Drury just wants to have fun
Family, ski trips and working on the ‘‘fun stuff’’ are Xero founder Rod Drury’s new priorities now he has stepped down from his role at the company, after 12 years.
The cloud accounting platform’s conference Xerocon, with a cult-like following, had its largest turnout yet at its annual event in Brisbane this week.
More than 3500 bookkeepers and accountants gathered in a neon- and disco-lit conference room featuring a basketball court, a pink swimming pool filled with blue plastic balls, and rollerblading staff.
Drury stepped down from his role as chief executive earlier this year to take on a non-executive role and to work on innovation and strategy.
He cheered keynotes including new boss Steve Vamos from the sidelines, but was still the man everyone wanted to see.
Off-limits to the media, Drury said Xerocon was all fun with no responsibility.
Drury continues to be synonymous with Xero and the conference. He would continue to attend the annual event, he said.
Wrapping up the two-day event, Drury spoke about moving away from the day-to-day operational responsibilities to what he enjoyed most – building new products. ‘‘My last real holiday was in 1991, windsurfing in Maui. My kids are now 10, 12 and 14, and what I’ve realised since taking a step back was I flew every week or two for the past 15 years and, while I like to think I was a good parent, I was never present. For the past 12 years there was no off switch.’’ Drury has also spent the past six months snowboarding around the world, from Queenstown to Whistler. ‘‘I’m spending time trying to become the world’s oldest professional snowboarder.’’
In November, Drury sold almost $95 million worth of shares in Xero, saying the sale would provide an important foundation for his ‘‘future plans to pursue a range of philanthropic and social endeavours’’. He would not elaborate on these plans at Xerocon.
After having fast-tracked his business Drury said Xero needed Vamos’ extensive experience at Apple, Microsoft and Ninemsn to grow internationally.
The company has 1.4 million subscribers globally.
Vamos said cracking Englishspeaking markets in Asia as well as Canada and South Africa was a focus for Xero. Australia and Britain are Xero’s two biggest markets.
The tech company announced partnerships with banks (ASB in New Zealand) enabling businesses to manage cashflow directly through the bank, and hinted at acquisitions in the near future, but would not provide any insight into areas it was looking to expand in particular.
Last month, Xero acquired Canadian software company Hubdoc, which has a platform that captures data from bills for $US70 million (NZ$106 million), making it the company’s largest acquisition to date. Hubdoc will be available to New Zealand customers in January.
Xero also launched its Xero Learn platform that was announced at last year’s conference. The company has partnered with AUT University and a handful of Australian universities to embed its software in the institutions’ accounting coursework.