In the past I’ve gone on record telling people that it is premature to analyse Xero post IPO, given that they have a three year plan and they’ve only just embarked upon it.

What then is my reaction to Adam Bennett’s editorial this morning regarding Burger Fuel’s progress post-IPO?

There’s a difference here between Xero and BF – Xero is a well thought out, strategically focused play that, while risky is a risk analysis of maturity. Burger Fuel’s IPO seemed to rely heavily on street-cred and little on business sense. It also seemed to rely on young, investment-naive investors and as such was always up for higher scrutiny.

On the information thus far I’m pleased I didn’t invest…

Ben Kepes

Ben Kepes is a technology evangelist, an investor, a commentator and a business adviser. Ben covers the convergence of technology, mobile, ubiquity and agility, all enabled by the Cloud. His areas of interest extend to enterprise software, software integration, financial/accounting software, platforms and infrastructure as well as articulating technology simply for everyday users.

2 Comments
  • I’m pleased I didn’t invest too, cheers for the heads up….er…wtf is burger fuel? Holy crap Ben ihnfiwyata on this blog, didn’t you used to make bags? – they were pretty cool too! Really, you need to benchmark your paradigm to determine if your bubble has burst yet. I think I’ll go and dress up as chipmunk now…….

  • The challenge for Xero will be getting to critical mass. If I can see one problem ahead it is whether the product is sexy enough for people to rave about it to friends and colleagues. I haven’t heard any buzz about the product in the market. I’ve heard loads from Rod Drury but there is always an element of ‘but I would say that, wouldn’t I’.

    I recently recommended to a large B2B client that they should consider buying Xero accounts for clients as a promotion. They didn’t get it. Though free accounting would probably have rung their customers bells big time (the argument was that said customers didn’t have time to use the web – it descended from there. I was appalled – self defeating logic has a nauseating effect on me).

    Find a way of selling bulk accounts and it would be sexier – and take out the inhibiting factors. I’d be working the banks. Want to encourage SMEs to change banks – (insert brand here) offers free accounting. ‘See, we’re all about saving you money and helping you grow your pot’. And I’d road show it to the world.

    1 x 1 sales is 1 x 1 road to a hiding.

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