Member Article

Behind the Business with KashFlow

In our latest edition of Behind the Business, Bdaily talks to Duane Jackson, Founder and CEO of KashFlow, an award-winning cloud accounting software for small businesses.

What key challenges has your company recently faced?

KashFlow is at a stage where the business is growing from a scrappy start-up to a more mature organisation. It took a while for me to realise that we need to make a conscious effort to do things differently now we’re at nearly 40 staff. Internal communications and planning become much more important than they were when there were just 5 of us. It was challenging last year to maintain our record of 100% year-on-year growth whilst also focussing on the internals of the business.

What is your biggest achievement over the past 12 months?

Hiring some really experienced people to the management team and seeing the impact they can make. It’s something that over the years I’ve not been particularly good at. The key to it, for me, was making one good senior hire that is awesome at finding and hiring others. It’s the adage of “A players hire A players” and hiring people to fill your own skills gaps.

What is your biggest focus for the coming year?

We were the first to market with a SaaS accounting product. Whilst that has its benefits it also has its downsides. It means our technology gets “old” before our competitors. We’re turning that to our advantage and re-writing a lot of our software to excel on the technology front again - which in turn delivers unique customer benefits. Ensuring delivery of this, without upsetting our existing tens of thousands of customers (nobody likes change) is my biggest focus.

If you had to choose one top piece of advice for someone just starting out in the business, or is currently operating within your industry sector, what would it be?

Tech businesses, and specifically SaaS are really hot right now. Which means there’s a lot of media hype. If you’re just starting up then make sure your expectations are realistic. You’re not going to get acquired by Facebook or Google for a billion dollars. Raising $5m from a VC firm doesn’t mean you’ve made it. TechCrunch aren’t going to write about you and send you thousands of new customers. It’s important to focus on the things that really matter: ensuring you have a sustainable business model and then scaling it up.

Can you share with us your view of the current landscape of business, in your region or generally, and where your organisation sits within it?

The rise and rise of the internet and the tools available mean it’s never been easier to start and grow a business. The economic downturn means more people are left with no option but to finally start that business they’ve been talking about for years. As a result, the number of new business formations has been rocketing. This is great for us as these are exactly the sorts of businesses we server. And as a new business owner, it’s much more appealing to spend £18/month with us and cancel whenever you want than to pay £600 to the old-world accounting software vendors.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Graham Vincent .