Podcasts about Rod Drury

​Hamish Edwards hasn't told his story in detail before. and so you get to hear it for the first time. Renowned for co-founding Xero with Rod Drury in 2006 in his accounting companies' boardroom, before they ever moved to said apartment. As a practicing accountant at the time and working with Rod, Hamish played a pivotal role in Xero's early growth, shaping the product and expanding its customer base across New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom by closely collaborating with accounting firms.In this episode, Hamish tells us how and why Xero was founded and what he is doing now with https://www.firmcheck.com/. We discuss the importance of obsession in achieving success and whether all founders have to be obsessed or not. Now worth in the vicinity of $300 million, we ask Hamish: Has success changed you? If you are a founder looking to go global, this one is not to be missed.This podcast is brought to you by our amazing sponsor in Vanta and could not be done without them.

How can the private sector work for public good? Rod Drury is a serial entrepreneur and Founder of Xero, a successful tech company based in Aotearoa New Zealand. Since stepping back from his roles as CEO and Director, Rod has been involved in some of the most exciting innovations taking place in Queenstown related to electrification – areas like energy production, public transport, and marine technology. In this fireside chat with Destination Think CEO Rodney Payne, he shares what he has learned from those projects and advice for other business leaders looking to make an impact where it matters.Learn about the latest innovations for tourism, travel and communities around the world at:https://innovate.destinationthink.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Season 4 Episode 84 FACULTY: Joe Woodard CLASS: #GuidePosts TITLE: Let Your Vision Guide Your Mission on Purpose  In this podcast episode, Scott interviews Joe Woodard of Scaling New Heights, CEO of Woodard. The episode covers valuable insights into the accounting industry's evolution, the significance of industry events, the importance of differentiation and branding, and Joe Woodard's experiences and perspectives throughout his career. Joe shares his personal story of how he entered the accounting field. The early days of cloud technology and Joe's experience in starting a consulting practice. Origin stories and development of QuickBooks Connect and Scaling New Heights conferences. Joe's role as a certified professional for Intuit and his contributions to the industry. The purpose and significance of Scaling New Heights as an event for accounting professionals. The dynamics and competition between Xero and Intuit in the accounting software market. Comparing the approaches of AICPA Engage and Scaling New Heights. Reflection on the relevance and necessity of the CPA license in the modern accounting landscape. The importance of differentiation in building a successful accounting practice. Defining and aligning purpose and vision to drive growth and success. The role of personal branding and using one's name as a business identity. Parting wisdom from Joe, emphasizing the importance of not wasting time with non-ideal clients or situations. Shout Outs: Dave Barrett, Expensify, Doug Slater, Scaling New Heights, SleeterCon, QuickBooks Connect, Intuit, Xero, Rod Drury, AccountX, Engage, Simon Sinek, Jack Sergeant --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/accountinghigh/message

Joining me today is Darren Glanville Country Manager - UK & EMEA @ Fathom. Darren is no stranger to the accounting profession and has more than twenty years experience helping accounting practices develop digital strategies and processes to drive efficiencies and profitability. Having worked for some of the biggest software providers including Sage, CCH, and Xero, Darren now heads up the EMEA region for Fathom and is passionate about leveraging technology to drive better business outcomes. Darren is a keen rugby fan (Newcastle Falcons), a self confessed coffee-holic and tech geek, you can find Darren walking his dogs on the beach near his home in Northumberland in the early morning and most weekends. And I'd also like to share with you that I strategically partner with Fathom, and have been good friends with the team since the very early days. In this episode, we talk about . . . The future of the technology landscape?  The rise of a more strategic view of forecasting. One in three businesses is running with less than six months cash. Introduction to Darren Glanville and his journey in the accounting technology space. The profitable and sustainable practice. What an extraordinary journey that you have taken.  The extraordinary journey of an extraordinary journey. The sad passing of Jason Forbes. Fond memories of Rod Drury, Xero founder. How has the accounting profession changed with the advent of digital technologies?  Pivoting from data-driven intel to data driven intel. The power of connecting with people. How the accounting profession has evolved with the advent of digital technologies. API's. Opportunities for accountants in Africa. Faster cadence of development and API's. What's the biggest change in the last 12 months?  End user experience when the platform completely changes. Australia and New Zealand are ahead. The bank feeds are the secret sauce. Darren keeps a tally of conferences he attended. Top tips for other sales professionals in the accounting technology space. Advice for young vendors. What is Fathom's purpose?  Being able to absorb information and connect with people. Collaboration and thought leadership. Fathom provides clarity and confidence to courageous business owners. The dikw model. What are some indicators that someone needs to move away from the spreadsheets?  The ladder from knowledge to actionable insights. Indicators to move from spreadsheets to reporting solutions. The difference between spreadsheets and distributed ledgers. The rise of the digital financial advisor. How do you get bookkeepers to listen to you? The rise of lotus 123 since 1990. The Australian Bas Agent regime. How to get consultants to revisit Fathom. The cyclical nature of the fathom industry. Micro-forecast and forecasting.  Fathom's micro-forecast feature and how it works. How the pandemic has changed the industry. Trends in the accounting tech space. The role of AI in the future of accounting. How clients will consume AI services. What excites Darren most right now?  How to get more information about Darren. What excites him about the next big thing. Darren is exploring how Chat GPT can help practices. Darren suggests starting a prompt club. The importance of being cynical about things. Physical presence changes everything.  I'm Heather Smith and you've been listening to the Cloud Stories podcast..    Connect with me here:  Newsletter https://heathersmithAU.com  LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/ FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind  Twitter: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU Medium: https://heathersmithau.medium.com/  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ANISEConsulting/podcasts

Interview with Paul Dunn Chief Story-Teller at CLARITY, and Co-Founder of B1G1.  

Season 4 Episode 34 | Recorded October 17, 2022 Join Scott for an exciting episode as we sit down with the Queen of the cloud, Heather Smith, as she shares her journey from the birth of her blog to becoming an author. We explore the concept of "glocal" and how Heather's visionary perspective has led her to connect with people from all over the world. Heather also shares her experiences with Xero and the ripple effect that this software has had on other accounting communities. We delve into her travels and experiences at Xerocons. Throughout the episode, we explore the world of accounting and discuss monetization, hard numbers, and strategic partners, while also delving into the power of branding. We explore a range of topics, including the benefits of microlearning, the importance of in-person events, and the value of storytelling. So join us for a fun and informative episode that is sure to leave you feeling inspired and motivated to take your business to the next level. The story of the Queen of the cloud Birth of the Blog and Books “Glocal” The visionary seeing above Rod Drury and Xero The different softwares rippling from Xero Communities from these softwares Traveling and interconnection with people Xerocons, weather, and other things 2020 and Heather's Response The look Rapping and Creatives The socials and using them to educate and write a book Speaking, social influence, and promoting events Heater's podcast and how to use one Different platform styles YouTube TikTok In-person events The numbers and relevant conversations to platforms Omnipresence on the socials The Accounting niche So what about AH? Scott's response, active listening The experience of the audience The guests on the podcast Monetization and hard numbers Strategic partners Bridging apps and accountants Colors Branding Who to get on the podcast Microlearning Getting information from apps Travel stories All the Shoutouts: Xero, Amazon, Apple, dummies, #NiksTips, Rod Drury, Jared Armstrong, MinuteDock, Richard Francis, Tom Wallace, Re-Leased, Timely, Vaughan Fergusson, Vend, Fathom, Blake Oliver, CPA, Hector Garcia, CPA.CITP, David Leary, Intuit, David Barrett, Kellie Parks CPB, Canva, Scott Scharf, Acuity Accounting, Microkeeper, Divvy, Wayne Schmidt, Kenji Kuramoto, Chris O'Neill, Aynsley Damery, Karbon, FreshBooks --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/accountinghigh/message

In this episode, we talk with Ben Pujji who is the CEO of Atomic.io a SaaS platform that helps companies engage their customers more effectively inside their apps. Ben's early career was in banking, creative agencies, and government, before joining Atomic in 2015. In 2018 Ben stepped into the CEO's shoes, pivoting Atomic to focus on its new Action Card platform. Atomic helps businesses include their customer experience with web-based and in-app engagement. Its existing customers include ANZ, Foodstuffs, Kiwibank, and BNZ and its latest fundraising round is aimed at helping Atomic expand in Australia. Investors joining the Series A round include well-established venture capital firms Movac and Sir Stephen Tindall's K1W1, Xero co-founders Rod Drury (who also serves as a director of Atomic) and Hamiah Walker, and former Trade Me executives and shareholders Sam Morgan and Rowan Simpson via their investment vehicles Jasmine Investments and Hoku, respectively. Ben talks about his journey into the role of a CEO that started as a school dropout. He shows how if you say yes to opportunities and work hard, you can be a CEO of a successful startup like Atomic. If he sees two out of three pillars of an idea. He jumps in. Jump into this podcast and listen to Ben's story.

Today I'm speaking with Will Buckley, Country Manager at Xero Australia. Will was appointed Country Manager, Australia in 2022 following other leadership roles at Xero including three years as Country Manager for Canada. As Country Manager, he is responsible for supporting the small business economy in Australia and for Xero's relationships with the Australian government, financial institutions, and advisor community. Will joined Xero in 2015 working in the Australian business, before being appointed Finance Director of the US business and driving the launch of Xero in Canada. Prior to joining Xero, he held commercial finance roles in eCommerce and FMCG. He has a Bachelor of Business from the University of Technology, Sydney. In this episode, I ask What's a favourite song from the 80's? In 2013, you founded buckleybrown, a 100% cloud accounting practice for small business owners based in Sydney. I think what we all want to know is are they getting preferential Xero pricing ?!! And what have you taken from that experience into your role today? Can you share an interesting or fun memory of your time with Rod Drury? You've had quite an interesting career with Xero, in that you've moved from Australia, to the US, to Canada to New Zealand and now back to Australia again. Half of your Xero career you've worked for the underdog, and the other half you've worked for the dominant player in the market. What have you learnt from those two contrasting experiences? Do North American accountants and bookkeepers have a different approach to managing their teams and creating an engaging work environment that Australians can emulate. You're 33 years young, what do you hope to achieve in your role as Country Manager of Australia? You've coined the phrase “Compliance plus Conversations equals Advisory”. What's your take on compliance and where it fits in the future of the profession? I was listening to you talk, and you said something that literally stopped me in my tracks, “Your Client Relationship is your business IP”. Wow! I completely agree, for our listeners can you unpack what you mean by this statement. Beautiful is embedded in the Xero brand. Why should beautiful questioning be baked into an organisational DNA? You've said that you admire Jack Ma, Founder of Alibaba – for his approach to compartmentalising his career journey to be more impactful. Is this something you've tried to emulate? Is there anything else you would like to share with our listeners and how can they get in touch with you? I hope you liked listening to that interview with Will Buckley, Country Manager at Xero Australia. From here, I suggest you join the Xero Mastermind group on Facebook for advanced conversations around the ecosystem. I suggest you subscribe to the informative Accounting Apps newsletter which gives you a great overview of the ecosystem space. Its available at https:// HeatherSmithAU.COM. I encourage you to connect with me on LinkedIn and subscribe to the Cloud Stories podcast. I'm Heather Smith and you've been listening to the Cloud Stories podcast.. Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

My guest in this episode is Tom Wallace, the founder and CEO of Re-Leased Property Software. Founded in 2012 and based out of New Zealand, Re-Leased helps thousands of owners and property managers across the world run their commercial property business in the cloud. An aspiring entrepreneur, Tom set up ReLeased straight out of university after seeing first hand the challenges that his father's real estate business had managing its commercial properties. He was mentored by Rod Drury, founder of Xero who as it turns out also lives near Tom and who he cornered in a local coffee shop to get his advice. Re-Leased was the winner of Xero's emerging add on of the year 2014, as well as finalist for add of on of the year for Australia and UK in 2017. And Tom was the winner of the Rising Star Category for New Zealand in the Talent Unleashed competition for 2014. As Tom explains in this interview, ReLeased has been built for global scale and now has five global offices, and is continuing to expand throughout the world. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/theproptechpodcast/message

K Bharath (KB) stumbled into podcasting when he got a chance to become a sound engineer. He's combined his business skills and techncal skills to help businesses build a podcasting strategy. He hosts the Magic Mic podcast where he speaks to podcasters globally about the trends in the podcast industry and also a co-host for the Vada Poche Tamil Podcast. Connect with KB https://www.podfol.io/cast/k-bharath/ (here) Bio: K Bharath is Chief Engineer at B2B Podcast Agency Pikkal & Co. He has produced over 1,000 podcast episodes across different time zones and countries including interviews with Tony Fernandes, CEO at AirAsia, and Rod Drury, CEO at Xero. He has recorded podcasts and live shows for a host of premium corporate brands including DBS, Deloitte, UTI, NLB, NTUC, Standard Chartered, AirAsia, Xero, Facebook, National University of Singapore, Singapore Institute of Management and the Singapore Government. This podcast was recorded using https://riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_1&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=podcubator (Riverside.fm)  Podcast artwork created with https://partner.canva.com/c/1979438/1278208/10068 (Canva) Another awesome guest from https://matchmaker.fm/register?grsf=3qhvq6 (Matchmaker.fm) Join New West Podcasters Club here https://www.captivate.fm/signup?ref=jenniferfrancis1 (This podcast is hosted by Captivate, try it yourself for free.)

The biggest solar energy venture in New Zealand,  is another step closer.Lodestar Energy wants to build five huge solar farms in the North Island.They've now finished raising $300 million to make that happen.Big names are backing the venture including Rod Drury, Sir Stephen Tindall and Sam Morgan.Lodestone Energy Managing Director Gary Holden told Mike Hosking this is the right answer to make an impact with solar energy.“You need to spread it out, you need to have diversity of locations coming into the grid at dozens of different locations so that the grid gets sort of optimised.”The farms are near Kaitaia, Dargaville, Whitianga, Edgecumbe and Whakatane.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Recorded on 2.22.22 …Happy TwosDay! Today we're talking about Tech Partners… “I'm just pleased to participate in this podcast production pertaining to particular peculiarities of partnership.” Kenji people shout outs: Kenji, Niks, Scott, Joel Lacayo, Pat Perez, Michael Ly, Rod Drury, Matthew, tech partner shout outs: Xero, Relay, QuickBooks, CollBox, Gusto, ADP, Digits, Drizly --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/sonsofcpas/message

In this episode, Steve Vamos recaps on his favourite tips and insights from his guests in the first season of What Led You Here. You'll hear from John Collison, Co-Founder of Stripe and Rod Drury, Founder of Xero, about the importance of having belief in your idea and how using this belief helps to overcome fear or doubt. You'll hear from Emma Lewisham and Anthony Zaccaria about what it takes to build long term business success, And Rashida Gayle on her approach to leading teams. We're gearing up for another season, so stay tuned as we kick off 2022 with more guests, more discussions and more great tips from leaders and entrepreneurs who know what it takes to build lasting business success. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode #22 π's Logic Accounting Brain (feat. Guy Pearson, CEO) recorded 8/2/2021 Guy Pearson, CEO | Chief Ignitioneer | Head Janitor Practice Ignition | Sydney, Australia 2 Trading Places and the Crescendo of Agricultural Economics 3 Being older than your father ever was 6 Aussie Rules IPA, Institute of Public Accountants 8 Do you want $20 in the bank or $20,000 at the end of the year? ***shout out to Xero, Skype, Google Suite, Dropbox*** ***shout out to Receipt Bank, Fathom, and Spotlight*** 11 An online ledger with an API, Bank Feeds, Single Ledger… god bless Xero 13 If you've traveled around the world, you probably bumped into an Australian 18 THE BIRTH OF… Interactive Accounting P/L 21 THE BIRTH OF… My Financial Solutions 22 THE BIRTH OF… My PIR (Property Investment Report) 26 Not doing any day-to-day work in your firm after 3 years! ***shout out to Josh Lance*** 28 Firm Ignition, Group Ignition, and Practice Ignition 30 THE BIRTH OF… Practice Ignition ***shout out to Stuart McLeod*** ***shout out to Matt Allen*** 35 When will everyone see the logic of running monthly retainers? ***shout out to Steph Hinds, Head Ninja @ Growthwize*** ***shout out to Rod Drury*** 37 The 3 F's 39 A Global Mindset from Day One ***shout out to Brendan Allen*** ***shout out to Tom Maxwell*** ***shout out to Don Miller*** ***shout out to Tiger Global*** ***shout out to Relay, Xero, Dext, Hubdoc, QuickBooks*** ***shout out to Karbon*** ***SPECIAL shout out to the Practice Ignition Team*** 49 Smarter Together, Better Together 50 It's the End of the Beginning… --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/sonsofcpas/message

In this episode Steve Vamos chats to Xero's Founder, Rod Drury. As the company celebrates its 15th year anniversary, they discuss Rod's unwavering belief in the key role technology could play in making life better for people in small business, their advisors and communities all around the world. This belief was his north star and a little known company in New Zealand was one of the first to create accounting software in the cloud. The idea took off and today, Xero has  over 2.7 million subscribers globally. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode #20 Prioritizing Work, Relationships, and Finance in your Accounting Firm (feat. Ian Vacin, CCO) recorded 7/19/2021 Ian Vacin, CCO | ian@karbonhq.com Chief Bottle Washer, Chief Janitorial Service, and Chief Customer Officer Karbonhq.com 3 The three Karbon KPIs are Sales, NPS, and Net Dollar Retention (NDR) plus two others, Platform and Innovation ***shout out to Tim Donohoue*** 7 THE BIRTH OF… Triage 12 THE BIRTH OF… Ian Vacin ***shout out to Stuart McLeod*** ***shout out to John Freeman*** 16 THE BIRTH OF… Karbon 18 The bridge between Billing and Time for larger firms 20 Accountant's Stool is made up of 3 Pillars: Work, Relationships, and Finance 26 Why Ian is worried about the future of the profession… 30 COVID could have been the shock to the system that we needed, for better or worse… 34 Stuart the Optimist, Ian the Realist, and John the Pessimist ***shout out to Rod Drury*** ***shout out to Ali Grigg*** ***shout out to Ross Jenkins*** ***shout out to Jeff Phillips*** ***shout out to Amanda Aguillard*** ***shout out to Roger Harris*** 41 Karbon as good stewards for the Accounting Community ***shout out to Chris Farrell*** 45 Ian's realization on how Karbon is such a game-changer in his own life… --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/sonsofcpas/message

Episode #17 Our Fairy CPAmother (feat. Amanda Aguillard, CPA) recorded 6/28/2021 Amanda Aguillard, CPA | @AguillardAcct Aguillard Accounting | Elefant Training | Accounting Salon | Padgett's COO | Xero: A Comprehensive Guide Hello and welcome. We are the Sons of CPAs. Join us as we question the current state of the accounting and tax industry with the next generation of professionals leading this space, we are the change agents in an industry fraught with money and inertia. Let's begin The Sons of CPAs with your hosts, Jason Ackerman and Scott Scarano. 12 THE BIRTH OF…Aguillard Accounting ***shout out to Monica*** 14 THE BIRTH OF…Elefant Training 22 THE BIRTH OF… Padgett's COO ***shout out to Roger Harris*** 26 THE BIRTH OF… The Xero Book ***shout out to Gretchen Rubin*** ***shout out to Rod Drury*** 33 THE BIRTH OF… Accounting Salon ***shout out to Doug Sleeter*** ***shout out to Clayton Oates*** ***shout out to Rachel Fisch*** ***shout out to David Leary*** ***shout out to Heather Satterley*** ***shout out to Jay Kimelman*** ***shout out to Liz Mason*** ***shout out to Jim Jones*** ***shout out to Blake*** 41 THE BIRTH OF… SalonV --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/sonsofcpas/message

Episode #15 The Podfather (feat. Blake Oliver, CPA) recorded 6/14/2021 Blake Oliver, Founder of The Cloud Accounting Podcast Hello and welcome. We are the Sons of CPAs. Join us as we question the current state of the accounting and tax industry with the next generation of professionals leading this space, we are the change agents in an industry fraught with money and inertia. Let's begin The Sons of CPAs with your hosts, Jason Ackerman and Scott Scarano. 2 the Cello and Money and growing up in a Gentile bubble 36 larger CPA firms are giant pyramid schemes 38 what's a product marketer? 40 ExpensiCon 3.0 on Mars 41 an almost fully automated engagement for $1k/mo 42 software companies are so weird 46 Dude SCOTT! for the love of God, let him SPEAK! 47 the next generation of firm owners 50 tips for better podcasting 1.0 ok Blake, did you track TIME? 1.3 will tax software ever be on the cloud? 1.4 will HubDoc ever be inside of Xero? 1.5 Blake's side project, EarMark! 1.8 CPAs creating their own CPE courses for podcasts! 1.11 the best stuff in our profession is professionals talking to professionals 1.13 shout out to Rod Drury for creating Blake, a Greek God --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/sonsofcpas/message

Recorded at Mercure Resort Fernhill at Queenstown Chamber of Commerce Breakfast Event.0 - My Intro of Rod Drury.1:35 - Speech starts, When he first came to Queenstown when Xero started - Did you buy shares?2:46 - Retired 3 years ago, what does life look like?3:14 - Covid - More than 2 weeks in one place.3:35 - Where's the best place to live?4:30 - Biking Skyline the first time (like snowboarding)5.25 - Queenstown feels like home. Meeting locals (last 18 months to 2 years)6:30 - True Crossroads - Place to do meetings. Business meeting on a bike. Great base8:00 - Location not as important (jump on zoom)9:00 - Queenstown can be a globally connected place.10:00 - Diversify away from tourism (Tech industry)10:50 - Bring forward Fibre, Cell phone coverage, Rollout 5G12:00 - Innovation Centre, High Speed Electric Car Charges throughout NZ (Every hour and a half)13:33 - If all Campervans were electric. (Know where the tourists are)14:30 - Digital Film Studio Project + Gaming Industry. $12 million for screens, Courses (Amazon, Disney, NZTE)18:45 - 50 Visas - pick specialty areas, tech cluster. Machine learning AI, Gaming, Filming (Google Microsoft - people kicked out of US could come). Affordable housing.22:30 - Transport pod discussion- Tech to solve transport issue. Pods go down cycle ways. Its been installed in Munich. How it could work in Queenstown. Airport into town. Use for individuals and stock26:30 - Mountain bike community. Bike towns Derby in Tasmania and other places. Ski strong actors, Biking is Grass roots. Make Queenstown Whistler of Southern Hemisphere.28:30 - World class trails -build it, maintenance, planting trees, funding31:15 - Friends of Lake Hayes - Cleaning the Lake. 1.6 million funding there to assist the cleanup.34:20 - Air Ambulance at Queenstown Airport.35:30 - Get you and your staff out on the Trails. Business Sponsor a trail, maintenance.37:00 - Question time -37.05 - How do you decide what to dedicate your time to? . Many big chunks of projects is preferred. 5-10 year period of working out systems.39:30 - Leadership should be urgent. recapping44:20 - My question - Retirement - Important things that Queenstown needs to change. Infrastructure. Affordable housing. Pick zones. The Covid Effect.46:25 - Will be speaking at Wakatipu House School.49:45 - Streaming Services - Series been shot here.50:55 - International School in Queenstown no-brainer.52:15 - Government biased against Queenstown. Need to keep landing projects in Queenstown. Traffic, school dropoffs, Cycleways. Top tech people in the world are all here.54.15 - 3 takeways - Everybody is faking it. Clear Vision, Knew Xero would be successful, Capital to execute strategy (raise enough), working on the business so hire to have people working in the business. Hire great people, build the machine.57.15 - Diversify the economy, need to collaborate. Networking, paying it forward X 10. Add value59:00 - Which tech company to invest in now (Story about investing in Elon Musk's stock, not a great investor) Get upset to think about it.1:00.00 - Join the Mountain Bike Club.

Lockheed Martin Space is at the very forefront of our modern space revolution, building satellites and spacecraft to take us further than we've been before and change life on Earth, too. On the first episode of the rebooted, retooled and relaunched Space Connect Podcast, hosts Adam Thorn and Liam Garman interview LMS international vice president Rod Drury. Drury talks about why our new industry is so innovative, how space will rethink how we defend our skies and why his background in the RAAF was invaluable. Finally, the team discusses how feasible it is that man will return to Mars in a decade. Is the will, and the tech, there for man's ultimate mission?

There have been a few changes to NBR's annual rundown of the wealthiest people in the country.Rather than simply focus on wealth for wealth's sake, the editorial team made a call this year to drop the word "rich" from the long-running "NBR Rich List" moniker.List editor Maria Slade said in the aftermath of Covid-19, it was time to rethink the purpose of the ranking system."So, we created The NBR List to put equal focus on profit and purpose."The NBR List honours people who are building enterprises, growing New Zealand's fortunes, creating jobs and giving back."We didn't ask him to say it, but expat American agribusiness investor Tom Sturgess encapsulated the sentiment when he remarked to our reporter: 'Money is like manure, you pile it up, and it just stinks the joint up, you spread it around, it does good.'"The list, which returns after a one-year hiatus caused by Covid-19, features a total 100 Kiwis operating across five categories (Property, Make & Sell, Investment, Agribusiness and Tech & Services).While familiar names like Graeme Hart, the Todd and Goodman families and the Mowbrays lead the Top 10, there are also a few newcomers among the 100 that might catch readers by surprise.The NBR List top 101. Graeme Hart - $11b2. Todd family - $4.3b3. Goodman family - $3.1b4. Mowbray family - $2.5b5. Michael Friedlander - $2b6. Rod Drury - $1.95b7. Talley family - $1.2b8. Bob Jones - $1.1b9. Bruce Plested - $1.02b10. Jim and Rosemari Delegat - $1.01bNewcomers include rocket man Peter Beck; Alison's Pantry and Mother Earth manufacturers Bernie and Kaye Crosby; Jonny Hendriksen, founder of video ad company Shuttlerock; and brothers Chris and Stephen Harris, who sold their gaming studio Ninja Kiwi for $270m in March.To reflect the shifting focus of the list, this year also features a "ones to watch list" that includes Colin Neal and his investment vehicle Polar Capital; South Island venison growers the Whyte family; and Cin7 inventory management system creator Danny Ing.Also, worth mentioning are the philanthropic efforts of some of the influential business people included this year.Douglas Pharmaceuticals managing director Jeff Douglas and veteran investor Sir Christopher Mace's contributions to a $6.2m fund to buy iconic Elliot Bay in the Bay of Islands and return it to the public conservation estate.HW Richardson transport group owners, the Richardson/O'Donnell family, are behind a $33m dementia care village.The editorial team behind the project made a decision this year to exclude those based overseas who contribute little to the New Zealand business community.The biggest departure due to this rule was New Zealand citizen and Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel.The market cap of Thiel's spook software outfit Palantir is large enough to challenge Hart's position as the richest New Zealander.Asked about other high-profile departures, Slade said they "include US-based fund manager Ric Kayne, who has built a few golf courses here but otherwise runs his business interests overseas; the Simunovich family who are mostly offshore-based now; and Lyn Erceg, the widow of liquor baron Michael – she is very wealthy, but does little in the NZ business community".LISTEN ABOVE

IPOs mean pressure and public scrutiny, but for companies with ambitious growth plans they also offer access to multiple large capital raises. In this episode of NZTE's Investment Fix podcast we talk to industry leaders Xero founder and non-executive director Rod Drury and Serko founder and CEO Darrin Grafton about how they fuelled multimillion-dollar – and billion-dollar – growth by opting to list. 

Paul Spain shares why we have a unique opportunity to invite the world’s leading technology firms (among others) to establish innovation and operations hubs in New Zealand.Tech leaders Rod Drury (Xero), Peter Beck (Rocket Lab), Anna Kominik (Wisk) and Bill O’Connor share their thoughts on lifting the New Zealand economy through a focus on Innovation and Technology.  NZ Tech PodcastPaul SpainGorilla TechnologyFree Tesla SuperchargingSpecial thanks to organisations who support innovation and tech leadership in New Zealand by partnering with NZ Tech Podcast:Umbrellar ConnectSumo LogicHPSamsungVodafone NZSpark NZVocus

Today I’m speaking with Shanu Mehta Co-Founder of MMC Convert In this episode, we talk about . . . The four types of Entrepreneurs: Builder, Opportunist, Specialist, Innovator Surreptitiously meeting an accounting legend on her honeymoon, which changed the course of the business. The importance of quality historical data, for advisory How India is navigating the Covid19 pandemic Improving the financial literacy of females and freeing them from oppressive situations How they will connect with the community, now that there are no IRL events planned for 2020. Subscribe to the Accounting Apps newsletter here http:// HeatherSmithAU.COM

Graham Brown talks Rod Drury, the billionaire founder of SAAS Platform Xero. Rod describes himself as “Funemployed” - not actively involved in the day to day running of the business, but serving on the board and spending his days exploring new adventures - from mountain biking to surfing. We all know Xero, but who is the man that turned the Xero idea into a $10 bn SAAS success? How did Xero build a cloud accounting platform that people love?

What do people love about a certain brand or company? Is it the quality, price, looks, or is it the story behind it?When we think of Apple, Microsoft or Amazon, we think of its founders, how they communicate, how they look on stage or on TV, and associate the company around their image. Companies also project their image around how their product or service looks to their end customer.Storytelling a brand is not something new, it's been done for so long. If you ever watched an episode of Mad Men, even in the 60s they were spinning stories. Then why are we talking about it these days?I believe in a world of so many options for consumers, if it's not the story of the brand, it's hard to differentiate anymore. Even their stories become tiring because it stinks of commercialism. Then how do we do storytelling now? People say "authenticity" but we need to dig deeper into what that means. That's how we do it on the Future Design Podcast.Graham Brown was the host of the Asia Tech Podcast, that hosted guests like Tony Fernandez (CEO of Air Asia) and Rod Drury (former CEO of Xero). Currently he is a public speaker, author and advises company on topics of leadership, storytelling and podcast creation.Guest; Graham Brown (http://www.pikkal.com/)Host: Takatoshi Shibayama (https://www.blockshinesg.com/future-d...)Creative Producer: Kash Singh (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kash-sing...)Sound/Camera: Dylan Tan (https://www.willdylan.com)Music: ShowNing (https://www.showningdj.com)

What if there was a plan for a post-Covid-19 recovery – and not just a plan but an ambition? Rod Drury and Roger Dennis want to create a cross-sector, bi-partisan group to use this moment to achieve some big wins, such as 100% renewable energy, nationwide 5G roll-out and an immigration scheme that lures the rich and powerful down under.The pair have had success before. They convinced the government to create the role of chief technology officer, which had a few wobbles but finally occurred in 2019. This latest idea is gaining momentum. I asked if it’s wishful thinking for New Zealand to plan long term.About Rod and RogerRod Drury is the founder of Xero. He stepped down as CEO in 2018 but remains on the board and is involved in start-ups. Roger Dennis is an analyst and innovation consultant with a speciality in scenario planning for large companies and government agencies.

The Epidemic Response Committee is meeting today and will hear from a range of voices – including entrepreneur Rod Drury, academic Max Rashbrooke and New Zealand Initiative Executive Director Oliver Hartwich.National's Finance spokesperson and Member of the Response Committee, Paul Goldsmith believes small to medium businesses are paying a heavy price for the Government's extension of the lockdown period and they urgently need more support.Kerre McIvor speaks to Paul GoldsmithLISTEN ABOVE

Rod Drury (Founder, Xero) talks with Paul Spain about shaping the future of New Zealand - including initiatives and practical ideas for both business leaders and government to get moving on now.NZ Business PodcastPodcasts NZGorilla Technology

TCV believes innovation and great entrepreneurs are everywhere, including the emerging software ecosystem coming out of Australia and New Zealand. TCV GP David Yuan recently had a chance to chat with Rod Drury, Founder of Xero, about how Drury and his team created and scaled a massive New Zealand-based SaaS platform for small businesses around the world. Their conversation includes many lessons for growing companies, including the advantages of a small home market, how to build a global team and business from day one, why Xero went public first and then scaled the business worldwide. For these lessons and a lot more, settle back and click play.

Discover more tech podcasts like this: Tech Podcast Asia. Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency. Enjoy this special celebration for the 500th episode of Asia Tech Podcast. I share the highlights and memorable moments of my podcast journey including the time I ate a scorpion, talked to 2 billionaire entrepreneurs (Rod Drury and Tony Fernandes), and recorded episodes on a bike, in a rice field, at the airport and on the airplane. It's been a wild adventure, thank you for your support and feedback. Here's to 500 more episodes.

Enjoy this special celebration for the 500th episode of Asia Tech Podcast. I share the highlights and memorable moments of my podcast journey including the time I ate a scorpion, talked to 2 billionaire entrepreneurs (Rod Drury and Tony Fernandes), and recorded episodes on a bike, in a rice field, at the airport and on the airplane. It’s been a wild adventure, thank you for your support and feedback. Here’s to 500 more episodes.

Enjoy this special celebration for the 500th episode of Asia Tech Podcast. I share the highlights and memorable moments of my podcast journey including the time I ate a scorpion, talked to 2 billionaire entrepreneurs (Rod Drury and Tony Fernandes), and recorded episodes on a bike, in a rice field, at the airport and on the airplane. It’s been a wild adventure, thank you for your support and feedback. Here’s to 500 more episodes.

Paul sits with Xero Founder Rod Drury. About Us From the Trenches is brought to you by Paul Meissner from Freedom Mentoring and David Boyar from Sequel CFO. Proudly sponsored by BGL and The Outsourced Accountant.

Today we get an inside take on Xero's journey as a publicly listed tech startup from its former country manager, Wayne Schmidt. In this episode, we'll examine the listing process and how an IPO strategy worked for Xero. Then we'll also look closely at the background of the two founders Rod Drury and Hamish Edwards.

Today we get an inside take on Xero's journey as a publicly listed tech startup from its former country manager, Wayne Schmidt. In this episode, we'll examine the listing process and how an IPO strategy worked for Xero. Then we'll also look closely at the background of the two founders Rod Drury and Hamish Edwards.

Simeon Burnett: Sharing in the success of start-ups // equity crowd-funding Simeon is passionate about developing New Zealand businesses into successful international ventures. He spent his first year as manager of a small water reticulation business in Auckland. Then from 2006 to 2015, he held a number of different roles at Fonterra, gaining extensive experience in company valuation, external fundraising, and commercial agreement structuring. More recently he was involved with international business strategy development and financial portfolio management. He is also involved with Lightning Lab and Flying Kiwi Angels. Simeon is the CEO and co-founder of Snowball Effect. New Zealand is fertile ground for start-up companies - easy ones are Xero and Trademe, but some of the new ones like Archipro, Ubco, Invivo, Karma Cola (to name just a few!) are ones that you may not be aware of...yet! As a retail investor, normally the first entry point to participation in the success of Kiwi firms occurs when the company is eventually listed on a public exchange, but what if you wanted to get in on the ground floor? What if Rod Drury offered you an opportunity to invest in his idea of a cloud-based software back in 2006? If you're a more sophisticated wholesale or eligible investor, this isn't new, and you could already be playing in this space, but now, via equity crowdfunding there's an opportunity for NZ everyday investors to share in some of the success too. Democratisation of investing – this trend isn’t going away, and there’s a few business in NZ at the pointy head of this movement – Snowball Effect is one of them. Join Darcy Ungaro and Simeon as they talk about private equity, venture capitalism, angel funding and also equity crowd-funding. There's innovation happening in this space which will be great for investors and new ventures with our #8 way of thinking. Snowball Effect works with companies throughout the growth cycle. Investors on Snowball Effect often choose to invest in companies at different growth stages to fit their investment preferences or help balance out the risk profile of their portfolio. Snowball Effect facilitate both private and public offers for young companies that have already commenced revenue generating activity and have successfully demonstrated traction in the market. Private and public offers are used by medium-stage growth companies to fund growth initiatives such as production expansion, exporting, and marketing. Snowball Effect also facilitate secondary offerings such as rights issues for more mature companies and can assist with IPO distribution. These offers allow Snowball Effect investors to gain easy access to offers that might otherwise only be available to institutional investors. NZ Everyday Investor Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/NZ-Everyday-Investor-338969376637717/ https://NZEverydayInvestor.com We're keeping it real on NZ Everyday investor - we're not journalists and this isn't an interview - it's a discussion, hosted by someone who's genuinely into this sort of thing. If you like what we do, remember to subscribe to our show and share it with others - we'd really appreciate it! You know what else would be make us rather pleased with ourselves? Write a review on facebook too! Where to find Darcy Ungaro: Ungaro &Co (registered) financial advisers https://www.ungaro.co.nz Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UFinServ/?ref=bookmarks Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ungaro.co.nz/

An insightful discussion with guests and leading tech entrepreneurs Rod Drury (Founder/Executive Director, Xero) and Steve West (CEO, Chargenet). Topics included EV tech, development, sustainability, energy independence, public transport in New Zealand and the Porsche Electric Conversion Project that Rod is keen to carry out. If you enjoy our Podcast please support us by subscribing to the podcast on Patreon. The more support we get the more we can cover. Become a Patron! >> Podcast Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/NZEVPodcast/ The NZ EV Podcast is brought to you with the help from OEM Audio, New Zealand’s leading supplier of safe and reliable AC chargers and charging cables. For more information go to www.evchargecentre.co.nz.

Sky vs Spark/Netflix, Arizona and California self-driving car wars, Toyota’s $2.8B self-driving car investment, Australia vs ISP marketing, Advertising Standards Authority and Influencers, Invsta, Rod Drury stepping down as Xero CEO, ASB tech update

The potential Australia’s space sector is significant, with industry hotly anticipating the release of the government’s space industry capability review – and what that means for the sector’s future. The space sector has been growing at a compound annual growth rate of 9.52 per cent for nearing two decades, more than three times the annual growth rate of world GDP in the same period. And the upsides are huge. Join managing director Australia and New Zealand at Lockheed Martin Space Rod Drury as he details his view on the future of the Australian space industry, how Lockheed Martin sees its role in building our sovereign space capabilities and the challenges ahead to realise Australia’s future in space.

Below is an edited transcript of my conversation with Drury during Xerocon. He shared with me why cloud-based accounting provides a great platform for AI, why he wants to help turn account advisors into growth consultants for small businesses, and why it’s important for small businesses to become global exporters in order to grow.

A very special edition of Charged Tech, our first ever full episode with a guest: Rod Drury, CEO of Xero, joins us to talk about the iPhone X, where Apple's at, HomePod, the ecosystem's cracks, being Pixel curious and NZ's super speedy internet. Back to the usual schedule from this weekend!

In this episode, Jason Bates interviews Rod Drury, finding out about his multi-skilled and impressive background which ultimately led to him founding Xero in 2006. We asked about how in his view, Xero is transforming the space for SMBs and accountants, and whether he sees Xero as a disrupter in the space. They also discuss Xero's platform, data and partnership, opportunities post PSD2 and their relationships with banks. All this comes ahead of Xero's flagship event, Xerocon, the London leg of the event that kicked off this week, and we get Rod's view on that, and how he always envisioned Xero being a globally recognised brand. Enjoy the show! Spread the word, tell your friends and don't forget to leave us a review on iTunes. If you want to get in touch, drop us a line at podcasts@11fs.com or on Twitter @FintechInsiders and follow us on Facebook. Special Guest: Rod Drury.

John Cowan interviews the founder and CEO of Xero, Rod Drury. Xero is a leading international cloud accounting solution for small business.Rod was 2013 EY New Zealand Entrepreneur of the Year, NZ Herald Business Leader of the Year in 2012, member of the NZ Hi-Tech Hall of Fame, NZ Hi-Tech Entrepreneur of the Year in 2006 and 2007, World Class New Zealander for ICT in 2008, and Honorary Fellow of the Institute of IT Professionals NZ.

Rod Drury on Xero's next steps. Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/drury-whether-xero-will-follow-pushpays-lead-us-listing-ck-p-205174

Rod Drury is the Founder & CEO of Xero, a multi-billion publicly traded accounting software company. Xero began in New Zealand and is going head to head with Intuit's Quickbooks across the globe. The Company has been a publicly traded startup since the early days because that was the easiest way to raise capital in New Zealand. But now Matrix and Accel have invested and Xero has just hit an annual run rate of $250M in Revenue.

Rod Drury is the founder and CEO of Xero, a cloud-based accounting platform that competes head on with Intuit’s QuickBooks. Started in 2006, Xero now boasts 700,000 subscribers and a market capitalization of almost $3 billion. Xero was picked by Forbes as the World’s Most Innovative Growth Company in 2014 and 2015. Drury got the capital to start Xero from selling another software company, AfterMail, for $15 million plus another $30 million in a potential earn-out—not bad for a company with a little more than $2 million in revenue. Drury offers all kinds of insight in this interview including:   How to avoid the mistake he made in structuring his earn-out, which ended up costing him $30 million. The definition of R&D by acquisition. How to use public company arbitrage to increase the value of your company. How to transition from offering a service to a product. How to get an acquirer to come to you. How to exhibit at a trade show if your goal is to get acquired by someone in your industry.

Today on episode 45 of the Cloud Stories podcast I’m talking with Wayne Schmidt. Wayne has over 28 years’ experience in the accounting industry spearheading the Australian expansion for Xero, MYOB and Reckon. Wayne is passionate about helping accounting firms to grow, embrace change and drive profitability. Based in Australia, and having worked in the USA, UK and China, Wayne has a unique global understanding of accounting firms and the latest trends in the accounting industry. Karbon is task management software designed for accountants. Subscribe to Episode 45 of Cloud Stories on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807 In this episode I talk to Wayne about: From a young age Wayne was a trailblazer – studying applied computer science at La Trobe University – in the early 80’s. So he had a background in computers before we realised how revolutionary they were going to be! Wayne is a programmer and code cutter by trade. After university he worked for old traditional company Norwich Life in Melbourne – writing financial planning software for about five years. They still had a tea trolley! July 1988 he realised the only way he would get promoted is if someone dies. So he left and set up a programming company called Tailored Solutions. He started writing computer software. He did that horrible calculation he timed out his hourly rate by how much he could actually work, plus leave, and realised he was down to not much salary. He’d left a company and just got a job with no one of the benefits of having a job. He realised he needed to do something. He looked around and thought why don’t I sell stuff? If you sell something there is no limit to what you sell it’s not like hours. Wayne had a light bulb moment “When you are selling stiff you can sell as much as you like? Let’s pick the hardest thing that no-one likes selling and that was accounting software! So that’s how Wayne developed an interest in the accounting world! Tailored Solutions sold accounting software when accounting software was really expensive, and before MYOB or other well-known brands were around. Wayne recognised how important bookkeepers were in the industry and launched the MYOB bookkeeper programme. #Trailblazer He redeveloped all the partner programs including the developer and Certified Consultant (CC) program. He started partner programs from his own business Tailored Solutions. Wayne discusses his time with MYOB in the UK. He highlights the lack of development funding and payroll in the solution. Why it was sold and how he sold it lightning fast! You need to invest in your core. Wayne shares his first memory of Xero. It was while working at MYOB – they had a war room – where Xero’s name came up. If you ever hear your staff say let’s have coffee – it is code for I’m going for a job interview. Wayne shares insights into his first meeting with Rod Drury and Hamish Edwards. He thought “This clouds going to go places.” He started as the Country Manager of Xero in 2009. He talks about the early days, limited funds, low customer numbers, big image! He talks about making a video with early adopter Gillian Rossouw. So with all of these achievements what has Wayne won? We discuss how awesome the MYOB CC’s program was – gave you a business and let you run it the way you want it. Wayne actually knows how to use accounting software!! Wayne is self-taught when it comes to sales and marketing. He has done courses, and he observes and analyses and assesses what works for him. Yes Clayton Oates gets a mention at the 19min mark! Wayne and I are competitive when it comes to social media. He is beating me on LinkedIN (10250!), I am beating him on twitter! Both are a way to build up your personal brand. Wayne talks about KarbonHQ a task management solution for accountants founded by Stuart Mcleod. KarbonHQ operates as a triage to allocate email and tasks to staff. It is developing AI, and will be vendor agnostics. Stuart McLeod developed a payroll solution that was sold into Xero, and is the payroll solution users will know. Know who you are marketing too. You have so much control if you know that. Karbon has done a great job of releasing white papers “2016 Karbon accounting trends report” You can download the report here: https://karbonhq.com/downloads/?type=downloads&id=83e07d72-ca1d-11e5-afd8-0236605552d7&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_content=OK-twitter-profile&utm_campaign=OK-%23KarbonTrends Today’s episode is sponsored by Spotlight Reporting. Resources mentioned in this interview MYOB http://myob.com.au Reckon https://www.reckon.com/au/ Xero https://www.xero.com/au/ KarbonHQ https://karbonhq.com/ Connect with Wayne Twitter @KarbonHQ and  @Wayne_Schmidt Facebook https://www.facebook.com/karbonhq Website https://karbonhq.com/ LinkedIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayneschmidt Thanks for listening! What’s been your biggest learning from today’s episode? Share in the comments below.

Rod Drury is the Founder & CEO @ Xero, essentially beautiful accounting software for small business. Xero has received funding from some of the best investors in the world including the likes of Peter Thiel, Accel and Matrix Partners. Prior to Xero, Rod has founded and exited several successful startups including being acquired by QuestSoftware (later acquired by Dell). This success has led to a mass of awards including the likes of NZ Entrepreneur of The Year and NZ High Tech Hall Of Fame.    In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Rod came to found one of New Zealand's breakout tech startup in Xero? 2.) What were the very first days of Xero like? How and why did Rod decide to IPO from the start? How did Rod convey the narrative so well from day 1? 3.) What does it take to transition a firm like Xero from a 50 man startup to a 500 an company? What are the challenges? How do you assure a consistent hiring quality and mechanism? 4.) How are Xero doing in the US in terms of fighting Intuit? Is it a winner take all market? 5.) How was the fundraising process for Rod? How did Rod choose and meet his investors? What was important for Rod when making the selection? Items Mentioned In Today’s Episode:  Rod’s Fave Book: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping our Future Rod’s Fave Blog: Feedly, Techmeme As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Rod on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!   The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa, the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Lees have done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating a luxury premium foam mattress that is order completely online and ships for free to your doorstep. The 10 inch mattress comes in all sizes and is engineered with 3 unique foam layers for a universal, adaptive feel, including 2 inches of memory foam and 2 inches of a really cool latex foam called Avena, design to keep you cool. All Leesa mattresses are 100% US or UK made and for every 10 mattresses they sell, they donate one to a shelter. Go to Leesa.com/VC and enter the promo code VC75 to get $75 off!

Rod Drury who is the founder of the popular accounting software Xero.  Rod is a well known technology entrepreneur, CEO and co-founder of the online accounting software company Xero. He has been recognised as New Zealand Entrepreneur of the Year in 2013, Business Leader of the Year in 2012, member of the New Zealand Hi-Tech Hall of Fame, NZ Hi-Tech Entrepreneur of the Year in 2006 and 2007, World Class New Zealander for ICT in 2008 and an Honorary Fellow of the NZ Computer Society. Xero has also recently been ranked No #1 by Forbes in its list of the World’s 100 Most Innovative Growth Companies. Xero was also recently valued at close to 2 billion dollars.  Lets listen into Rod Drury, interviewed by Startup Grind Melbourne Chapter Director Chris Jounnou. 

This week we talk to Rod Drury (@roddrury) starting with paddle boards and how Rod started in the industry with Microsoft Access and Visual Basic apps before 'why Aftermail' and then, of course, Xero.We cover youth employment/grad programmes and how they can help grow the industry via the small business that are customers of Xero.Rod asks what do you do after you make it big – "buy your silly cars, then what?" and puts his view on  how companies can help in communities to build expertise and greater companies that will help evolve New Zealand Inc. What's next for Xero ... machine learning ... automate everything! ------------------------------------------------------We share the stories from people that work in New Zealand tech, social media, startups. If you have a story or know someone that does - get in touch!Mike Riversdale (@MiramarMike) background is explaining stuff, connecting people and getting things done. Raj Khushal (@nzRaj) background is in video, design, media and making things happen.All our past shows are on our websitehttps://www.accessgranted.nzFollow and Like us on:https://twitter.com/AccessGrantedNZhttps://facebook.com/AccessGrantedNZhttps://linkedin.com/company/access-granted-podcastSubscribe to the show however you want:https://www.accessgranted.nz/subscribe/

Rod is CEO of Xero, an online accounting solution serving over 300,000 small businesses in over 150 countries. He is from New Zealand, and was named 2013 EY Entrepreneur of the Year.

The questions I asked Andrew Sims; Can you explain to our listeners what The Full Suite does? How does your solution benefit the Xero user? How should Xero advisors deal with an IT guy who says a business can’t be moved to the clouds? What inspired you to found The Full Suite? Hint, it involves sitting next to Rod Drury on a plane trip! What challenges have you faced growing the business? Where do you find your customers? How many staff do you have? What do you  look forward to doing most? With your insights and experience where do you think businesses can improve your productivity?   What does the future hold for The Full Suite?

Rod Drury conveys a palpable sense of urgency. If there’s one thing he’s picked up in his many years as an entrepreneur, it’s that having a certain velocity can make all the difference. “Biggest thing I’ve learned in business is actually making things happen. So picking up the phone, asking why, why aren’t we doing it now, why’s it going to take a week, let’s go do it today,” Drury says. “Just driving urgency, and getting things done puts you so far ahead of most other businesses that you can win in a really significant way.”     It’s the kind of attitude you’d expect from the cofounder and CEO of a company that went public on day one, raising $15 million out of the gate with only about 100 customers. (“I think they were all blood relatives.”)   Since that early IPO in 2007, Drury’s accounting software company Xero has been essentially building a startup in the public eye, and that very sense of urgency has translated to some pretty incredible momentum. Over the course of eight years, the company has raised more than $300 million, they now have more than 1,000 staff, and more than 400,000 customers globally.   Not bad for a little company from New Zealand.   In this interview you will learn:   - Rod's key ingredients to success - What it takes to build a Billion Dollar Startup - Why Rod decided to list Xero on the NZ stock exchange when everyone doubted him - How to develop a compelling vision and lead a team to success - How Rod manages his life and work life balance - Raising capital & pitching 101   I Need Your Help!   If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below. It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people!   Leave a review for the Foundr Podcast!  

In this "very special episode" of The Xero Hour with Bob Knorpp and Saul Colt we are joined by Rod Drury, the CEO and Co-Founder of Xero (http://www.xero.com). Rod is the visionary behind Xero and has been recognized as New Zealand Entrepreneur of the Year, Business Leader of the Year, and is a member of the New Zealand Hi-Tech Hall of Fame. In this intimate conversation Rod tells the story of listing Xero as a public company from the very beginning with no revenue or customers, the importance of company culture, why we makes movie recomendations to his staff and many other topics.  For more information on Xero please go to Xero.com Have any Questions or Comments about the show? Please tweet to @saulcolt or @xero with the hastag #xerohour

Ep.12 Barry Dowling – TransferMate Global Payments – Minimising costs and complexities associated with foreign currency payments seamlessly from with Xero Highlights of my conversation with Barry Dowling ·        Spending time to understand your client ·        Using client feedback to tweak the solution offered ·        Achieving the milestone of $5US billion in transfers ·        Using referral links as a marketing strategy Subscribe to Episode 12 of Cloud Stories on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807 Transcript Heather:        Heather Smith here. Welcome to Cloud Stories. Today I’m talking with Barry Dowling. Barry Dowling is the cofounder of TransferMate Global Payments. He is dedicated to making the process of booking foreign currency payments seamless, easier, faster and cheaper. TransferMate Global Payments is a global Fintech company that provides integrated solutions enabling companies to seamlessly process international payments. They provide a 24 hour phone service and online systems to enable clients to seamlessly process their foreign currency payments. They sync with Xero, enabling Xero users to cut down on wasteful double entry and transaction costs when processing payments. Whether your business is based in Australia and looking to transfer funds to China or based in California and transferring to the U.K., TransferMate has the widest collection of payment licences worldwide, enabling their team to assist clients get a better deal than using their bank. I started by asking Barry who is his favourite super hero and why? Barry:             Who is my favourite? I really didn’t expect that question to be honest. I can’t help get Wonder Woman out of my head which is not saying too much but I’d have to stick with Wonder Woman. It’s the first thing that came into my head. Heather:        Sensational. You’re not into super heroes then? Barry:             Listen, I like them all to be honest with you. Wolverine, I’d be a big fan of Wolverine too but listen, to be honest with you, as a kid growing up in the 80s, Wonder Woman would have held most of our fascination, so I’ll have to stick with her. Heather:        This is going to timestamp this interview but you must be excited by the news, the Spiderman/Wolverine news that came out yesterday, that they’re now allowed to be in the same shows together. Barry:             Oh, I didn’t realise they were prohibited from that before, were they? Heather:        They were owned by different companies. The comics were owned by different … Barry:             Marvel and … Heather:        Sony. Something Sony, I’m not exactly sure of all the details but I know that now they can appear on shows together. Barry:             Well, all I know is whoever is behind the marketing of Lego is destroying our bank balance with our kids. Every superhero Lego character is there. Heather:        Cool. You’ll have to turn it into little videos for your products and then you can have it as a tax deduction. Yes, they always go viral those videos do. Barry:             That’s a very good idea. So Barry, you cofounded a business called TransferMate Global Payments. Is that the full name of it? Is that correct? Barry:             That’s right, yes. It’s generally referred to as TransferMate. As the name suggests, ultimately our core service is to help clients transferring money. At the moment, still about 90% of companies would use the bank. There’s a better way to do it. Quite often businesses get caught up with naturally running their own business and taking care of sales and dealing with inventory and everything that goes with that, and in terms of all the daily activities, making the payment is kind of the one that slots in as a once a fortnight, once a monthly activity. It doesn’t get as much attention but when you look at it, it’s quite apparent that the banks charge too much generally, as a general rule of thumb. Heather:        Absolutely. So you would probably be in agreement that businesses don’t think about the actual cost of the payment involved, it’s kind of like an afterthought. Barry:             Well, I think that it doesn’t help that the banks are less than transparent. Quite often if you do a transfer to the bank … we’ve checked with all the banks in Australia, and as a general rule of thumb, without naming banks, the fees are typically anything between $22 and $35. You can even look at let’s say … we’ve talked to Xero clients in the States and one in particular is paying their US bank $80 for no apparent reason, and it’s sometimes just rolled up in a monthly fee but typically $22 to $35. But that’s not really where the loss is. The loss can be seen in the exchange rate and the exchange rates can ultimately be beaten. Quite often what you’ll find is a company will say, “You know, I’m inclined to do …” if you’re a Xero partner and you have clients that do foreign currency payments and you speak with them, quite often the client will do what they’ve always done. The whole idea of cloud accounting broke that myth and has revolutionised accounting. In the same way, this should really do it for the client. I suppose all the client really needs to see is a comparison cost to really get themselves interested. Heather:        Yes, absolutely. So what you’re saying is there are two expenses involved: both the actual charge and then the exchange rate, and it’s understanding there are better alternatives out there.                         Go on, sorry, I didn’t mean to cut you off. Barry:             I was just going to say, technically there’s three: the exchange rate, the sender fee and the receiver fee. Heather:        Yes. Barry:             So if you’re an Australian business making a payment to the UK, the UK bank in addition charge a fee too because the beneficiary receives the payment and the bank says, “You know what, I’m going to charge you for receiving that.” Why? Because you can’t do anything better. Heather:        Yes. Barry:             So what we’ve created is a bank-to-bank network worldwide. We have bank accounts in 90 countries. When we make a payment to the UK from Australia, as one example, we pay out of our UK account. So we receive in Australia and pay out of the UK. Heather:        Okay. Barry:             That way it avoids all the international fees altogether. We’re effectively using our own clearing system. Heather:        Excellent, yes, and you are unaware of that. I know I’ve dealt with business and we’ve paid the business, and then they’ve said, “Yes but you owe us another $20 after you’ve paid them like $20,000,” and you’re like going, “Seriously? We paid everything we were supposed to pay there,” but we didn’t realise that was happening. What inspired you to start TransferMate Global Payments then? Barry:             I suppose we’ve been involved with a number of online businesses in the past. It’s only really when we got a chance to look deep down at the rates and the fees the banks were charging that we realised that there was a better way to do it. I suppose back in 2010/2011, we had quite a number of corporate clients that we felt needed a service that would beat the banks. At the time there was one licence required to operate this service. So we took about six months to get the licence and it was very much a … there wasn’t very much technically involved. We were basically dealing with the banks and we’d get a wholesale deal with the banks and we were able to … the same way a wholesaler gets better pricing for a product and can pass something on to the retailer, we had the same on our setup. Then I suppose over the years we advanced. We now transfer $5 billion US dollars on behalf of clients worldwide. Heather:        Wow. Barry:             The system that we built automatically prices up wholesale banks. A lot of the banks we would have traditionally bought currency off can’t give us the currency at the rates we buy it off. So we’re now buying it, in many cases, at the same rates the banks are buying it at. With the volume you buy, you can really go in and get the best possible deal. The systems that we built are all in-house and they’re bulletproof. We set them up in 2010 and it’s just getting better and better and better. I suppose a natural progression was to integrate into the likes of Xero to make the whole process much easier. Heather:        That’s really interesting. What have been the biggest challenges and obstacles that you’ve faced running this business and growing this business? Barry:             I guess a challenge is always getting the brand out there. I have to say, I guess it would be the case for a lot of services, it’s ultimately the idea of apathy. How do you convince a client what they’re doing today and have done for years … everyone knows a client – I wouldn’t say stubborn – but has run a successful business. They’re the boss. They’ve been doing something for 10 years and you walk in and you know where you stand with them in terms of accounts, “You do that but this is my business,” kind of way. It’s trying to convince him that there’s another way to do it without maybe telling the client, you know, any obligation.                         We win over clients but it does take time. I suppose it’s that time that it takes because when we contact clients, they typically don’t have a payment today. So the analogy I use is it’s kind of like approaching a client after coming out of a restaurant and saying, “We’ve got a nicer hamburger.” They’d say, “Great, I’ve already eaten.” So the timing isn’t quite good. It’s a case of timing really. Heather:        Yes, I know in situations where I’m dealing with businesses and they’re doing this, when they need to do the transfer, they have no time to actually think about doing it a better way, so they never have anything in place. They also just keep going through the same old process. I know I’m quite detailed in that I split out all the expenses related to exchange rate both movements and charges, and they really, really add up, and they’re just straight off the bottom line if you’re not monitoring them. Barry:             That’s kind of interesting. From a Xero perspective, and Xero handles foreign currency far better than most accounting packages out there … Heather:        Yes, love the way it manager multi-currency in Xero. Love it. Barry:             It’s brilliant. But nevertheless, if you have say 10 payments to make today, when it comes back to actually making those payments you have to go into your online banking, make each one individually, then you have to go back to your account software, change the exchange rate, account for the bank fees. Believe it or now, for each payment, it probably takes about five minutes. You can do it faster if you rush but it probably takes five minutes. With the add-on that we created, you can literally click a button, log in, it pulls 100 payments in for example, shows you the live rates, the fees are automatically 75% cheaper than the bank, you click one button and it does all the auto posting of the currency loss, gains, bank fees, and the payments directly into your account software. Heather:        Excellent. Barry:             It’s much, much more time efficient, and funnily enough, that’s the part the clients really like. Heather:        The time efficiency. Barry:             Yes, because the fee thing, they can kind of get over the $10 or the $15 or whatever they save in fees but what they see is the hassle gone. That’s what they really like. Heather:        Let’s jump ahead. Can you describe to our listeners … I’ve got Xero running and I want to integrate it to TransferMate, what does that look like and how quickly does it take me to set it up? Barry:             Okay, so it takes two minutes to register. All I need to do … there’s a special website for Xero add-on and it’s called TransferMateonline.com. Heather:        I’ll put that in the show notes for listeners. Barry:             Perfect, yes. There’s a special link also on your website obviously. We’ll make sure we fast track those but basically once they register on that website then they’ll have a one page, we call it an AML form, it’s like a signup form and we just need those details there for regulatory purposes. It’s nothing serious. It just says who are the shareholders, who are the directors, sign here, that’s really all. Then we take that to our compliance team and it’s set up usually either same day or within 24 hours, and then the client’s pretty much good to go.                         We provide all the help in terms of setting up the add-on but it’s really, really simple. They just simply add their bank account, add a few supplier background details, and they’re ready to go. Heather:        Excellent. Do you think the payment fees on your solution are less than if you’re paying say subscriptions via PayPal? Barry:             I’m not too sure what the subscriptions are to be honest with you but I do know that PayPal, the exchange rate, is basically 3-odd percent. So it’s definitely not … if you’re doing any payments of any consequence, it’s definitely cheaper to use our solution. Heather:        Excellent. Where about is your business based Barry? Barry:             We have an office in Sydney and we have offices in Chicago, London, Dublin, Madrid and Paris. They’re our main offices. Heather:        Excellent. So you’ve got quite a lot of offices then. Barry:             Yes, but mainly what we do is we wanted to provide a 24 hour solution for clients, so if you’re a client in Australia, for whatever reason you want to check a payment at 9 o’clock at night, you can pick up the phone and you’ll get through to our team in Europe. It’s the same as the CRM system. Everyone would be able to tell you what’s happening with your file. Equally if a client wants to call at 2 o’clock in the morning, they’re talking to our US office, and same again. We provide a 24 hour solution for clients worldwide. We have a big base of clients in the US and Europe and increasingly in Australia and New-Zealand. Heather:        Wow, so it’s 24/7 access to the solution and it’s operating globally, so all of Xero’s global customers can access your solution if they need to. Barry:             Absolutely. Heather:        Excellent. I was going to ask sort of what business industries does the solution suit but I’m guessing it’s anyone who is transferring money internationally. Barry:             Yes, you’d be amazed … well not amazed, you mentioned the Spiderman figures, I suppose as shocked as I was with the question and had no answers, if I told you exactly what sort of companies or the crazy stuff they’re doing, I’d probably bowl you over too but it’s really anything. I suppose, in my experience, it’s typically somebody who basically imports a product and then basically resells it. But you also have services, business that might … it’s really kind of anything. Like if you look at … I suppose 70-80% of the payments out of Australia, for example, are in US dollar. I’d hazard a guess that about 60-70% of those are to China and they are to buy products. Heather:        Yes, absolutely. Barry:             Right now it’s quite an interesting time because I saw in the Sydney Morning Herald today that the rate, the US dollar/Aussie rate is expected to go down to 0.68, so it’s quite an important time to be making sure you’re getting I suppose the best rate. Heather:        Absolutely, from an Australian perspective, yes. Barry:             I’m sorry. Equally I suppose there are pressures on all currencies against the US dollar at the moment but I suppose time has changed, while the US dollar is strong now it may not necessarily be but it’s forecast to have a lot of strength over the next year. Heather:        It just seems to be an ever growing roller coaster. I’d like to probably clarify for our listeners. Xero has various subscription levels, one which has multi-currency in it, however I believe your product will work even if you don’t have the multi-currency level in Xero. Is that correct? Barry:             Yes, in order to get the integration and the benefits, what the add-on does is it pulls in the invoices that are due and it pushes them back as paid. So it needs to know what currency they are to show you a rate but if you don’t have multi-currency enabled, you can use the standalone website which is just TransferMate.com/xero as opposed to TransferMateonline.com. The other part we’ve seen is despite the fact that the multi-currency is so easy to setup in the packet, some clients just say, “I don’t need to pay X for it. I don’t do enough payments.” But if you look at the savings you can make on a couple of payments, it warrants … and we’ve seen it, clients upgrading to the premier package, they can see the benefits of time saving. Even if they’re making a couple of payments a month, that in itself warrants even looking at maybe upgrading. Heather:        So upgrading their Xero package. Barry:             Exactly, yes. Heather:        I do find that a lot of people have this mentality that if something is online they shouldn’t pay for it. You explain to them, “But look at the time it’s saving you,” and it’s a real mindset that they’ve got, “Well, I can just spend that hour doing that.” Barry:             Totally. Heather:        It’s like, “Wouldn’t that hour be better off enjoying yourself on the beach or working with your customers, like not doing an administrative process that doesn’t need to be done. It can be completely automated.” Barry:             You could be playing with Spiderman and Batman on the beach. Heather:        You could be. You could be making little videos of Spiderman, turning your videos viral. Barry:             You’re totally right. Some people are inclined not to put a value on their time. I suppose really good business, like the Xero advisers, this whole kind of revolution … the whole era of the adviser level doesn’t really appear at all in the UK/Ireland, but it’s very, very … you can feel it’s very strong in the Australia/New Zealand, and it’s great for businesses to have that kind of crutch to lean on. I don’t think it exists in the UK/Ireland. Heather:        Yes, it’s interesting watching the wave spread across the world on social media and how people are kind of reacting to it and how the early adopters are reacting to it and how other people are like going, “No, I don’t want to do it that way. I don’t want to let anyone loose on our accounts,” and stuff like that. What have been some of the key milestones or successes in growing your business Barry? Barry:             Well, the way we look at it is every week we have clients coming onboard and asking, “You know what, this feature here, this is the way we want to do it.” There’s always a tweak that a client is going to put to the add-on because surprisingly enough it’s not simply just putting your payments and pushing them through. That’s a really good challenge for us because for me it’s important to make sure the Xero add-on is the best available. Our developers are great. They turn around change really quickly. So we want to make sure that it’s as good as it could ever be.                         I just love, to be honest, talking to a client and seeing how quickly the changes go into play because quite often with the desktop software, people are used to not having to put up with whatever they get. Heather:        The annual update. Barry:             Yes. It’s just great when you have a client and you know you’re saving them time. Again, with the Xero software in particular, what I find really interesting is how open clients are to kind of looking at the add-ons in particular because they expect that kind of eco system which is great. Heather:        Yes, that is true because I’ve been on desktop software for a long time and I was just like complacent. I know the first time I heard Rod Drury speak about Xero, etc., I was astonished at how upset he was about desktop software and how frustrated he found it. I was like, “Wow, it’s not that bad,” but I kind of get it now. It took me a while to get onboard with that. I now find it frustrating. It’s like, “Why won’t it work,” but it’s the evolution of it. Barry:             Just on the back of that another milestone for us to hit I suppose it’s a really big number and one we’re proud of, $5 billion transfers … Heather:        Yes, that’s seriously big. Barry:             On the scale of things, it’s very, very small. In Australia alone there’s $200 billion in foreign currency payments taking place for small to medium business, and again, I think it’s $70 billion in New Zealand. US – you can imagine the size of the market. I suppose it’s great to know that when we see our numbers escalating like that, it just tells us that we’re doing something right. It’s great to see. Heather:        And someone is making a lot of money on the foreign exchange if that’s the number of foreign exchange transactions that are happening. The banks are – is what I’m saying, and they could be saving a lot of money using you. Barry:             Well, I think so. I suppose the great thing about the add-on is they don’t need to take our word for it. They can just quickly sign up and they can check themselves. Sometimes our clients will just pick up the phone and call us and get a rate quote. That’s I suppose the great thing about it: it’s an alternative but not an obligation. So they can get a rate quote without pushing through the money? Barry:             Yes, absolutely. Heather:        They can get a rate quote before the transaction happens. Barry:             You can pick up the phone 24 hours a day and say to the guys, “I heard about you. Give me a rate.” Heather:        Excellent. How many people do you have on your development team Barry? Barry:             About 12 including web developers and database developers. I suppose the system that we have in place is … we’re kind of unique in that we spent a long time getting regulated and we’re probably one of the more regulated businesses of our kind in the world. In the US along, you have to be regulated in each state. To give you an example, in California, it took 18 months to get regulation, and you have to have a million dollars in deposit. It’s not something that you can take lightly. Then you have to do monthly filings with each state. I don’t know where I was going with that. But in terms of our developers, our system has to be up online 99.999% of the time. We’ve got a huge investment in datacentres. All this terminology, I wasn’t really aware of it for … synchronous replication, so if the system goes down it comes back up again in 2 seconds on another site. We’re quite heavy in that respect but we’ve got the best, I think anyway … Heather:        My transcriber is going to love that word – synchronous replication. Where about are your datacentres based? Barry:             They’re based in the States and also in Europe. Heather:        Excellent. So you’ve just come home from London Xerocon. Can you share with us what your experience was like at London Xerocon? That’s 2015 for people listening in. Barry:             I’ve been to Xerocon in Sydney and it definitely had the same theme. The whole place was buzzing with energy. Heather:        Yes. Barry:             I think it was packed to capacity. Everyone seemed to kind of be buzzing off each other, the kind of family feel, it was just … yes, you literally could have closed your eyes and you would have thought you were in the Sydney one. Heather:        Oh really? There you go. There didn’t seem to be very many kilts hanging around when I saw in the photos there. It just seemed the Satago guys had come down with the kilts. Barry:             Yes, I think they were dominating the dress wearing. Did you have any revelations at the London Xerocon? Barry:             Not necessarily revelations. I just … having walked around talking to a number of accountants at the show, they all seemed … the common theme was ultimately they’ve got to catch up or they’ll be left behind. That’s a very powerful message to somebody who’s been doing the same thing or doing it the same way for years, to be told, “This is what we’ve seen,” because we’ve seen the evidence before. It’s a great way to have a room sit up alert. Heather:        Yes, we had a local Xero roadshow in Brisbane yesterday and I think it was like 50% of the attendees, if not more, it was the first time they’d been to a Xero roadshow. They were just walking around stunned at what was going on and what was being told at the actual sessions. It’s like, “My goodness, we need to get on this.” Barry:             I kind of look at it like … and again, I’m not probably representing it right but a lot of the advisers seem to be almost like MacGyver’s with all the add-ons and the functionality of the software. It was kind of like a big bullet belt or suitcase full of tricks that they can show clients that … Heather:        What do you mean by MacGyver sorry? Barry:             MacGyver, again, an 80s show. He used to have tricks and ways of getting out of situations … Heather:        Is he like Inspector Gadget? Barry:             Yes, kind of like that. So he could basically pick locks with a toothpick or a matchstick. I suppose ultimately the idea being that there wasn’t anything he couldn’t do with his box of tricks. I know this is going to be a 20 year old saying, “Who the hell is MacGyver?” Heather:        I know I was kind of going … I kind of vaguely knew who he was but wasn’t exactly sure how the reference was working in. But yes, Inspector Gadget, I get what you’re saying and definitely the bookkeepers that I’ve seen who have kind of moved to the cloud integrator space, they’re saying to businesses, “Okay, you’re a business, you need to get in this product, this receipt scanning product, this debt tracking product, this cash flow solution. Integrate it with Xero, and that’s the roll out, and you’re getting that. If anything else is happening then we can talk about it.” Barry:             Yes. Heather:        We’re seeing the education of the add-on solutions, which you probably don’t perceive yourself as an add-on solution, but for the people within the Xero community it’s like, “Okay, then this solution TransferMate, we need to add it to all of our companies who have it sitting there as an option for all of our companies who are doing international exchanges.” Barry:             Yes, and I’d be happy if you did. I suppose an interesting kind of feedback, we saw recently because someone asked us and we hadn’t really kind of looked at it before, was what’s the retention rate? What’s the repeat use rate? It’s over 90% which is phenomenal I think, which ultimately tells us that it’s working and clients like it. The main reason why the 10% aren’t mainly is because they don’t have payments [for tolls? 00:27:24]. Heather:        Yes, people evolve their business. Look, whenever I put in a new solution, I always evaluate the time cost and will drop it if it’s not beating that. But even if I’m using a solution, sometimes for 40 minutes a month, I know it’s saving me so much money in the actual use of it. I just keep adopting and plugging in more. Then people come and say to me, “How can you manage to do so much?” I’m like, “Well, all of my life is automated, so that’s how I manage to do it.” Barry:             Actually that was one of the take points from the show. I suppose one of the gold partners sat up on stage and he was asked, “What has it meant to him,” and he said, “Well, typically I have a big client, for example, that would normally take two staff, two days to do a return for him. Now it takes one staff, one day.” So he said it’s quite a simple way to break it down in terms of the cost saving. Heather:        Absolutely. Barry:             But even if you look at the add-ons, traditionally I would have seen old desktop software, and you have clients clambering around trying to find inventory, third party inventory, to slot in and their pieces don’t really fit in well. But it just seems to be the eco system here is quite unique in that the pieces have to work. Heather:        Yes, absolutely. I think the technology behind the open published API which I’m not pretending to understand exactly, everyone seems to say is like this phenomenal, “Click and it works, and the flow of data is what’s saving us all that time, that automation.” Barry:             Well, the great thing about it is the team in Xero, the developer team, can see that it works. You can’t build an add-on and say it works because they’ll say, “No, it doesn’t. We can see that.” Heather:        And everyone raves about the Xero developer team, so that’s good to know. To ask you a bit more about your business, what activities have been successful for TransferMate in generating leads for your business? Barry:             I suppose typically it’s going through and contacting accountants, letting them know how the service works. We do a little bit of social but ultimately it’s picking up the phone and calling companies. I suppose it’s ultimately getting to talk to clients, getting directly to a client is something we can measure a lot easier than necessarily going through a channel because I suppose we’re talking directly to the client, so we can know if we make X amount of calls today … it might sound like a funny way of doing things but that’s what we find has traditionally worked. But we’re more open to we now have a partner channel where we have the centres in place for the accounting partners to earn additional revenue stream by telling their clients about the service, and in doing so having the clients save money. That’s a more logical way to go for us and it’s something we really, really encourage. Heather:        Do you want to expand on your partner programme? Barry:             Yes, so in effect what we do is, if you’re a partner and you believe you’ve got clients or you may know of companies that make international payments, we provide a unique tracked web form and we simply give it to you to put on your website. If someone stumbles across it, they may not even be your own client, they may be a company down the road or somebody who has come across your website because you perform well in the search engines, as long as they see that link there in the website and they register, automatically we sign up the client and every time the client books payments, there is a referral fee split for the partner, and the partner can track that online in our online system. So the more clients transfer, they simply log in every [one? 00:31:26] and they can see exactly what’s been earned and how active their clients are, referrals are. So you’re effectively encouraging partners to assist in the selling process on your behalf? Barry:             I suppose what I’d liken it to is basically opening the door and letting our flyer in I guess to some degree. If you can imagine we’re in a neighbourhood, and there’s a roundabout in the middle, and there are eight houses around that roundabout, and all the doors are closed but there’s a party happening inside every house, we’re kind of just saying, “Open your door and let us in.” Heather:        Sensational. I’ve not heard it described that way but yes, it’s a warm introduction. Barry:             And to be honest with you, that’s why I guess the relationship that advisers have with clients is naturally a very strong one. It’s one of advice. It’s one of reliance to some degree, and because of that there is trust there that helps us move past, “Who are you,” to “Okay, I understand you’re a good company. What does your service do?” Heather:        Excellent. Yes, absolutely. On the technical side of that, I think you used a different term – referral link, but in terms of the referral link or the affiliate link, is it built in-house or did you use a commissioning programme to provide that? Barry:             We built it all in-house. Heather:        With your smart team of developers, sensational. Barry:             I guess to be honest with you, we’ve been involved in online businesses for I suppose the best part of 10 years. The one thing we’ve seen from day one, our referral programmes were like many which is basically, “Tell us a client and we’ll record all the details and sales and we’ll share Excel sheets.” It just doesn’t work. Partners shouldn’t need to have to second guess or figure out how it works. It should be very, very transparent.                         The way it works is quite simply if a client books a payment, signs up and books a payment today, within five minutes you’ll be able to login and see the details right through our system. That’s exactly the way it should be. Heather:        Excellent. It sounds like another solution you could sell to the cloud community … Barry:             Yes, we’ll have to get on it. Heather:        You could split of and sell. What have you learnt from running your business? Barry:             I suppose I’ve learned that power of the brand. So early days we would go out and we would tell clients about what we do and it shouldn’t really be about, in my opinion … I guess it’s nice to build a big brand out there but it’s also, in terms of scaling up, it’s nice to be able to lean on an existing brand whether that be an adviser brand or a Xero brand. I suppose clients, when they understand the association between Xero, as an example, it opens the door a lot easier. Heather:        Yes. Barry:             I understood very quickly that the cold call is a cold call. The warmer it can be obviously the quicker you can get to where you need to get to. Other than that, I suppose it’s the same principle for any business: you’ve got to say what you do. If you win a client it doesn’t mean they’re going to stay, particularly in the Xero community. If you don’t do what you’ll say you’ll do, it won’t go unnoticed. You have to basically stand by your service and I suppose take care of business. Heather:        I guess that’s actually when we’ve moved from desktop to cloud computing, we’ve also evolved into social media. So whenever something goes wrong, it’s just all across there and these grumpy people have these grumpy complaints about stuff, so you’ve got to be on the ball all the time with it, just monitoring it what’s going on with stuff. Barry:             It’s interesting though, while the Australian banks aren’t necessarily the best, they’re not the worst. Heather:        No. Barry:             We have clients … the French banks are charging up to 12% on foreign exchange to clients. Heather:        Wow. Barry:             I asked one of our clients before to ask their client three questions for a partner and the three questions were: who are you using? Question two was basically how do you find our service now? Three: would you recommend it? When it came to the third question after saying he used a particular bank in France, the answer from the client was, “Not only would I recommend you but when I told my bank the rate you gave me, they told me to use you too.” Heather:        That’s a great case study. Barry:             Yes. Heather:        So I’ve got one final question for you Barry. No, I’ve got two actually. First question is will we be seeing you at Auckland Xerocon? Barry:             I hope so. We have a team in Australia, so I hope to have one of our team in Auckland, absolutely. Heather:        Sensational. I’m planning to go so I’ll see someone there. My final question for you Barry is what advice would you have for your 18 year old self? Barry:             Ah, you hit me with another one. Don’t throw out the Superman figuruines. Heather:        Because you can make a lot of money. Barry:             Put away the Wonder Woman outfit. No, what would my advice for my 18 year old self … my advice would be I suppose from day one I’ve always wanted to be involved and working for myself in one of my own businesses. When I was 18 in school, I didn’t think … I was fully of ideas but I just didn’t think I was ready for it yet. I ducked into a master’s for a year and it gave me a lot of time to sit back and work on concepts and I suppose just ready myself, but like anything else, get out there and if you’re … I suppose it depends what you want to do. I’m from a family who like to sell things and ultimately that’s what we do. We’ve got that in us whether we do it well or not. I suppose it’s in our blood. It’s what we love to do. So do what you love to do and ideally keep on doing it. Heather:        Do you think that the master’s helped you or do you think it was just the time that helped you while you were doing the master’s? Barry:             I think … looking back on it now to be honest with you, I think … it seems to be more logical for someone to take a masters on after you’ve … so they may have gone through college, they may not have but they find themselves in the workforce and they may not be doing things particular right or there are processes they could be doing better. Then when they go to do a masters, they can understand, “Well, that’s what I should be doing.” It kind of puts a framework on top of it. I’m kind of glad. It sounds a bit square to do it so I’m kind of just glad I got it. I knew I had to do it straight away after I finished college because I knew as soon as I got out and started selling, I wasn’t going to want to go back to college. Heather:        Yes, absolutely. Barry:             Our best sales guys did not spend any time in college. I suppose if it’s … I know quite often in terms of candidates looking for work, they’re preoccupied with finding candidates that have college degrees but I suppose there is nothing better than finding somebody with a passion and being likeable. So I don’t really necessarily think that everybody should have one. Heather:        No, the education question I think is evolving very quickly as we speed up. I think concise learning is really important but this extended long learning is interesting, whether it’s still going to be relevant in many years to come. Barry:             I suppose cloud accounting wasn’t taught in college. It was probably learnt in the minds of creative thinkers. Heather:        Absolutely. I’m a professional accountant so I used to get up at 4 o’clock in the morning and study through till 11 o’clock in the evening for like four years while I completed my qualifications while working full time. I’m looking back on it, “Hmm, I’m not sure it was worth it.” But anyway, it’s done, box ticked. Barry:             I guess the accountant is different. Like it’s lovely to be able to have an actual skill, a passport that can say, “You know what, as a matter of fact, this is a tangible skill to have.” It’s a great thing to have. I suppose in the marketing/sales side of it, you have to rely on a little bit of luck, a little bit of ideas and timing, and [crosstalk 00:40:29] I guess. Heather:        Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for speaking to me today Barry. I really appreciate it and I’m sure the listeners will get a lot of information from this session as well as learning more about TransferMate Global Payments and also about how you grew your cloud business globally. Thank you very much. Barry:             Thank you very much for your time. Heather:        Cheers. Barry:             Take care. Talk to you soon. Bye-bye. Heather:        Thanks a lot Barry. Bye. Mentions ·        TransferMate Global Payments - http://www.TransferMate.com/ ·        Fintech - http://www.fintechinnovationlab.com/ ·        Xero - https://www.xero.com/ Click here to sign up to my newsletter http://bit.ly/SignUp4Newsletter (34.9% open rate – double industry averages) Listen to my podcast : http://cloud-stories.com/ (over 1300 downloads)  Read my latest blog post : http://www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/blog/ Visit my website : www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com  Book time with me heathersmithau.gettimely.com/book    Subscribe to XU Magazine : http://www.xumagazine.com/ Subscribe to my YouTube channel : https://www.YouTube.com/ANISEConsulting (over 173 000 views, over 1000 subscribers) Follow me on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU (over 8600 followers) Join my FaceBook page : https://www.facebook.com/HeatherSmithAU  (148 likes) Connect with me on LinkedIn : http://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU (over 2100 connections) Add me to your circle on Google + https://plus.google.com/+HeatherSmithAU/posts(over 55 000 views)      

Rod Drury talks to Den about the early findings from analysis emerging from Xero's business intelligence efforts. 

Rod is CEO of Xero, an online accounting solution serving over 300,000 small businesses in over 150 countries. He is from New Zealand, and was named 2013 EY Entrepreneur of the Year.Rod is CEO of Xero, an online accounting solution serving over 300,000 small businesses in over 150 countries. He is from New Zealand, and was named 2013 EY Entrepreneur of the Year.

  Highlights of my conversation with Gayle Buchanan Running a virtual Xero bookkeeping, support and training business Managing learning new solutions from the Xero eco-system Licensing a bookkeeping business Cloud solutions for Eel fishermen Essential advice for bookkeepers; networking, resources, support and conferences Using referrals and conferences to grow your business Subscribe to Episode 2 of Cloud Stories on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-stories-heather-smith/id908333807 Transcript Heather:        Hello Gayle. Gayle:             Hello Heather. Heather:        Thank you so much Gayle for being on our show this morning. I’m really looking forward to talking to you about your business and what you generally do within the cloud. From what I understand Gayle, you founded a business called Number Nurses, can you describe what your business does? Gayle:             Sure Heather, pleasure to be here by the way. The business was started very … I didn’t really know what to do so it was kind of neat to go back to what I loved which is numbers, and I’ve always helped my husband in his business. What we do is we actually go and do call outs to people which are virtual so it’s done via Skype and TeamViewer. It’s very similar to a Plunket nurse who turns up at your door when you had a new baby and you don’t know quite what to expect and you just need some help with your Xero setup and any add-ons for Xero. It’s kind of neat, we’re the Number Nurses basically, and the bridge between the business owner and the accountant which a lot of people … the service seems to be … a lot of people want that type of thing. It kind of started as a help and now it’s starting to grow into, hopefully in the next 12 months, be licensing it. Heather:        Excellent, so you’re looking at about 12 months’ time to be licensing that. Will you be licensing Number Nurses in New Zealand or beyond New Zealand? Gayle:             It will be in New Zealand initially. All the great books I’ve read have said, “Hey, make sure you get it done at home first and it works as a model in your own country first before you go overseas.” But there are a few people overseas that want to have a look at the model as well so that’s quite exciting. Heather:        That is very exciting and what I’m seeing with people working in this Xero space is that they seem to expand very quickly, once I think they’ve got all the automation in place, which is something that sort of you’ll be on top of. Gayle:             Yes. You describe yourself as a chief Number Nurse. As a Chief Number Nurse, what does your day involve? Gayle:             I have a virtual assistant which is really great and they help me with the appointments and the training. So, half of the week is spent training which are 45 minute sessions, with a wee break in between, which is kind of neat. Heather:        Within the 45 minutes? Gayle:             Within the 45 minutes … each training is 45 minutes so have a 15 minute break in between each of them just to prep you. So I guess the day kind of starts the day before. That’s all set up a week in advance so I know what I’m doing in advance. It’s really very much training and down time bookkeeping which is my other love because you kind of need to keep that skill up in order to train better. Heather:        Yes, absolutely. I completely agree with that, in that you need to actually be doing it to train it. It always worries me when people train something that they’re actually not doing. As you know I am a writer, when people write about stuff they’re actually not doing, it’s like how can you be writing about it if you don’t do it but anyway. So yes, I think that’s really important and your clients must really benefit from your knowledge there in that you know it and then you’re training on it. Gayle:             I mean constantly the space is changing. Xero and all the add-ons are updating, so you have to keep on top of absolutely everything. But be human about it because we all can’t be 100% perfect and there are areas and markets that will use different parts of Xero. So don’t be afraid to kind of find your niche and do it well in that part of Xero, and knowing the whole lot all of the time, it is a full time job. Heather:        Absolutely. That jumps ahead to another question that I was going to ask you. I’ll jump ahead and ask you while you’ve raised that. It does take a lot of time to learn a new solution, so if someone was coming to Xero and trying to learn that or they were going into the Xero eco system where we’ve now got about currently 300 add-on solutions, trying to pick up and learn one of those solutions. What advice would you have for a business consultant going, “Okay, I want to learn something in the Xero eco system,” where should they start? Gayle:             The quickest way I learned I think was I spent nine months bashing about and trying to grab anybody and everybody in any market before stepping back. So it was sort of like I didn’t get my toes wet I just jumped straight in. After that nine months of just working, it’s a bit of a slog, just stop and take a minute and think, “Which industry or which sector do I love the most?” And go there. I went to the New Zealand Stat’s Department and went through all of the industries that were there, picked out the top five that I liked and then came back and saw what add-ons in Xero were attached to those industries. That knocked another three off, so I actually brought it down to two industries in the end. It did take about six weeks to work out which one that was. Then having had previous experience with my parent’s businesses, I knew what industries not to go into. It was kind of neat. So pick what you love first, then find the add-on, and then go learn that add-on, be a partner with that add-on as you’re learning Xero as well because it is a learning curve and thinking you know everything about it within sort of a couple of weeks, you’re deadly wrong. I speak to a lot of accounting firms they train their staff with and said, “Look, until you’ve got that 20,000 transactions under your belt and you’re feeling really confident about the industry you’re in with Xero, then you can start talking about being an expert and until then just do your time.” Heather:        Absolutely, goodness I can completely agree with that as well. A lot of people seem to call themselves an expert in something and you’re like going, “Really, when did you do that? That was extremely quickly.” That’s kind of like I rarely call myself an expert in something even though I spend 100 hours learning it. I love the fact that you spent six weeks researching that to identifying your niche area and what to actually focus in on. That’s excellent advice for people. You do, there are so many out there. You think this person’s really nice and they keep ringing me up and sending me letters, I should learn that product but standing back and working on what you’re actually going to be the best fit for is going to put you in a better position to give your client’s better advice. Gayle:             That’s half the equation, the other half is applying it, and that’s a whole different story. Heather:        Yeah, absolutely. I’ll jump back so we’ve covered sort of what your business is doing. When did you start your business, Number Nurses? Gayle:             Back in 2011 actually, it was the 4th of July interestingly enough. Heather:        Lovely, 4th of July 2011. So Number Nurses is based in Drury, is that correct? Gayle:             Yup. Heather:        I had a look on the map to find it and that’s New Zealand’s north island just south of Auckland. So what’s the internet connection like for you in Drury? Gayle:             Okay, Drury, the whole area is kind of cool. I’m more at the Bombay end so we are right on the top of a hill, 330 meters above sea level. The internet line, we’re the last house on the line, so for about 45 minutes in each day it just stops because all the school kids get home. That’s cool, it’s fine after that but you can run it off a mobile and I’ve bought some broadband machinery that helps you get … Heather:        Like a booster. Gayle:             Yeah, a little wee booster and you can run off that. But to tell you the truth, the only time I’ve gone down is when the power’s gone down and there’s been a storm, so it’s pretty cool. Heather:        It’s something that when we become more reliant on the cloud we need to be aware of, and understanding that time slot that the kids all come home from school and how it affects you, definitely. I know for me, if we get heavy, heavy, heavy rains, about three days later that’s when my internet goes down. So obviously it soaks through. Gayle:             Yes, the water in the lines. Heather:        Yeah, exactly, and sort of being aware of that. For me, I kind of have alternative arrangements which I can sort out. Gayle:             Actually my family is quite happy when that happens because I actually move. Heather:        Oh, you go and visit them do you? Gayle:             Yes, I have time to go visit people. Heather:        Sensational. Gayle:             Yes. Heather:        And I guess that’s the flexibility of actually working in the cloud. I know that I do a lot of travel and being able to just travel, be somewhere else and actually working in the cloud is sensational. So the fact that your client actually has no idea that you’re not on top of that hill when you’re giving him that training, and they don’t know about that. Gayle:             It’s great. When I’m training I just go right through that and get them all hooked up and then talk about it later. They’re like, “Oh, where are you by the way?” It usually happens when there’s a chicken that walks straight past my dog in the background and they go, “There’s a chicken standing behind you. Where do you live?” It’s kind of cool. I quite like that. Heather:        It is sensational that you can live wherever you want and develop a niche/expertise and then provide that knowledge kind of worldwide. It’s sensational. You do work with a number of solutions in the Xero add-on ecosystem and I see from your profile you are partner with a few of them. What I’d appreciate is if you could share with your listeners what these solutions do. If we can start with WorkflowMax, if that’s okay? If you can let listeners know what that product does. Gayle:             Cool, WorkflowMax in my niche for builders or some creatives is that it does force them to process, and it’s the part I love about it. If you go into a business right now who are working on pen and paper or they’re working on Excel spreadsheets or tiny bits of software, WorkflowMax can pull together the operational part of your business which is really the meat in the middle, and brings all the staff in, all your tasks and chores and all your milestones, and sets it all there really simply for people to track and work through. That particular add-on is great because you can have the job and the tasks listed and it doesn’t matter if anyone’s sick. If your employees are sick or if you’re sick, you can actually hand the job over and everything is there as a checklist. So operationally very, very good and easy, forces you to processes which a lot of businesses I come across don’t do that at all, so it’s great. Heather:        And putting in the automation of the forced process actually, again, allows them to grow their business because they’ve got a basis to grow it from. Gayle:             Absolutely. Yeah, it then becomes a nice wee asset for them too, so that’s great. Heather:        Sensational, that’s very interesting. WorkflowMax, you’re using it for builders and creatives, a lot of accountant’s use it is that correct? Gayle:             Yes, they do. Same thing, it’s fabulous. In New Zealand, it attaches to the tax department which is great. You can do your GST returns through there as well and it automates straight into Xero too which is brilliant and work papers of course which the accountants need. Heather:        Sensational, okay. Thank you very much for that. Another program that you’re a partner with is Job Sheet? Can you share with our listeners what Job Sheet does?  Gayle:             Job Sheet is actually moving into a mobile app which is great. It’s putting a job card for tradies onto a piece of software that they can carry around on their phone or on their iPad which is great. Again, it also helps with process, so if you’ve got a job card that you’d give to an employee or to yourself with addresses, delivery addressers, who you bill to, all the parts; it connects to local suppliers like the likes of electrical suppliers or plumbing suppliers. It can actually do a quote on the run which is excellent for the smaller tradies or going up to about five employees. They can do their invoicing in the driveway as they leave which means they can actually go home and they don’t take their paperwork home which I find a lot of them to keep them balanced is, “Hey, stop in the driveway, finish the job off and then don’t take anything home.” I said, “Your wife will love you for it.” I guess marriage counselling comes a little bit into our software as well which is cool. Heather:        People have told me that after having something installed that they were actually on the verge of divorce and the installation has removed that layer of frustration for them. I completely hear you there as well. That’s an interesting thing. And building that, here it is, quote; don’t leave the property before you leave the property really brings in. You raised a really good point there in terms of when we go into a business and say, “Have a look at these cloud solutions,” in reality most people are bringing their own device to work. Most people have some sort of mobile phone whether it be an iPhone or a Galaxy or something like that. So it’s very easy to overlay and just say, “Here’s a solution, upload it into your phone and use it.” And for the business owner, the infrastructure is not particularly expensive because most of them already have that. Gayle:             Yes, it’s something that doesn’t sort of go far from their pocket which is kind of handy. Heather:        Yeah, absolutely. So another solution that you deal with is Receipt Bank. Can you share with our listeners what Receipt Bank does? Gayle:             Okay, Receipt Bank would be my all-time favourite to date. Every business can use it and I think what happens is … because my husband is real estate agent and then I’ve got my brother is an eel fisherman and neither one of them … I keep my receipts all squashed up. They have the ability, like everyone’s got a phone, is to take a photograph of the receipt and it goes straight to Receipt Bank where I can code it automatically and then it comes straight down into Xero with the receipt attached both up there in the cloud with both of them: one copy’s in Receipt Bank and the other copy comes down into Xero. So you’ve got two places for that which is great back up. Then it’s already processed so I don’t have to punch it, scan the receipt and get their books done for them each month. Every client I come across that has a shoebox, I will get them to buy Receipt Bank and have that as part of their suite of software. It just saves so much time. It’s a no brainer, everyone gets it. It’s like, “Nope, you’re having it.” Heather:        Yeah, absolutely. So in terms of selling it to the client, you just tell them that they’re getting it? I’ve found it difficult to push it to encourage clients to use it. Even though I think it’s a really good solution, I’ve found it really hard to sell it to clients. How do you go through that process of saying you’ve got to use it? Gayle:             Yeah, it comes as … it’s part of the package. The reason being is the first thing everyone sees is oh, I quite like the idea of my receipts coming off the Eftpos machine, they actually fade over time. I say, “Look, as an obligation, this is part of the obligations of being a director of the company in this country is that you must keep these receipts.” I say, “If you can take a flick and get a photo up there and we’ve got two copies in two places,” and unfortunately last year the tax department here agreed to hold documents outside of New Zealand so that was fantastic, that takes away that resistance to come in and have it held in the cloud which is cool. So for them I say, “Look, this is what you’re going to be doing,” and I walk it through them and get them to … I will load it on their phone for them or get someone close to them to do it for them which is normally the case. Then once I’ve done it, I show them the difference and how long it takes, with them on Skype next to me, how long it takes for me to do it for them and how long it would take if they would just take one photo. Then straightaway they look at it from now it’s an hourly rate, not the fact that it’s only $20 a month. Heather:        Absolutely. No, definitely. Gayle:             So I just say for $20 a month you can do this or you can have me for $150, which would you prefer? Heather:        Yeah, absolutely. That’s great. For someone going back and investigating what’s happened into the business, it’s so much easier just to have that receipt attached to the transaction so you can go and refer back to it rather than the time involved in searching through paperwork. Even if they have been properly filed, it is just a no brainer. Gayle:             Yes, it can be a nightmare. Heather:        Absolutely, so we encourage everyone to sign up to a solution like Receipt Bank. You said something that I’ve never heard before. I didn’t know you had such a thing as an eel fisherman. Gayle:             Yes, there is. There are many of them. Heather:        Really? Gayle:             Yeah, they are. They’re doing some investigations at the moment with a lake nearby that’s starting to turn red. It looks like a rusty colour so the eels in there are obviously starving of food. Yeah, and I mean we export, New Zealand exports around the world. Heather:        Eels? Gayle:             Mmm, smoked eels , yum-o. Heather:        So is it a full time job? Gayle:             It is and it has been for him for nearly 40 years now. Heather:        Oh my goodness, well there you go. He’s a legend. An eel fisherman using Xero. Gayle:             An eel fisherman, yes, and Receipt Bank. Heather:        I frequently watch this very late show that appears on TV here in Australia and it’s really late at night. It’s shot in New Zealand and it’s your New Zealand Police Department and the New Zealand police are catching people who are going and getting something out of the water. I think it’s like a shell, a paua shell or something like that. Gayle:             Paua. Heather:        And they’re only allowed so many kilos but then they go in and wrap it around their engines so they can sneak it. Gayle:             I know. Heather:        It’s just like the craziest thing. Gayle:             They’re naughty. They’re just naughty. Heather:        But again, I’ve never eaten one of those either. Gayle:             Well they are lovely, especially if they’re cooked properly. You just need to make sure they get cooked properly. Heather:        Oh, do you? Okay, well, promoting eels and pap … how do we say it? Gayle:             Paua. Heather:        Paua, eels and paua, very good. New Zealand delicacies. Now, on the side as well as running your business, one of the things I first discovered you on is that you actively facilitate a group on LinkedIn and the group’s name is Xero Bookkeepers (International). You actively facilitate the LinkedIn group called Xero Bookkeepers (International), what does this bring to you? How does this fit in with your business? Gayle:             In that first year or two, part of the social media part to grow not only my name and then start growing the company name, is that I have been taught that it’s always grow your name first and then start growing your company. So part of that was LinkedIn is what I consider the professional group for the social media marketing. I went, “Right, I’m going to start this group and what I’m going to do is start helping other bookkeepers that are coming in on board on Xero and let’s start sharing ideas and let’s just start bringing all the bookkeepers together.” Because it can be kind of a lonely place and getting up and going in and networking sometimes we sort of get to put your head down and get immersed inside all the numbers. I thought if we start this group it means that we can collectively get together around the world and I’m sure bookkeeping is the same everywhere. So I started invite … I just invited absolutely everybody that had Xero next to their name in LinkedIn or anyone that I ever met and brought them all together. What it did was it just helped me feel not so alone as I was building my business. I thought hold on a minute, everyone else has got to be feeling the same way I am. I wanted to give as much as I could because it had taken me nine months to just get started. I thought well if I could help people get past that nine months really quickly and help them just get to where they wanted to go, it’s just good karma. I like it. I like to give them … Heather:        Absolutely. I think that’s the place probably I first discovered you, so if you are listening to this podcast and are interested in learning more about the Xero ecosystem and you’re working as a bookkeeper or sort of the numbers assistant in the business, go and have a look on LinkedIn for the Xero Bookkeepers (International) Group. I find it an excellent resource to actually go and ask perhaps an in depth question and get some resources back. I know like … Gayle, you know that I go in there and ask a few questions when … it is isolating. You know how to generally do something but then you find something that you’re pondering over and perhaps to my discredit some of the things I sometimes work on are a few things that are bespoke in that it’s like the first time I’ve come across them. It’s like how do I resolve this? How do I get through this? I work as a freelance so there’s no one in the office to … around the water cooler to discuss that with. You kind of want to be private about it but you still want to have some good resources out there, so I really benefit, I really find working in that group, all going in and discussing in that group beneficial. As you said, I think it’s also really important to really give back to the group and to answer other people’s questions. I never really understand people who don’t go in and say, “I know the answer, call me.” Gayle:             Yes, I know. I’ve gone through it a couple of times and tried to weed out some people that aren’t contributing or sitting there and they come around personally and say, “Please, please can I stay? I just haven’t brought myself to say anything.” What I’ve found and learned about bookkeepers since I’ve been working as one is that they’re very shy. They’re incredibly shy and ... Heather:        Voyeuristic maybe. Gayle:             Amazingly talented woman and then when you give them this platform they just come alive. That’s what I like about that group. Now, there are a heap of Xero staff in there and a lot of accountants. It was all about, “Look guys, we’re the bookkeeping, you’re the accountant, we’re here to bridge the gap and help each other. This isn’t a war. That’s what we’re here for. These are our roles. Some of us cross the line and others don’t but that’s okay. We understand that but come out and just help each other.” We can’t take on … for me it was all about I can’t take on the world and help every business but I can help someone else help 100. Heather:        Absolutely. Gayle:             So there are about 800 of us in there now, so you know I’m hoping that group is helping at least 8,000 businesses grow. That’s kind of neat. Heather:        I always think it’s about helping the small business owner and if you can help the small business owner, that feeds on into their lifestyle, into their children being able to go to ballet class, into the freedom and flexibility to go down to the beach on a Monday when they want to go down rather than have to kind of stick to the 9-5 grind perhaps. That’s what I like to be able to do. So, essentially, if we can do that and give them that freedom through assisting them in that way, we’re sort of moving the whole world forward. Gayle:             Aren’t we, yes. Heather:        Superhero. So what activities do you do Gayle to grow your business? Gayle:             Mine is very much referral based. My growth is ensuring I go to Xerocon each year in Australia and in New Zealand, and then also attend the Accountant’s Republic workshops and there Republic Day which is they mentor accounting firms and ultimately … really accountants are my clients and their clients are who I train and help. Because my niche was to niche down and help accountants because they have got … most of them have got a couple hundred clients each. I did try for nine months to try and talk to those couple hundred clients but I found that they were all in different niches and I couldn’t get them to see the niches I wanted to work with which was very much that creative and the construction site, which include the tradies inside of it. So I found the accountants that had the tradies and went along and helped them. Heather:        Ah okay. So you go through the accountants, do you go and like do training at the accounting firms or do you just … they just facilitate that? Gayle:             It’s all virtual. Heather:        I should know that, sorry. Gayle:             It’s okay. But sometimes, some people want you to hold their hand, so if I’ve got accountants down the South Island and they’ve got … and I train all of the South Island clients obviously. Heather:        Yes. Gayle:             If I can get to them in the North Island when they need a hand hold, I’ll go and do that. That’s okay but they just have to understand that time does get cut down for the services we offer. Sometimes it can work out really well to move some of them forward because … I mean they’ve even got clients who want to bring their accountants to the training. I mean we haven’t heard that before? I mean that’s very cool. Heather:        No, that is very cool. It is an interesting evolution in that there’s a solution out there and we see a lot of business owners pushing to move to Xero. However, their accountant still hasn’t heard about it or they’re actually bringing the accountant along for the ride. So you’re getting this accountant ringing up saying, “What do I do now?” And saying that, rather than worry listeners out there, I have accountants who had never used Xero before and I said, “Look, I will come in and do whatever training you need so you know it.” But they picked it up and they said … picked it up really quickly. “I could see exactly what I was supposed to do and I worked through it that way so that was fine.” They didn’t feel that was        … but then I’ll get other accountants who want to learn more but on a high level they’ve found it very easy to pick up. I guess that’s a good thing to know. Now you mentioned Accountant’s Republic. What’s Accountant’s Republic? Gayle:             Accountant’s Republic is run by and owned by a woman called Viv Brownrigg. She grew her accounting firm up to over a million dollars and a global company called CCH actually bought it for its processes and systems and the library that she’d built. Now she’s a mentor to accounting firms in New Zealand and Australia. Each year there is like a Republic Day and I work closely with them because we both agree that our ultimate is to get bookkeeping out of accounting firms. I’m like going, “I’m here with all the bookkeepers. I’ll take all the bookkeeping.” It’s kind of neat. Sorry, aside thing, just going to a side issue for the moment is that because we’ve now got this national list of bookkeepers in New Zealand through the Bookkeeper’s Association and the group, LinkedIn group, it means that any leads coming in from her accountants through the country that I can’t get to, I can pass on to like a Bookkeepers. So being a part of that group has helped that network and we all share leads as such that we can’t get to. That’s what I promote is if you can’t get to them someone else can so pass it on, and that’s what Viv does. We are out there helping … I’m out there helping those accountants with the bookkeeping side and the Xero side. She’s out there actively promoting the fact that you shouldn’t be doing bookkeeping, you’re an advisor, go off and do that. It’s way too expensive for you to be training people on Xero and Receipt Bank, and any of the add-ons. It’s not your core business. Move us … outsource it and use Number Nurses. So it’s been great. We’ve worked together on that quite solidly for a couple of years now. It’s working really well. Heather:        That’s really interesting. It’s really useful to make those relationships with people that you … sort of those trusted relationships with people and grow and evolve in a sort of a complementary fashion. That sounds really interesting. So does she hold session days in New Zealand or days in New Zealand and Australia? Gayle:             Day in New Zealand and is moving … has a rather large library of workshops now which is great. Heather:        Fantastic. Excellent, I’ll put that in the show notes for listeners, a link to Accountant’s Republic. Thank you for that. Now Xerocon is … just for people who don’t know, Xerocon is the main country’s Xero conference that’s held … I think currently it’s held … there’s one in New Zealand, one in Australia, one in England and one in San Francisco or sorry, I should say America. I’m not sure if they’re held anywhere else but I know our Australian one’s coming up, is it September Gayle? Gayle:             August. Heather:        August, okay sorry. So the Australian one is coming up in August and I think the New Zealand one is in February, is that correct? Gayle:             Yes. Heather:        Okay, so if people are interested, again, I’ll put those in the show notes. Now you say that you grow your business and your customer base from attending Xerocons, so how does that work? Gayle:             Those are the accountants that I’ve met virtually. I’ll meet them, they’ll come up to Xerocon, I’ll actually encourage them to come up because of the atmosphere that the conference provides, you know, you’ve got between 800 and 1,000 people in a room over a couple of days. It’s awesome for them and their staff to come up. As they come up, I’m sort of the link between the bookkeepers there to here and introduce them to those bookkeepers and those accountants. When the accountants can actually see that there’s a bookkeeper actively promoting relationships between the firms nationally, it’s trust, you know, you build your trust there. The referrals will come a lot thicker that way than they will doing it any other way. I mean you’ve got a captive audience within a room and from day one I’ve always sat in the front row because I’m a bit of a geek because I don’t like anyone standing in front of me and blocking my view because I need to see everything. I’m so excited. It’s been great for the last few Xerocons, encouraging all the other bookkeepers to come up and sit at the front. We’re sort of the rowdy guys in the front row which is kind of cool. Heather:        And Xerocon, for people who are considering attending, it’s a huge amount of information but it’s a really positive … it’s just a positive fun atmosphere. It’s kind of like Disneyland for bookkeepers and accountants. It’s just so much fun to go there and meet so many people. So much of what we do is virtual, to actually touch base and actually meet people there and have the opportunity to have some longer in depth conversation with them is sensational. One of the things that really impressed me when I met you Gayle is you had a little nurse’s cap on. Gayle:             Yes, it is a chance to market yourself. Heather:        Branding, sensational branding. Gayle:             There’s a lot of accountants that still turn up in suits so we try to encourage them to bring weird branded t-shirts have some fun while you’re there. Heather:        Yeah, absolutely. Gayle:             You can see who’s been there two or three times. They’re the ones having the most fun I think. Heather:        Yeah, and one thing that really surprised me about Xerocon is whenever you go to conference they typically give you something. So Xerocon on the first day gave us t-shirts. I thought t-shirts, people are going to wear t-shirts so people are going to have to wear t-shirts. I remember getting up the next morning and I thought well it’s a nice t-shirt, what can I wear? So I put the t-shirt on and I’m not the kind of girl who’s actually built for a t-shirt but I put it on and it looked okay, it was actually a really nice quality, nice material t-shirt, and I put it on and I thought oh my, what if I’m the only person wearing a t-shirt. I got down there and everyone had their Xerocon t-shirt on and I was so happy. Yeah, it was very cool. I thought am I going to cope with this, am I going to cope with this? Everyone is going to see me wearing a t-shirt but no it was very exciting. I know that everyone I spoke to who it was their first one, so I’ve been to a few now, was just blown away by how exciting it was. I talk about a conference dance card, in that as well as being casual about attending the conference you really have to be structured and say, “Contact people beforehand. Either encourage them to go or say, “Hi I know you’re going. I really would like to spend some time talking with you. Can we do that?”” I know, for instance, I wanted to spend some time with you Gayle, so we actually walked to the conference … from the hotel room to the conference. Doing those things with people like jumping into a taxi with people, going to the evening events, actually don’t sit there and talk about sport, get out what you need to because this is your opportunity. So really work that conference hard. Gayle:             Yes, I mean it is very open to all of that. I just like the way that it all opens up with Rod Drury standing up in his jeans and his t-shirts and his sneakers, you know? That’s what it’s like and if anyone starts getting too corporate here, you’re fired, you know. It’s just so cool and I love that line. Heather:        Absolutely. What is very exciting, like you brought up Rod Drury who’s the CEO at Xero, is that he and so many other staff are available to talk to you. I know that I’ve been to accounting conferences of other providers in the past and trying to speak to anyone of a senior level, I was banging my head against a wall. As a writer I need to speak to … maybe not everyone needs to speak to people in that level but I need to speak to them to understand timelines, what’s coming out and what direction they’re going into. I’ve just found everyone so available and just sitting there talking to you. I know that, for instance, there was a little coffee area and Rod Drury just like sat in the coffee are and just like, “Come and talk to me if you need to talk to me.” As well as running around and doing everything that he was doing, it was like so accessible which I was really impressed about. Yeah, so that’s another good reason to come to the conference this year. You can actually touch base with so many of the staff members of Xero if you need to. Gayle:             And they’re all very real. Everyone is very real that you meet and it’s lovely. I have not come across anybody that I’ve gone and thought you were absolutely nothing like I thought you would be, you know, so it’s really neat. Heather:        Yes, I just had a funny situation in that I’ve had a virtual relationship with a gentleman I’ve done business with for about a decade. I always kind of had this impression that he was perhaps sort of a geeky, just a spotty, geeky, sitting on his backside doing spotty geeky things. He uploaded a photo of himself and he looks like Ryan Gosling. Gayle:             Oh my gawd. Heather:        I was like, “Oh wow.” Gayle:             Gorgeous. Heather:        Yeah, so it is funny that when you actually do meet someone in real life it’s very exciting. Gayle:             The other thing too is I always say to everyone, “Try and keep your LinkedIn photos as current as possible please.” Heather:        Oh absolutely. Gayle:             “So when we go to Xerocon, at least we can see what you look like.” Heather:        Yeah, absolutely. People come up and they launch into this conversation with you and you’re like, “Who are you? Who are you? Remind me who you are.” Gayle:             You’re smiling trying to look at their nametag. You don’t want to be rude or anything. It’s like “Oh okay, you had black hair in your photo and you’ve got red hair now.” Heather:        Yeah, you’re absolutely right. Update your LinkedIn photo, very important. What advice do you have for our listeners? Gayle:             I’ve got a couple of things here. Heather:        Okay, what would you like to share with our listeners Gayle? Gayle:             Okay the biggest thing I found is just remember it’s okay if people don’t like you. That’s one of the … it does break your heart when you’re with a client and they just don’t like you. Heather:        Yes. Gayle:             So just understand that they won’t and I went to a course, a Skillpath course once and the lady stood up and spoke about project managers. She said, “Just remember us. For every 60% of the people that you are going to meet in your lifetime won’t like you.” So if you work along those odds, it’s great, because you just keep going and saying, “Hello, hello, hello,” and it doesn’t matter. Six out of ten are not going to like you but it’s not because of you. So just remember that. That’s okay. Look for the 40% because they’re the cream that you want anyway. Heather:        And pass them on to someone. Just like if it doesn’t work just say, “Look, this isn’t working. We’re not communicating well for some reason. Would you like me to find someone else to work with you?” Gayle:             Absolutely. Heather:        Or just say, “Look, I think you need to maybe go have a talk with ...” I know that I have a network of people around myself who I will just pass clients on to. It’s simply boundaries, you know, they might not like the way you speak, whatever. So I completely agree with you there. Gayle:             Yeah, just find someone for them. Then always be transparent and honest. It’s easy to repeat the truth. Heather:        Yeah, absolutely. Gayle:             I mean especially in the industry we’re in now. It’s very global. If you drop in … like I’m very active on the Xero blog or in any of the groups and just out there helping as many people as I possibly can. I’m really consistent because I’m just honest and transparent. That is the part that a lot of people are going to gravitate to as well is that 40% that you want, they’re going to come and ask you. It isn’t rocket science but I find a lot of people aren’t kind of doing that. So when you start doing that then all of a sudden things just start happening for you. Heather:        Absolutely. Gayle:             Yeah, and then always make … I’ve always said to myself, “Make sure you make as many mistakes as you possibly can and laugh at yourself like you wouldn’t believe.” Heather:        Yes. Gayle:             Then get a group … what we’ve got is a group of chicks together we call the #smokinghotbookkeepers, and we just have fun. It’s okay that we’ve made a mistake. It’s great because they all come together and they say, “Oh, I’ve only done that four times this year. Oh no, I’ve done that six times this year,” and it’s good because I’ve only just done that once you know. Heather:        Yeah, absolutely. Gayle:             Laugh. It certainly helps you physically as well as mentality. Heather:        Yeah, and get that strong network around you. You did mention one thing there that I’d just like to just explore a little bit. You make yourself transparent, you’re active on social media, you actively facilitate the LinkedIn group. One of the things I’ve found with having a profile as a writer is that sometimes when people see you doing all of this they think that they can then directly come to you and seek free extended consultation with you. Gayle:             Absolutely. Heather:        You hear me? Gayle:             Yes. Heather:        So I probably never have a problem answering someone on social media about a question but when they do come … from my perspective when they do come to you for extended consultation, you’re moving into consultation, you’re moving into an area that I need to be insured for. Sort of you’re moving into an investment that you need to consider. People need to protect themselves from ... I think it’s really good to give out free and transparent advice and comment on LinkedIn areas and on social media but that’s sort of one of the … you have to have some sort of … do you agree that you have to have some sort of boundary there? Gayle:             I do and I learned that the hard way too. That was one of my blood noses. When I couldn’t get my workload out because I was giving away way too much time to other people and helping them, I then came across another add-on from Xero called Timely and it’s fantastic. It’s an appointment add-on which I use now. What I found is I spoke to a couple of friends in Australia and the States that were going through the same kind of thing and I says, “Look, it’s easy enough to say I’m really sorry. If we’re going to get into this, you do understand that I’m going to have to charge for this consultation.” I had a lot of accountants giving me these lines and stuff and they didn’t resonate with me, so I just went, “Hold on a minute.” I got into Timely and it was great because I book all of my training sessions through that. Then I found this wee button and you can put the button on your email address and if anyone emailed you I just email back and said, “Hi, just book me below, click the button.” Heather:        Yes. Gayle:             When they click the button, they’ve got to choose how much time they’re going to have me and how much it’s going to cost them. You know what? No one even came back. I had one person and it worked a treat because I let them down … they knew straight away and that’s the power of software. Love it. Heather:        Yeah, automation software. That’s fantastic. So that’s another Xero add-on called Timely that people can have a look at and that you can actually incorporate into your email. That’s another sensational, fabulous suggestion there from you Gayle. Thank you very much for agreeing to be on the show here with me Gayle. I’ve just got one more question for you before you leave. What advice do you have for you 17 year old self? Gayle:             My 17 year old self. Never be afraid to be you. Heather:        Cool, very good advice there Gayle. Thank you so much for giving up your morning and sharing so many useful tips and hints with everyone. I really appreciate it Gayle. Gayle:             A pleasure Heather, it’s lovely to spend time with you. Heather:        Thank you. Gayle:             You’re welcome. Mentions http://www.numbernurses.com/ https://www.facebook.com/NumberNurses @gayle_buchanan http://nz.linkedin.com/in/gaylebuchanan +gaylebuchanan http://www.numbernurses.com/blog http://www.workflowmax.com/ http://www.jobsheetapp.com/ http://www.Receipt-Bank.com https://www.skillpath.com/ LinkedIn group Xero Bookkeepers (International) Accountants’ Republic http://www.arepublic.co.nz/pages/home_accountants/about Xerocon Australia: https://www.xero.com/au/xerocon/sydney/ New Zealand: https://www.xero.com/au/xerocon/auckland/ USA: https://www.xero.com/au/xerocon/san-francisco/ UK: https://www.xero.com/au/xerocon/london/   ·         Contact Heather Smith ·         http://www.heathersmithsmallbusiness.com/ ·         https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU/ ·         https://www.facebook.com/HeatherSmithAU   ·         http://www.linkedin.com/in/heathersmithau

34:16 no andrew@thebeancounter.org (Andrew Argue)Andrew ArgueThe Bean Counter is your guide to a successful accounting career! Whether you're i

In this episode, Go to Girl interviews fellow kiwi-Podcaster Sara Spear from ‘The Parentalist’.  Sara gives the inside scoop on how and why she started podcasting and the success of her Kickstarter campaign for children’s books. Sara also interviewed Nat on her show (along with Jaime Tardy, Tim Reid and Rod Drury). www.theparentalist.com   Related podcasts: Do you have a book in you? (IOTTM episode 94)

Design Matters featuring guest Rod Drury, CEO of Xero. February 2014.

A revealing discussion where Rod Drury shares numerous insights into his success and that of Xero, the online accounting firm he founded and continues to lead. Rod also highlights he's still young at heart - 'I still think of myself as an 18 year old skateboarder, not a CEO'. Please connect and send feedback via Twitter @NZ_Business, Facebook.com/NZBusinessPodcast and the official website http://NZBusinessPodcast.com Host and Guests: Paul Spain, Nate Dunn, Rod Drury Running time: 0:28:56

Two days prior to Xero’s big win at the NZ Hi-Tech Awards Paul Spain and Nate Dunn of the NZ Tech Podcast sit down for a word with Xero CEO Rod Drury. They discuss the Xero story, its culture and use of social media both internally and externally. Running time : 0:29:14

This week Paul Spain is joined by Nate Dunn and Rod Drury to discuss Slingbox, new HTC and HP Android devices, MYOB’s acquisition of BankLink, VDSL and UFB, Blackberry expansion, 2degrees new prepaid mobile plans and more. Running time : 0:51:51