model you can trust and a simple way to keep projects on track — were either too rigid, too complicated, or far too expensive.
So, like many founders, I built what I needed in Excel.
That worked for a while. But the same thing always happened. The model grew, the formulas became fragile, and I spent more time checking broken links and chasing errors than actually thinking about the business. And once a second person got involved, the risk of something breaking increased dramatically.
Smart Budget was created to solve that problem.
It lets you model your assumptions and produce a proper P&L, balance sheet and cash flow without building everything from scratch. You can set your opening position, add actuals as the year unfolds, and see the forecast update as the business changes. It’s the sort of tool I want when I’m running what-if scenarios, planning cash, or putting a forward-looking picture in front of a board.
Smart Project came from the same place. I wanted a straightforward project tracker that covered the essentials without the bloat — and without paying per seat for people who only need to look in occasionally. It gives you proper Gantt-style planning, dependencies, milestones and a clear view of the critical path, in a way Excel never quite manages gracefully.
These tools were built because I needed them in my own businesses. They have earned their keep there, and that’s why I’ve made them available to others.
The pricing is deliberately simple and transparent: £20 a month for each app, with up to 25 users included, so you’re not constantly counting seats. They’re two separate apps — take whichever one you need, or both. If you need more than 25 users, just get in touch and we’ll work something out.
Chilli Pepper will keep improving. Once you’re using it, you can suggest features directly from your account. I release updates regularly and prioritise the things users ask for most.
So if there’s something you’d like Chilli Pepper to do, tell me. It was built from real business experience, and it will keep getting better through real user feedback.
Jim Driver
Founder, Chilli Pepper