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We chose Xero for our UK startup as: 1) It syncs with HSBC bank (we chose HSBC as it syncs with Xero) 2) It syncs with PayPal (we chose PayPal as it syncs with Xero) 3) Our accountants ( http://ihorizon.co.uk/ ) use it heavily 4) It has an API My goal in choosing an accounting tool is to have visibility and centralisation to ensure that the key people in the company have information instantly about cash flow, assets,…
We chose Xero for our UK startup as: 1) It syncs with HSBC bank (we chose HSBC as it syncs with Xero) 2) It syncs with PayPal (we chose PayPal as it syncs with Xero) 3) Our accountants ( http://ihorizon.co.uk/ ) use it heavily 4) It has an API My goal in choosing an accounting tool is to have visibility and centralisation to ensure that the key people in the company have information instantly about cash flow, assets,…
PITA?
We chose Xero for our UK startup as: 1) It syncs with HSBC bank (we chose HSBC as it syncs with Xero) 2) It syncs with PayPal (we chose PayPal as it syncs with Xero) 3) Our accountants ( http://ihorizon.co.uk/ ) use it heavily 4) It has an API My goal in choosing an accounting tool is to have visibility and centralisation to ensure that the key people in the company have information instantly about cash flow, assets,…
My theory is that Xero purposely crippled parts of their software so as not to offend or discourage the developer ecosystem. However, they missed the target with things like payroll, which is such a gigantic PITA for everyone and EVERYONE WANTS IT, that they instead responded by creating a solution that tried to appease third-party developers and their users. As you said, that solution ended up half-baked and pointless.
However, I have great faith in Xero. If they buckle down on things features we want, their developer ecosystem be damned, then we might get a truly killer product.
We chose Xero for our UK startup as: 1) It syncs with HSBC bank (we chose HSBC as it syncs with Xero) 2) It syncs with PayPal (we chose PayPal as it syncs with Xero) 3) Our accountants ( http://ihorizon.co.uk/ ) use it heavily 4) It has an API My goal in choosing an accounting tool is to have visibility and centralisation to ensure that the key people in the company have information instantly about cash flow, assets,…
i second that. i whish they would make a policy that everything that can be clicked can also be accomplished by using the API. we're currently working around quite a few things that the UI facilitates, but the API does not.
We chose Xero for our UK startup as: 1) It syncs with HSBC bank (we chose HSBC as it syncs with Xero) 2) It syncs with PayPal (we chose PayPal as it syncs with Xero) 3) Our accountants ( http://ihorizon.co.uk/ ) use it heavily 4) It has an API My goal in choosing an accounting tool is to have visibility and centralisation to ensure that the key people in the company have information instantly about cash flow, assets,…
> B) API limits. i second that. i whish they would make a policy that everything that can be clicked can also be accomplished by using the API. we're currently working around quite a few things that the UI facilitates, but the API does not.
We chose Xero for our UK startup as: 1) It syncs with HSBC bank (we chose HSBC as it syncs with Xero) 2) It syncs with PayPal (we chose PayPal as it syncs with Xero) 3) Our accountants ( http://ihorizon.co.uk/ ) use it heavily 4) It has an API My goal in choosing an accounting tool is to have visibility and centralisation to ensure that the key people in the company have information instantly about cash flow, assets,…
In Australia, there was a company called Paycycle which filled in the payroll gap, which Xero subsequently bought out and incorporated into their Payroll offering for Australian companies. My theory is that Xero purposely crippled parts of their software so as not to offend or discourage the developer ecosystem. However, they missed the target with things like payroll, which is such a gigantic PITA for everyone and E…
I'm glad you have faith. Lots of features in the pipeline.
Living in London now I've not really kept up with the start up/entrepreneurial scene in New Zealand (actually it's one of the many reasons why I left New Zealand in the first place but New Zealand's start up prospects are a whole other story). While it is amazing that Rod Drury (Xero’s CEO) has built Xero up to a valuation of about 2 billion, it's not a surprise. Rod had a vision right from the start to build a globa…
> Now in my early 30s, my approach to launching my start up is a lot different to what I was doing in my 20s. Rod has said to me previously that no entrepreneur should have money before they're 30... which has rung true with me. At least from a NZ perspective, we have to suffer for our art, it takes time to earn your stripes.
The structural problems:
IMHO the biggest problem isn't distance to global markets but a lack of capital gains tax on real estate which soaks up capital that could otherwise go to new ventures. When I say that, I'm talking about the 3Fs... friends, fools and family. Please don't get me started on the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund (NZVIF), the Seed Co-investment Fund and Kiwi Saver because these are band-aid solutions to the tax problem. And forget about any solution to it. Any political party/coalition that tries to do away with the no capital gains tax on real estate will be committing Seppuku.
Also NZ suffers from a vicious venture capital (VC) Catch-22. With hardly any angel/VC industry there is no quality deal flow (I'm talking about deals where the VC actually has a chance at x1000 returns) which feedbacks to poor prospects for VCs to raise money for their funds from pension funds (they live and die by their returns). So without astronomical VC returns, pension funds just aren't interested in an allocation of their portfolio to VC because it just won't make a difference to their overall fund return. End result, there is no NZ VC.
The cultural issues:
While entrepreneurial tall poppy syndrome was waning when I left NZ thanks to initiatives like the University of Auckland's Spark competition (I was a finalist one year and an eventual winner the next) there are much bigger cultural issues I think kiwi entrepreneurs face that no one seems to talk about. This would be the shame of failure and low aspiration that pervades kiwi entrepreneurs. The shame of venture failure is something I have personally experienced. It took me my 5th time trying to start a venture (between my teens and my early 20s) before I successfully built a company of 30 people. I then got bought out by a co-founder and I went to University. I'm sure that those 4 other failures taught me lessons (the 5th venture did too) but I just couldn't talk about my other failures to people. I always felt that it just wasn't culturally all right to do so and I've seen it cause problems when trying to raise seed/early stage money in NZ. I've found that people keep this silence and project a "I did it on my first go" fantasy. This becomes a feedback loop and the bottom line is that kiwi investors just don't want to invest in entrepreneurs that have 'failed' before. This isn't the case in other places where your venture failure, and ability to keep picking yourself up, is seen as important and needed experience. The low aspiration/horizon thing is also a big problem... I found that on average most entrepreneurs only aspire for the 3Bs... the beamer (BMW), the batch (holiday home) and the boat. Anything beyond the 3Bs and there's this perception that you're just being greedy. And you know what they say... birds of a feather. I remember pitching something (in NZ) to some some high net worths from Silicon Valley a venture idea and then being asked point blank why I want to do it. I was floored, thinking to myself, "isn't it obvious?" I replied, "I want to get rich." To which they replied, "that's the right answer." "We've been travelling across NZ looking for ventures to invest in and not one entrepreneur said that. They all see their business as a lifestyle vehicle whereas I'm interested in a good return on my risky investment." And while they weren't so interested in the opportunity I pitched them, they have become great mentors to me.
My advice to aspiring kiwi entrepreneurs, don't become an entrepreneur unless you are tough enough to handle it... but if you are, then shed a tear for Aotearoa (the Maori name for NZ) and just leave.
I know saying that will ruffle feathers and won't be right for everyone's situation. However after fighting these structural and cultural issues I let go and embraced that NZ has a location disadvantage for new tech ventures. This decision was hard, and the price I've paid has been high. Leaving my friends and family and starting from nothing in London... no friends, no money just my entrepreneurial dreams, has much harder than I ever imagined.
I am a much stronger person because of it. Also I know right down to my bones that moving here has been the best move for my future entrepreneurial prospects. If it doesn't work out then I'll do it all again and somehow, some way, move to Silicon Valley. It's been hard... and I expect it will get harder since I have a baby on the way, but IMHO you have got to stack as many things in your favour when you're trying to launch a new venture and location is part of the equation.
If the scales are tipped against you then you've got to do what it takes to even out the odds.
Best of luck to all kiwi entrepreneurs, you all have my heart felt condolences.
I was looking at Xero last year and ran into a firm brick wall, from [0]: "There is a daily limit of 1000 API calls that a provider can make against a particular Xero organisation in a rolling 24 hour period." That is an absurdly low limit for anything but the simplest of businesses or businesses that aren't actually looking for tight integration, but rather just something to push accounting data to at the end of a d…
http://developer.xero.com/documentation/getting-started/xero...
Their website doesn't seem to mention prices for accountants. If I was a bookkeeper wanting to manage the accounts of say 10 clients, how much would Xero charge me?
Through the Xero partner program there are some perks, including software to manage their practice. http://www.xero.com/au/partners/