Xero with Ben Styles (GM Product - Financial Services) | EP23

Leading the way in online accounting software, connectivity, and community building.

Summary:

This is the 23rd episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, and Jason Pereira interviews Ben Styles, the General Manager of product and Partner Development for Xero, one of the world’s leading online accounting software programs. Learn more about Ben’s work with Xero, and how the company is impacting the Fintech industry.

Show Notes:

  • 02:56 – Xero started with the concept of a single ledger in the cloud, then an account or a bookkeeper for a small business able to work in this space in real time.

  • 03:45 – Ben Styles has been focusing his energy on digitizing businesses and products.

  • 06:12 – Xero zeroed in on removing the manual entry.

  • 09:21 – In two of Xero’s core markets there are between 500-1000 small businesses joining Xero a day. the small business owners, the people that work in the small businesses, and the accountants and bookkeepers that work for those small businesses.

  • 18:18 – Picking partners is a challenge the Xero has, as most businesses do.

  • 22:25 – Xero is weary about totally digital currencies.

  • 23:12 – Nations where Xero has high penetration like Australian and the U.K. they are seeing many small businesses that have suppliers or customers that are also Xero customers.

  • 24:42 – Ben is excited about the realization amongst small businesses about how powerful running their entire business in the cloud can be for them for growth and company management.

  • 30:46 – Workflow Max is an important tool for accountants and bookkeepers to run the workflow within their accounting practice.

  • 31:49 – Projects software is about is about real-time time tracking and job managing of billable work, and making it available on mobile and desktop.

3 Key Points:

  1. In two of Xero’s core markets, there are between 500-1000 small businesses joining Xero a day.

  2. Xero is now at 1.4 million small businesses globally.

  3. Xero has customers in 180 countries. We’ve got operations in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, London, San Francisco, New York, Denver, and now in Canada.

Tweetable Quotes:

  • “Having the single view of the ledger was going to be the core of solving cloud accounting.” – Ben Styles.

  • “We (Xero) are now at 1.4 million small businesses globally.” – Ben Styles.

  • “We’ve (Xero) got customers in 180 countries. We’ve got operations in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, London, San Francisco, New York, Denver, and now in Canada.” – Ben Styles.

Resources Mentioned:

Jason PereiraAccounting, Cloud