Comments on: A New Friend in the Playground

By: Mitchel

Mitchel — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:25:02 +0000

I do not understand what they are doing at Xero… they have spent way to much cash over the last 6 months. At this rate they only have enough cash to last 1 more year.

This means that they need to obtain another 11000 or so customers in 12 months, realistically they could do half that.

Better cash management would have seen them have 18 months of cash – this would have given them two change over periods to acquire the needed customer base to break even.

Looks like another capital raising is on the cards, unless Xero pull a rabbit out of the hat with a new product or revenue stream.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the product, I think there is a huge market for it, I just think they have given themselves a runway which is 6 months too short…

By: Xero: great traction but at what cost? | AccMan

Xero: great traction but at what cost? | AccMan — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 02:53:58 +0000

[...] to achieve ‘hockey stick’ growth is through a partnership with New Zealnd Telecom. Ben Kepes has the details and comments: …from a marketing perspective I understand the benefits to be gained from this [...]

By: Ben Kepes

Ben Kepes — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 13:09:16 +0000

@Paul – yup no Delhi belly yet touch wood

Let’s put it this way – if the rest of the population is 1% as positive about Xero as you are they’ll have a firecracker on their hands!

You’re right – it’s fascinating to watch and be part of.

By: Paul Lattimore

Paul Lattimore — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 09:21:58 +0000

Ben,

Hope all is well in India and you’ve managed to keep the Delhi Belly at bay.

Just keeping tabs on the Xero marketing plans to date, as seen from an outsider ….

Rollout 101 – get a few Guinea Pigs on board (myself included), do some tweaking to get a robust user friendly product.

2 Get the local beanies on board as much as possible, gathering references along the way.

3 Get the local banks on board (instant credibility plus cross promotion)

4 Launch into UK (tougher market, banks are crusty)

5 Launch into Aussie, then Global. All the while winning awards and acceptance from the likes of Deloitte.

6 Get into some potentially lucrative local partnerships.

Where to from here? At some point consolidation must come into play; building the existing avenues rather than spread themselves too thinly. Telecom has the potential to be big, as does a one size fits all global offering. My pick is one of either NZ, Aussie or Global will be the goldmine, either through the networking possibilities in NZ/Oz or the sheer size of the global market.

The whole thing is fascinating to watch.