Peter Karpas, the recently named CEO of Xero US, held a web seminar today to give his thoughts on where Xero is, where the company is headed and a little bit about what drives him. I regrettably missed the first 15 minutes, but here's what I heard in the next 30 minutes.
The key talking points, in a nutshell were:
1. Xero's biggest problem is awareness and they currently have 14 plans of attack (hypotheses) they are testing. When they find what works the best, they will invest heavily in it.
2. They have 300,000 clients globally including 100,000 in New Zealand, over 100,000 in Australia, 50,000+ in the UK and 18,000+ in North America. I know these numbers don't add up to 300,000, but these are the numbers he quoted.
3. XeroCon US is still on the table and will most likely be revived after the 2015 tax season.
4. The H&R Block alliance/partnership is not a threat to Xero's accounting partners. They basically look at the agreement as they do with any other partner. They will not be referring tax clients to H&R Block.
Mr. Karpas basically said his goal is to "try to improve the lives of small business, their employees and the companies 300 partners." I am sure there will be more to come as he gets further settled into the company and his position there. We'll certainly keep you posted on what we know.