Starting a business is one of the hardest, but also most rewarding things you can do, especially if you’re of an entrepreneurial mindset.  In our second profile snapshot with industry executives and thought leaders, we hear from Cynthia McCahon, the CEO and founder of Enloop (see our initial coverage here).  It’s a web-based tool designed to help you envision and plan for your startup, projecting quarterly earnings, auto-creating your written business plan and ultimately helping you determine whether or not your “great idea” is worth your time and resources.  Here McCahon offers insight on the empowering nature of data, some forgettable misconceptions that plague today’s entrepreneur, and a few things she simply can’t live without.

What’s your dream startup and where would it be?

Enloop, of course! I founded Enloop after encountering many business owners who didn’t have the financial training to write an accurate business plan — or the time to learn how to do it correctly. I wanted to try and solve that painful problem by creating an efficient, automated system that users could access for free, anywhere in the world.

I believe this is this missing link in why our small business failure rate is so high in the US. There’s never been a systematic approach that anyone can use to evaluate their risk of failure, either for a startup or an existing business. Unlike other software that helps users create static business plans, I created an easy-to-use app that automatically generates customized business plans with bank-ready financial forecasts, in real-time. Enloop then forecasts the businesses odds for success with an interactive FICO-like score. Most importantly, Enloop explains the difficult concepts of financial forecasting to users so they can really understand their financial risk and make better decisions.

Since our launch in May of 2011 we’ve had a tremendous organic response from users all over the world and we’re growing at a fast rate. We’ve really hit a nerve in solving the problem of how to vet any business idea and painlessly generate an accurate business plan. Making it free levels the playing field. I couldn’t be happier working with my innovative team here in my home town of San Francisco. The environment is ripe for disruptive ideas that can really help the world be a better place.

Enloop provides a way for consumers to put the power of data in their hands.  What’s the most important way data can capacitate entrepreneurs and consumers?

Data has the ability to enable people because knowledge is power. The proverb of ‘teach a (wo)man to fish and you have fed him/her for a lifetime’ is central to what we’re creating. By creating a feedback loop in the form of a real-time predictive score, we allow the user the luxury of being able to see into the future based on their choices today. The score rewards good planning and discourages poor planning. It helps the user understand whether or not it’s a good idea to move forward. If it’s a good idea, users can take our feedback to revise their plan and test it again. If the idea doesn’t look promising, we lay it on the line for the user. That’s the power of data–allowing users to improve their ideas and make better decisions.

Name three things you can’t live without.

The first thing I can’t live without is quality rest & relaxation with friends and family. Starting a business like Enloop takes hard work and long hours. Burnout is a danger, especially during the first two years. I try to strike a good work/life balance so I can recharge and come back to work with my priorities straight.

The second thing I can’t live without is a central part of this work/life balance:  my Cannondale road bike. Long distance cycling is a big passion for me. It’s also where ideas can tumble out of my head, of which I never seem to have a shortage. I scale my ideas so I know when to let the lesser ideas go. Then I try to organize my thoughts and ideas and go forward with the ones that have the most appeal.

The third thing I can’t live without? Caffeine.

What are three things every entrepreneur should forget? 

The first thing entrepreneurs should forget is writing a traditional business plan for their business idea. Nobody should write a time-consuming business plan before they’ve even tested their product. It’s an exercise in futility. A business plan is just a theory. Your job is to test your idea first, in the most basic of ways. If it has promise, then go to the next level of really simple forecasting.

Then, if you have actual evidence that your idea is good, the next thing you should forget about is everyone who doubts you. Listen carefully to good advice and customer feedback, but ignore naysayers like the plague. I call them WOT’s — they’re Wastes Of Time. They’re closely aligned with the WCS’s of the world — the Woulda Coulda Shoulda’s.

Finally, forget that you might be afraid. Fear is an enormous roadblock and can keep you from pursuing your dreams. Imagine what could be the worst thing that might happen if you try but fail. Compare that to never trying at all and regretting that you didn’t go forward due to fear. Don’t let fear win.

Data is an emboldened way to see the future, helping entrepreneurs balance and predict what’s to come.  What does balancing the future mean to you?

Balancing the future of data means developing free apps that truly help people in their daily lives. The balance we can strike is one of leveling the playing field. It’s a powerful equalizer, an antidote for rampant over-commercialization and excess profiteering. Enloop is a good example of the positive innovation we can create through the power of data. We can help neutralize the damaging effects of failed businesses and propel job growth through encouraging more successful opportunities. We can help one another in ways that make us all better for the effort.