Cypran Akubude

Why I built Softbooq

Softbooq started with my father's business. He asked me to find a tool to help run it, so I went looking. Everything I found was either too expensive and too complex for a small business to actually use, or cheap but so basic and dated that it offered nothing close to a modern experience. Nothing sat in the middle: affordable, simple, and genuinely modern.

So I decided to build it. The idea was small at first, just something to help one business run better. But the more I worked on it, the clearer it became that countless small and medium businesses face the same gap. Softbooq grew into one platform to run a whole business, finance, HR, projects and more, priced so it doesn't break the bank and designed to feel as approachable as the apps people already use every day.

I had carried this idea since 2016, back to when I worked in my family's business before moving to Germany. I just didn't have the skills to build software then. Modern tools changed that, and let me finally bring it to life. The name Everbright & Co. comes from that family business, Ever Bright Fashion. It is where all of this began.

Why Jacinta

Softbooq's assistant carries my mother's name.

Jacinta was the kindest person I have known. She was quiet, kept to herself, and was loved by everyone around her. She raised seven children, and she was pivotal in building my father's business, the place where the idea for Softbooq was first born.

We lost her to breast cancer in 2014. I believe she is among the stars. That is why our assistant is a star, and why it is named Jacinta: patient, kind, and always there to help, without needing to be noticed.

In her memory, 1% of Softbooq's revenue goes to breast-cancer research, and Softbooq is free for breast-cancer charities.

Cypran Akubude, founder

In her name

Softbooq is free for registered breast-cancer charities and support groups anywhere in the world. We check each one by hand.

Every quarter, we give 1% of Softbooq’s revenue to breast-cancer research, and we publish the amount on this page.

Background

Today I work as a financial accountant while building Softbooq. I hold a BSc in Banking and Finance, so the finance half was covered early. In 2019 I moved to Germany deliberately to add the technology half: I wanted to study fintech, and an MA in International Business specialized in Digital Transformation Management was the closest bridge I could find - it taught me the essentials. The rest came from self-study, with certifications in Python programming, data science and data analytics, and from working across financial controlling, IT management and team leadership. That mix of finance and technology is exactly what an ERP has to get right, and it is why I am building one. I now live and work in Frankfurt am Main - as it happens, the same city that hosts Softbooq's EU data centre.

Softbooq

A simple, affordable ERP that lets small and medium businesses manage finance, HR, projects and more in one place, without the cost or complexity of legacy systems.

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