Opportunities › Treasury management and yield optimization for startups › Proposed app
Cistern
Put idle startup cash to work in a managed short-duration bond portfolio
- Score
- 39
- confidence 59
- Evidence
- 12
- items on the page
- Rivals
- 4
- named in sources
- First version
- 60 d
- estimate
- Type
- Desktop app
- PWA: runs in the browser, installs on Mac and Windows
- Market since
- 2017
- Established market · AI estimate
ScreensConcept
Desktop app: Founders and treasury managers review cash splits, yields, timelines and board reports—financial planning work done infrequently but requiring full data review at a desk. Sample screens on a computer, in the proposed brand. Their numbers are sample data.
Reserve split
Runway: 23 months$2.4M
About this appAI proposal
Cistern is a treasury app for founders whose funding round sits in a bank account for 18-24 months. It links your existing bank accounts through Plaid, splits cash into what you need soon and what you will not touch for six months or more, and shows what the second part could earn.
The managed portfolio is proposed as short-duration, floating-rate agency mortgage-backed securities, with a target of 4.5-5% against the roughly 3.5% described for money market funds. Planned liquidity is 1-2 business days. The fee is one flat percentage.
It is different because it keeps the downside in view. Screens show how much value could fall and when cash would arrive, so a founder can decide without a finance team. Targets are goals, not promises, and principal can lose value.
- Tagline
- Your round, working while you build.
- Voice
- CalmPlainCandid
- Why this name
- A cistern stores water until it is needed. That is what reserve cash is for: held safely, available when called on, and not left stagnant.
In the first version
Members say which features they would use. It tells PWAS what people want; it changes no score.
Runway-based cash split
Enter your burn and the app separates cash needed in the next 6 months from reserve cash that can be invested.
No member yet
Connect banks with Plaid
Reads balances from your current accounts. You do not have to move your operating bank or change payroll.
No member yet
Yield gap calculator
Compares a 3.5% money market baseline with the target range on your own reserve, month by month.
No member yet
Downside view
Shows how far portfolio value could fall in a bad year, so a loss like 9% in 2022 is not a surprise.
No member yet
Brand identityAI proposal
Check the name against trademark registers before using it.
Palette
#1F5C57Deep Basin · primary#F6F3ECPaper · surface#1F2A2ESlate Ink · text#D98E32Brass · accent#3C7A9ELake · data
Typography
Aa
Cistern
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 0123456789
Your round, working while you build.
PricingAI proposal
The 0.25% flat fee comes from a public claim about a similar service, which cites 0.15-0.60% for other treasury providers. It is not verified here. The free planner tier is a starting point to test.
Planner
Free
- Bank connection via Plaid
- Runway cash split
- Yield gap calculator
Managed
Contact us
- 0.25% of assets per year, flat
- Managed portfolio access
- Liquidity timeline
- Monthly board report
- Co-founder approvals
What it could be worthEstimate
What a software business making this much sells for today, from real deals. Pick a monthly revenue.
If it makes
Worth about
$194,000
Sale range $132,000 to $263,000
$120,000 a year in revenue
From 87 software businesses listed and sold on Empire Flippers in the last year, revenue vetted by the broker: they sell for about 19× their monthly revenue, most between 13× and 26×.
Measured on profit, the middle deal is 32× monthly net profit: about 2.7 years of profit.
An estimate, not an offer or financial advice. A real price depends on profit, growth, churn, how much of the work is the owner's, and the buyer.
How it would growAI proposal
How the product would reach new customers through its own use, and how the first ones would be found. A plan to test, not a result.
- Built-in loop
- Shared outputs. Founders forward the monthly one-page report to investors and board members. The report carries the product name and a link to the yield gap calculator.
- Do they become customers?
- Investors and board members are often founders of other companies, so some could become customers. Test whether report views lead to calculator sign-ups.
- First customers
- Seed to Series A software startups with $1-5M in the bank and 18-24 months of runway, reached through the founder or finance lead.
- Where to reach them
- Hacker News and founder forums: Share the yield gap calculator and an honest write-up of the downside, and answer questions in threads.
- Accelerator alumni groups: Offer a free runway and reserve review to batches that are dealing with idle cash.
- Startup finance newsletters: Sponsor or contribute a short piece comparing money market and short-duration options.
- First milestone
- Ten founders link a bank account, and three commit real funds to the managed portfolio within 60 days.
Why people already pay for this
- VerifiedBrex's pricing page lists 1 paid plan, at $12 a month, plus a free plan and prices on request for larger customers
- VerifiedHacker News post received 62 points and 92 comments
- Public claimStartups receive large capital infusions from funding rounds that are drawn down gradually over 18-24 months, leaving substantial cash idle for long periods.
- Public claimTraditional startup treasury products offer only money market funds with no sophisticated strategy, yielding around 3.5%.
Tech stack
Every proposal builds on the same PWA base, installable from the browser on any phone or computer. Dashed boxes are what this app adds.
- AppNext.js and TypeScript
- PWAManifest and service worker
- UITailwind CSS
- Data and authSupabase Postgres
- PaymentsStripe
- EmailResend
- HostingVercel
- This app · Bank connectionPlaid account linkingThe concept reads balances from existing bank accounts through Plaid.
- This app · Brokerage and custodyRegistered custodian or brokerage partner via APIHolding securities and moving money needs a regulated partner, not our own code.
RisksAI inference
- RegulatoryManaging client money for a fee and offering securities needs licensing or a registered partner. This could decide whether the product can launch.
- CommercialFounders may not move cash for a gain of about 1 point of yield, and trust in an unknown brand is hard to win.
- DataThe 4.5-5% target comes from a public claim, not verified results. Returns and 1-2 day liquidity may differ in stress.
- TechnicalReconciling balances, settlement dates and transfers across banks and a custodian is error-prone and needs strong audit logs.
- PlatformThe product depends on Plaid and a custodian. Either could change terms, limit access or add cost.
Everything marked AI proposal or AI inference was written by a model from the evidence on the opportunity page. The proposed name must be checked against trademark registers before it is used.