Zen99 is closing its doors 8/25

Update: I’ve written a series of posts on our decision:

• Part 1: Challenges of the Contractor Market
• Part 2: Considering Alternatives and Pivots
• Part 3: How to Shut Down Your Startup

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Unfortunately, we’ve made the hard decision to close the doors on Zen99 and return remaining capital to investors. I’ll be commenting more on the contractor space and this decision in future posts, so feel free to follow me if you’re interested.

For now, I’ve included the message sent to existing users below. We’ve ensured there is continuity for them, and we’ve already helped our employees find new homes.

Thank you to our employees for their dedication, our investors for their support, and our users for allowing us the chance to help.

Getting knocked down is hard, but absolutely makes you stronger. I’ll be back up after a short break, smarter and hungrier.

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Dear Zen99 users,

On August 25th, 2015, Zen99 will unfortunately be closing its doors. We’ve been honored to have your support, and hope we’ve made your self-employed life a little easier over the past year!

Three important items:

1. Downloading your data
Go to https://tryzen99.com/data_export (or click on the banner when logged in) to download any business transactions you’ve entered plus any uploaded images.

For security reasons, all user data will be deleted on August 25th, 2015, at 12pm PT, so please ensure your data is downloaded prior to that. We’ll send additional reminders over the next two weeks.

Your emails and data are not being sold, as we understand the sensitivity associated with one’s finances. Which leads into points 2 and 3:

2. Tax help: Partnership/discount with Quickbooks Self Employed
We still want to help you simplify your self-employed finances, so we’ve partnered with Intuit’s Quickbooks Self Employed for your tax tracking and quarterly payment needs. We’ve negotiated the first month free plus 50% off the following 12 months for Zen99 users.

Their product is very similar to ours, plus supports many more banks. Data in QB Self-Employed can also be easily transferred to their other products, like TurboTax when doing your year end taxes.

Check out this FAQ [link redacted] to answer your initial questions about the transition, and then go here to get the discount [link redacted].

3. Health insurance help: Stride Health
The team at Stride Health has done a great job simplifying health insurance for freelancers, or anyone who needs an individual plan (if you aren’t covered through an employer). They’ll recommend the best plans for your situation, help you find doctors and deals on prescriptions, and even determine how your health coverage impacts your taxes.

Go here to check out Stride Health. [link redacted]

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Thank you again for your support, and we wish you all the best in your self-employed endeavors!

Warm regards,
The Zen99 Team