May 28, 2025 • 9 mins
Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, Chief Executive Officer of cloud software company Xero, discusses the New Zealand-based company's outlook and its push to grow its small-business customer base in the United States.
Xero is a global small business platform that helps customers supercharge their business by bringing together the most important small business tools, including accounting, payroll and payments. Singh Cassidy cites strong revenue growth in the US from its most recent earnings report, and also explains how the emergence of artificial intelligence could help lift her business to new heights.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and
Tim Stenoveek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
A company that plays in the cloud and data really
works with small business companies A great read. In fact,
we're talking about the company Zero. It's an eighteen point
one billion dollar market cap cloud accounting software and small
business platform company. So Kinder saying. Cassidy is the chief
executive officer of Zero, which trades outside the United States,
is based in Wellington, New Zealand, and she's joining us
(00:36):
from San Francisco on this Tuesday. So Kinder, good to
have you here with Tim and myself. Tell us a
little bit more about your company, the bulk of your business,
where growth comes from, who your customers really are industry
wide as well as geographically.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Sure, well, thank you so much for having me on.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
As you know, Zero is a cloud based accounting platform
global in nature. We're about two point one billion dollars
in revenue aud We trade on the ASX. But the
most important thing is we have over four million customers
around the world in key geos like the US, the UK, Australia,
New Zealand and one hundred and eighty other countries providing
(01:15):
them not just cloud based accounting software to small businesses
and their accountants, but also providing payroll and payment services
alongside that. So global footprint many markets, but certainly in
the US, the UK and Australia are Big three.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
So given what you do, you have an incredible view
on the economy globally, not just based on who your
clients are and what they're actually doing with their software,
but how your software is actually selling. So given the
data points that you understand, the regions in which you operate,
how would you characterize the global economy right now?
Speaker 4 (01:47):
You know, I'd see the global economy as almost as
you all read it, which is, I would say an
economy of mixed signals versus the data. So, as you noted,
we operate across many geographies, and you would still see
relatively strong jobs growth. As an example, you would still
see relatively strong sales growth across many markets for our
(02:09):
small business customers. And yet the sentiment in many markets
is one of uncertainty. You have small businesses in different
markets looking at different tear pressure that might put pressure
on their cost of goods sold or imply price increases
for their customers. They're certainly nervous about cash flow in
that regard. And then you have some enduring issues for
small businesses that are despite macro. You know, macrocanoptimes, which
(02:32):
is the enduring problem of cash flow in managing things
like late payments. So we see, as I said, relatively
mixed signals. But I think we can agree that they
feel uncertain in this environment, and of course we believe
our software is there to help them manage their cash
flows in that uncertainty.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
How much of the uncertainty is a result of what's
going on here in the United States.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
I think a fair amount.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
I mean, look, you know, as you all know, small
businesses in the US, including in the US. In the
US as an example of small businesses, we're growing very
healthily pre COVID, five to six percentage points a year
according to our data. And then what we saw is
with COVID, a big disruption. And then of course, just
as they started to recover from COVID inflationary pressure eleven
interest rate increases. And this is that we're trying to
(03:14):
starting to settle from that, and maybe the promise of
let's say a deregulated environment, well, along comes new uncertainty
with it, as an example, tariffs, So they are having
to navigate a lot, and in the last ten years, certainly,
certainly in the last few months even more so.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Kid, what are the things too we're worried, not worried,
curious about. And I know it's something you have been
working on, and that is to expand your presence in
North America. And it sounds like the US specifically walk
us through what you have been doing, the investments you've
been making, and what kind of growth you are seeing.
And I'm also just kissous generally about your exposure to
the US market.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
Yeah, so interestingly, we're probably one of the few, you know,
native cloud SaaS businesses of very large scale that is
underweight the US meeting.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
The US was a new market for Zero.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Obviously, I'm based here in Silicon Valley and have been
here for the last thirty years. But for Zero, they
entered the US market maybe a decade ago on the
promise of bringing cloud based accounting to the market. It
was largely a desktop market, and over the last ten years,
i'd say the company's steadily increased its focus and presence
in the US and is now seeing a nice acceleration
(04:20):
of those efforts in subscriber growth, very strong subscriber growth.
We just reported results about a month about a week ago,
very strong revenue growth here in the US, and what
we see is very much in.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
A lot of white space.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
There's still a large, large number of small businesses that
have never digitized their back end accounting here in the US,
and obviously the opportunity to do so save some time,
saves some money, and with AI can offer new insights.
So we see a pretty attractive market landscape her that
we've been building towards.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
How do you do this at scale with a salesforce
that you know? Is it cold calling? Because when you're
calling on these small and medium sized businesses, some of
them are indeed very small, and those could be pretty
small accounts. Is it self service? How do you handle
the incoming or is it outgoing?
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Well, you know, in the US, we have a multi
channel approach, just because we do everywhere around the world.
We have a pretty big direct or self service motion
where small businesses can discover zero online through ads through
social media. We have large Facebook and LinkedIn engagement and
can come to the website and sign up directly so
we have a big direct funnel.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
We have a salesforce, but that salesforce, believe it.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
Or not, calls on accounts and bookkeepers, not some small
businesses directly, because of course, many of the small businesses
we have work with an account and bookkeeper for their
taxes and bookkeeping. And then the third thing is we
have increasingly new channels and new partnerships working with other
vertical SaaS providers. You know, people like the neo banks
around the world where they refer customers into zero as
(05:49):
an SMB is starting their journey in payroll of payments
or banking. And so we work across all three channels
everywhere in the world pretty successfully.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
How are you using AI right now from the not
just of with your clients, but also when it comes
to sales.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Yeah, so look, I think that like many cloud based
accounting services or cloud based services, our first goals to
put AI in the hands for our customers. So the
full focus is on launching Jacks, which we did this
past year. Jacks's just as zero. It's our sort of
CampaignOn if you think on the site of your mini
CFO in a box that helps you use zero. This
(06:28):
year we're very much focused on the expansion of jacks
for our customers so we can do more jobs for
you on our platform. And of course that is the
promise of AI. Just really give back first and foremost
time on these tasks, accounting tasks, payment tasks, and then
to give you more intelligence, more reasoning, and all the
insights our platform has to offer. To really expand that
(06:49):
offering through AI. That's the first and foremost focus of
the company right now.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
You know, it's so funny when earning season we go
through in the United States and we get to the
application software part the earning cycle, We're.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Like, oh, yeah, there's another one.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
There's another one, there's another one. It's not companies we
talk about all the time. Some of the bigger one were.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Driving from the San Francisco Airport into San Francisco and
seeing the billboards.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Yeah, it's exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
You know, we do not have a billboard on the
one oh one.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
I will say that we're more targeted in our advertising,
but I know a lot of tech companies do. Our
small businesses are all over North America, so we spend
our dollars or elsewhere outside of just the tech corridor.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
That's what I'm trying to get to like our audience
or the investment audience, like what is it that they
need to understand? But you guys specifically amid a space
that has a lot of players.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Sure, So first of all, just to note, Zoo was
one of the you know, highest growing software SaaS platforms
in the world. You know, we just grew twenty three
percent year over year. We're profitable, we're rule of forty four.
Just because we don't trade on Nasdaq does not mean
we don't have a gold global footprint. We were based
and launched in from the Australian New Zealand region, so
that's why we trade there. But the most important thing is,
(07:57):
you know, we are a strong, growing SaaS player betting
on the macro digitization of small business software and the
cloud accounting space still has a lot.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Of yield in most markets in the world, including the US.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
So excited to play where we do and excited to
stead this many small businesses.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Are you looking to list in the United States? Like,
as you make investments in the US, look to expand
your business in the US, or you're looking to list
in the United States, Well, right.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
Now, we're pretty happy on the ASX. We have shareholders
who are very fundamentally oriented and interested in our longterterm growth.
We do have US shareholders in the share base. If
we would ever consider, you know, listing, it would probably
we'd be thinking about maybe at some point in the
future of duel listing, no time frame, no commitments, but
really just to widen the ability for all investors to
participate easily in the zero story. But pretty contemp right
(08:45):
now with that ASX listing and a really great shareholder base.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Hey, very briefly, before we let you go, tariffs in
the new tariff regime here in the US, where the
average tariff rate is pretty much increased fivefold over the
last year, and that's before deals have been signed with
many different trading partners here in the US. How's it
affecting the small businesses that make up the North American
portion of your companies.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
Well, I think you have hit the nail on the head.
I think what they're trying to forecast is what the
cost or disruption is to the supply chain. You know,
let's hope it's not disruption, but rather, you know, the
management of a lower triff scenario. We will wait and
see what happens here over the next ninety days. I
think they're mostly trying to figure out, Hey, what is
the implication for their cost of good sold, what's the
(09:27):
implication for availability of supply, and lastly, what's the implication
for price rises they may need to entertain in order
to be able to hold margin if their cost of
good goes up. And again, like we really think of
our business as trying to help them navigate those changes
with increasing insight and foresight.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
All right, really appreciate getting some time with you, so Kinder,
Thank you so much. S Kinder seeing Cassidy, chief executive
officer of Zero, joining us from San Francisco,
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and
Tim Stenoveek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
A company that plays in the cloud and data really
works with small business companies A great read. In fact,
we're talking about the company Zero. It's an eighteen point
one billion dollar market cap cloud accounting software and small
business platform company. So Kinder saying. Cassidy is the chief
executive officer of Zero, which trades outside the United States,
is based in Wellington, New Zealand, and she's joining us
(00:36):
from San Francisco on this Tuesday. So Kinder, good to
have you here with Tim and myself. Tell us a
little bit more about your company, the bulk of your business,
where growth comes from, who your customers really are industry
wide as well as geographically.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Sure, well, thank you so much for having me on.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
As you know, Zero is a cloud based accounting platform
global in nature. We're about two point one billion dollars
in revenue aud We trade on the ASX. But the
most important thing is we have over four million customers
around the world in key geos like the US, the UK, Australia,
New Zealand and one hundred and eighty other countries providing
(01:15):
them not just cloud based accounting software to small businesses
and their accountants, but also providing payroll and payment services
alongside that. So global footprint many markets, but certainly in
the US, the UK and Australia are Big three.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
So given what you do, you have an incredible view
on the economy globally, not just based on who your
clients are and what they're actually doing with their software,
but how your software is actually selling. So given the
data points that you understand, the regions in which you operate,
how would you characterize the global economy right now?
Speaker 4 (01:47):
You know, I'd see the global economy as almost as
you all read it, which is, I would say an
economy of mixed signals versus the data. So, as you noted,
we operate across many geographies, and you would still see
relatively strong jobs growth. As an example, you would still
see relatively strong sales growth across many markets for our
(02:09):
small business customers. And yet the sentiment in many markets
is one of uncertainty. You have small businesses in different
markets looking at different tear pressure that might put pressure
on their cost of goods sold or imply price increases
for their customers. They're certainly nervous about cash flow in
that regard. And then you have some enduring issues for
small businesses that are despite macro. You know, macrocanoptimes, which
(02:32):
is the enduring problem of cash flow in managing things
like late payments. So we see, as I said, relatively
mixed signals. But I think we can agree that they
feel uncertain in this environment, and of course we believe
our software is there to help them manage their cash
flows in that uncertainty.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
How much of the uncertainty is a result of what's
going on here in the United States.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
I think a fair amount.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
I mean, look, you know, as you all know, small
businesses in the US, including in the US. In the
US as an example of small businesses, we're growing very
healthily pre COVID, five to six percentage points a year
according to our data. And then what we saw is
with COVID, a big disruption. And then of course, just
as they started to recover from COVID inflationary pressure eleven
interest rate increases. And this is that we're trying to
(03:14):
starting to settle from that, and maybe the promise of
let's say a deregulated environment, well, along comes new uncertainty
with it, as an example, tariffs, So they are having
to navigate a lot, and in the last ten years, certainly,
certainly in the last few months even more so.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Kid, what are the things too we're worried, not worried,
curious about. And I know it's something you have been
working on, and that is to expand your presence in
North America. And it sounds like the US specifically walk
us through what you have been doing, the investments you've
been making, and what kind of growth you are seeing.
And I'm also just kissous generally about your exposure to
the US market.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
Yeah, so interestingly, we're probably one of the few, you know,
native cloud SaaS businesses of very large scale that is
underweight the US meeting.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
The US was a new market for Zero.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Obviously, I'm based here in Silicon Valley and have been
here for the last thirty years. But for Zero, they
entered the US market maybe a decade ago on the
promise of bringing cloud based accounting to the market. It
was largely a desktop market, and over the last ten years,
i'd say the company's steadily increased its focus and presence
in the US and is now seeing a nice acceleration
(04:20):
of those efforts in subscriber growth, very strong subscriber growth.
We just reported results about a month about a week ago,
very strong revenue growth here in the US, and what
we see is very much in.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
A lot of white space.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
There's still a large, large number of small businesses that
have never digitized their back end accounting here in the US,
and obviously the opportunity to do so save some time,
saves some money, and with AI can offer new insights.
So we see a pretty attractive market landscape her that
we've been building towards.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
How do you do this at scale with a salesforce
that you know? Is it cold calling? Because when you're
calling on these small and medium sized businesses, some of
them are indeed very small, and those could be pretty
small accounts. Is it self service? How do you handle
the incoming or is it outgoing?
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Well, you know, in the US, we have a multi
channel approach, just because we do everywhere around the world.
We have a pretty big direct or self service motion
where small businesses can discover zero online through ads through
social media. We have large Facebook and LinkedIn engagement and
can come to the website and sign up directly so
we have a big direct funnel.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
We have a salesforce, but that salesforce, believe it.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
Or not, calls on accounts and bookkeepers, not some small
businesses directly, because of course, many of the small businesses
we have work with an account and bookkeeper for their
taxes and bookkeeping. And then the third thing is we
have increasingly new channels and new partnerships working with other
vertical SaaS providers. You know, people like the neo banks
around the world where they refer customers into zero as
(05:49):
an SMB is starting their journey in payroll of payments
or banking. And so we work across all three channels
everywhere in the world pretty successfully.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
How are you using AI right now from the not
just of with your clients, but also when it comes
to sales.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Yeah, so look, I think that like many cloud based
accounting services or cloud based services, our first goals to
put AI in the hands for our customers. So the
full focus is on launching Jacks, which we did this
past year. Jacks's just as zero. It's our sort of
CampaignOn if you think on the site of your mini
CFO in a box that helps you use zero. This
(06:28):
year we're very much focused on the expansion of jacks
for our customers so we can do more jobs for
you on our platform. And of course that is the
promise of AI. Just really give back first and foremost
time on these tasks, accounting tasks, payment tasks, and then
to give you more intelligence, more reasoning, and all the
insights our platform has to offer. To really expand that
(06:49):
offering through AI. That's the first and foremost focus of
the company right now.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
You know, it's so funny when earning season we go
through in the United States and we get to the
application software part the earning cycle, We're.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Like, oh, yeah, there's another one.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
There's another one, there's another one. It's not companies we
talk about all the time. Some of the bigger one were.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Driving from the San Francisco Airport into San Francisco and
seeing the billboards.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Yeah, it's exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
You know, we do not have a billboard on the
one oh one.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
I will say that we're more targeted in our advertising,
but I know a lot of tech companies do. Our
small businesses are all over North America, so we spend
our dollars or elsewhere outside of just the tech corridor.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
That's what I'm trying to get to like our audience
or the investment audience, like what is it that they
need to understand? But you guys specifically amid a space
that has a lot of players.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Sure, So first of all, just to note, Zoo was
one of the you know, highest growing software SaaS platforms
in the world. You know, we just grew twenty three
percent year over year. We're profitable, we're rule of forty four.
Just because we don't trade on Nasdaq does not mean
we don't have a gold global footprint. We were based
and launched in from the Australian New Zealand region, so
that's why we trade there. But the most important thing is,
(07:57):
you know, we are a strong, growing SaaS player betting
on the macro digitization of small business software and the
cloud accounting space still has a lot.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Of yield in most markets in the world, including the US.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
So excited to play where we do and excited to
stead this many small businesses.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Are you looking to list in the United States? Like,
as you make investments in the US, look to expand
your business in the US, or you're looking to list
in the United States, Well, right.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
Now, we're pretty happy on the ASX. We have shareholders
who are very fundamentally oriented and interested in our longterterm growth.
We do have US shareholders in the share base. If
we would ever consider, you know, listing, it would probably
we'd be thinking about maybe at some point in the
future of duel listing, no time frame, no commitments, but
really just to widen the ability for all investors to
participate easily in the zero story. But pretty contemp right
(08:45):
now with that ASX listing and a really great shareholder base.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Hey, very briefly, before we let you go, tariffs in
the new tariff regime here in the US, where the
average tariff rate is pretty much increased fivefold over the
last year, and that's before deals have been signed with
many different trading partners here in the US. How's it
affecting the small businesses that make up the North American
portion of your companies.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
Well, I think you have hit the nail on the head.
I think what they're trying to forecast is what the
cost or disruption is to the supply chain. You know,
let's hope it's not disruption, but rather, you know, the
management of a lower triff scenario. We will wait and
see what happens here over the next ninety days. I
think they're mostly trying to figure out, Hey, what is
the implication for their cost of good sold, what's the
(09:27):
implication for availability of supply, and lastly, what's the implication
for price rises they may need to entertain in order
to be able to hold margin if their cost of
good goes up. And again, like we really think of
our business as trying to help them navigate those changes
with increasing insight and foresight.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
All right, really appreciate getting some time with you, so Kinder,
Thank you so much. S Kinder seeing Cassidy, chief executive
officer of Zero, joining us from San Francisco,
Hosts And Creators
Tim Stenovec
Carol Massar
Popular Podcasts
Boysober
Have you ever wondered what life might be like if you stopped worrying about being wanted, and focused on understanding what you actually want? That was the question Hope Woodard asked herself after a string of situationships inspired her to take a break from sex and dating. She went "boysober," a personal concept that sparked a global movement among women looking to prioritize themselves over men. Now, Hope is looking to expand the ways we explore our relationship to relationships. Taking a bold, unfiltered look into modern love, romance, and self-discovery, Boysober will dive into messy stories about dating, sex, love, friendship, and breaking generational patterns—all with humor, vulnerability, and a fresh perspective.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com