Lessons from my family’s creaky kitchen table

Career transitions provide important opportunities for self-reflection. I joined Xero earlier this month, and it's been such a fascinating and energizing move.

Many have asked me, "why Xero?" This is why.

I've been lucky to help build some beloved global brands and products that positively impacted the lives of millions of people. Google put the world's information at people's fingertips; Evernote helped us remember everything.?

As the world struggles through a global pandemic, I often wondered: how might I help entrepreneurs and local businesses? what would happen if we gave entrepreneurs the financial management tools that traditionally were only available to people at larger enterprises?

This question led me to Xero, a company I have long admired. Three reasons drew me to Xero specifically:

• Personal Connection to the Mission: Xero's mission to help small businesses thrive matters more than ever and to me personally.?
• Stellar Platform, Partners, and Team: Xero's incredible product and small business platform, partnership mentality, and above all, team and culture.
• Boundless global growth opportunity.

Let me expand a bit on my connection to small businesses and the lessons I learned from my parents working at our family's old and creaky wooden dining room table.?

I grew up on the floor of my parent's retail store in Goderich, Ontario, a small town of 7,500 people at the mouth of the mighty Maitland River. Here's a shot of my parents in action. My mom is on the left working the microfiche, and my dad was hustling in the background to take care of that really tall customer. Oh, and that's my brother, Brad, rocking some early 80s Canadian fashion.

Small businesses are the lifeblood of any town or city. My parents were active in our community. But most of their time (six days a week) was spent at the store. They sweated every detail, especially when looking after their employees and company finances.

I grew up in a family of six, and we ate dinner together most nights. After dinner, we'd clear the table and do the dishes. By 7:30 pm, that old and creaky wooden kitchen table would transform into my parents' home office. My mom sat at one end doing the bookkeeping, balancing the books, and our family finances; my dad sat at the other end, ordering inventory and arranging the work schedules for his staff, among countless other tasks.

Here's another action shot of my dad in his "home office."

Most nights, I went to bed long before their work was complete. Like every successful entrepreneur I know, they worked…so…hard.

I often wondered if there was some way to ease some or all of their small business administrative work. Today, companies like Shopify, Stripe, Xero, and many others are doing just that.

Xero's raison d'être is making life better for small business owners, to enable entrepreneurs to follow their dreams.?

This is a mission that matters now more than ever.

If Xero's "why" caught my attention, then it's the "what" and the "how" that sealed the deal.

Talent and Culture: The best teams win, and Xero has one of the best teams anywhere. Xero's culture is human, humble, and empathetic. Xero's values guide how we work and interact with each other and the world. These values align with my small-town upbringing and how I want to work and contribute to the world.

Beautiful Platform: Xero is an SMB platform that solves a customer's real problems through a beautiful product experience. Xero's founder Rod Drury had a compelling vision to make accounting beautiful by creating a single general ledger that is always "live" in the cloud. Over the years, Xero has saved countless hours and the need for tedious reconciliation, and this is what has earned the love of millions of customers and partners.??

Commitment to Ecosystem: I'm fond of the African proverb, "If you want to go fast, go alone; but if you want to go far, go together." Xero has understood this from day one; Rod also had the foresight to build an open ecosystem with public APIs. This allows Xero's accounting and? bookkeeper partners, application developers, and other partners to provide holistic support for small businesses. I firmly believe that partnership and community-led growth represent the next generation of enduring companies and brands.??

Rod's vision to make accounting beautiful was only the beginning, and we're still early on in that journey. I believe there are boundless opportunities ahead and that Xero is just getting started.?

When thinking about the future, I often think of the wise words of my childhood hero, Wayne Gretzky - "skating to where the puck will be, not where it has been." So, where is the puck going to be in the future? Xero contributes to two mega-trends shaping the future: the rise of cloud adoption and entrepreneurship.

Small businesses are still relatively new to the cloud. There's so much untapped potential for cloud-based software to help solve real-world SMB problems like balancing their books, getting paid, accessing capital, paying workers, and staying compliant and on top of regulatory details. I remember my parents doing all this manually with a pen and paper and using a clunky Casio printing calculator! I can only imagine how much simpler life would have been for them, not to mention the time they might have saved with modern tools.?

Another key trend is the rise of entrepreneurship. Living through a global pandemic encouraged many people to go into business for themselves. Momentum in small businesses creation has never been stronger. People are tapping their entrepreneurial spirit to find a deeper purpose, more autonomy, and flexibility. Thanks to modern software platforms and tools, they can start their own business quicker and more cost-effectively than ever before.

Entrepreneurs need a trusted partner to help them start, run, and grow their businesses. Xero fills this need and answers this call. Xero empowers entrepreneurs' growth and innovation. Xero's platform eases the burden of business operations - from making payments to calculating sales tax to tallying profits to managing employees. This makes small business operations less tedious and frees up valuable time that allows entrepreneurs to focus on what makes their business unique.

Working at Xero truly brings me back to my roots and days of sitting around my family's creaky wooden dining room table. If only my parents had access to these technologies, they would have had more time after dinner for family time, personal hobbies, volunteer work, and who knows what.

I am proud to work at a company dedicated to levelling the playing field for entrepreneurs and small businesses. And I can't wait to see the impact these entrepreneurs have on the world.