Embeddable API for tax-lot accounting and wash-sale-compliant 1099/8949 reporting; neobanks and investing apps pay per integration. · fintech infrastructure
N7 — established paid category (broker cost-basis reporting); corpus shows zero B2B proof
Time-freedom
7
T7 — productized API, but integration support and annual 1099 season stay hands-on
Scale
6
S6 — US tax code only; buyer universe is hundreds of brokers/neobanks
What the five commandments measure
C — Control
Do you own the customer, or does a gatekeeper stand between you and revenue?
E — Entry
How hard is this to copy once it works? A rival's existence isn't the question — the durability of their advantage is.
N — Need
Is demand proven with money rather than vibes?
T — Time
Can income detach from your hours, or did you buy yourself a job?
S — Scale
How far does it reach without linear cost?
Scored on the evidence below, against CENTS as we've adapted it plus a Buffett-style moat reading of every rival — the same referee for every idea, including the ones we generate ourselves. The verdict follows the arithmetic: we never relabel a score to make it read better, and the weakest commandment is always named. The exact rubric stays in-house so the scale can't be written for.
02 — The pace test — $1M/yr
At $2000/mo (assumed category price), you need 42 subscribers for a $1M/yr pace.
No tracked rivals with verified revenue to benchmark against.
Part II — The Evidence the receipts, good and bad
03 — Rival scan
No similar products found in the radar corpus — either genuinely novel, or too small to track.
Koinly — Positive user mentions for smooth imports/merges; could extend cost-basis engine to equities and embed
CoinTracker — Referenced as the cost-basis calculator of record; brand trust plus capital to move upmarket into API
Olye Terminal — New multi-chain FIFO/LIFO/HIFO engine with CSV tax export — same core math, already shipping
04 — Demand evidence
No radar-tracked products, no funded companies, and zero Reddit signals for these keywords — B2B demand unproven in this corpus
X complaints: 1099-DA forms omit or mismatch cost basis, forcing manual 8949 reconciliation — a real pain, but consumer-side
Traction mentions (Koinly, CoinTracker, Summ) are all consumer crypto tax tools, not embeddable broker infrastructure
Category spend is established in general market knowledge (brokers must file 1099-B/8949), but nothing here verifies per-integration pricing
05 — Risks
Accuracy liability: one wrong wash-sale calculation across a client's book creates IRS/FINRA exposure you cannot insure cheaply
Clearing firms and BaaS providers already bundle tax reporting — your buyer may get it free with their stack
Enterprise fintech sales cycles run 6-12 months with security review; runway burns before first dollar
Evidence points to crypto, not equities — you may be building for a buyer set that doesn't exist yet
06 — Kill switches — what kills this with one decision
IRS / Treasury rule change (e.g., 1099-DA scope, per-wallet basis rules) — Rewrites the rules engine overnight and resets your entire accuracy claim
Incumbent clearing/custody providers bundling tax-lot reporting into their base platform — Your per-integration fee becomes a line item customers already pay zero for
Design-partner concentration — first one or two logos are the whole business — One churn or acquisition erases revenue and the reference proof at once
Part III — The Plan if you insist on proceeding
07 — What this scan can't tell you
Cannot tell whether neobanks buy this or keep building it in-house with their clearing partner
No visibility into actual per-integration pricing or contract sizes in embedded tax reporting
Corpus is crypto-skewed; says nothing about equity/brokerage buyers' procurement appetite
Scores judge the market and business model — not your ability to execute. Verified MRR = independently tracked revenue; reviews/upvotes = platform-reported. Judged 2026-09-26.
08 — The wedge & the next step
Sell equities+crypto unified wash-sale handling to fintechs blindsided by 1099-DA basis gaps — the exact pain the chatter names.
Cheapest next step: Cold-email 15 neobank/investing-app heads of ops offering a free wash-sale audit of their last 1099 run; count replies.
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