Speaker 1: 0:13

Hey, Ellie, actually no. Who should I direct this question to?

Speaker 2: 0:18

Is there another person in the room?

Speaker 1: 0:19

I think there is, do you want to start that, maybe I should.

Speaker 2: 0:22

We have and guards oh my gosh, I know Zero's managing director, but also strategy Special guest Lots of strategy. Global chief strategy officer.

Speaker 1: 0:34

Indeed, and not only do we have that, but you might also hear randomly in the background the sound of two children. My kids are currently in Zerocon and in the podcast van together Kids are currently a Zerocon and in the podcast fan together, which is amazing.

Speaker 2: 0:45

And in fact Jericho's got a vinyl hat on. He is like merged up, he's all about it.

Speaker 1: 0:48

But hey, not Ellie, but hey, angad, would you rather have?

Speaker 3: 0:51

Oh no, here we go.

Speaker 1: 0:53

A hook for a hand or a peg for a leg.

Speaker 3: 0:55

Hook for a hand.

Speaker 1: 0:57

Hook for a hand, and why?

Speaker 3: 0:59

Why I think a hook is pretty practical. You can do a lot of things with a hook.

Speaker 2: 1:03

Don't you do more things with your hands than your legs?

Speaker 3: 1:06

Yeah, but you can use your hand to hook things, yeah okay, you could but then I've got full mobility in my legs, I can run.

Speaker 2: 1:14

I know, but people would be scared. If you're like.

Speaker 3: 1:16

That is probably true, but maybe they're already scared of me.

Speaker 2: 1:19

Oh, come on so true, I hear that a lot, that people are so frightened of Angad.

Speaker 1: 1:26

We're not here to talk about pirates.

Speaker 2: 1:28

We are not, or pig legs Wrong podcast. Oh, I see the pirate reference now.

Speaker 1: 1:34

Yeah, we are here at Zerocon. Obviously, angad, this is your first Zerocon in the role that you're in, actually, your first Zerocon as a member of the Zero universe, right, because you're eight, nine months into the role.

Speaker 3: 1:45

I'm nine months into the managing director role. Yep been with zero for four and a half years and on the exec for two and a half, so yeah I should probably.

Speaker 2: 1:54

Don't worry, don't listen to andrew, he knows nothing.

Speaker 3: 1:56

But talk to me and go first, first as managing director, first time on stage, first time delivering it also you're on stage first time delivering it.

Speaker 2: 2:03

And also you're on stage, authentic, from the heart all community it felt good it felt so good, it felt so good. You're keynoting next time.

Speaker 1: 2:14

Out of 10,. What would you give yourself? Don't you dare Out of 10.

Speaker 3: 2:19

Well, I would probably say a 5 or 6.

Speaker 2: 2:22

I would definitely give you like a 9.5, like you can absolutely roll that thing out there we go.

Speaker 1: 2:28

Lovely now, obviously. Uh, there's been a whole bunch of stuff that's happened over the last couple of days. We're nearing the end of day two. Uh, there's been a few days before, with parties and events and all the kind of gatherings. What's your highlight? Maybe what's, what's what's other than sitting in a combi podcasting with us. What is the thing that has made your heart sing over the last couple of days?

Speaker 3: 2:48

Well, no, for starters, I mean finally getting invited on the podcast. Thank you very much.

Speaker 1: 2:52

I've been waiting. I mean we have sent like 47 emails Stop it.

Speaker 2: 2:57

He gave me the wrong email address. What can I say?

Speaker 1: 3:00

Awkward.

Speaker 3: 3:09

No, I would say that I mean I said it in the keynote. Just, I always find it amazing the amount of love across the group and like true sharing of ideas, new things. But I would say that our product announcements have been pretty well received.

Speaker 1: 3:18

And.

Speaker 3: 3:19

I know that sounds like a really odd thing to say, because we hope for it. That's what we obviously build it for, but they can go in either direction. I'd say it's pretty consistent. Really odd thing to say, because we hope for it. That's what we obviously build it for, but, uh, they can go in either direction. I'd say it's pretty consistent. Yeah, uh, and zero partner hub is probably one of those that also very early on strategy had on md, had on. You just heard over and over again. It's like guys, what are?

Speaker 3: 3:39

you doing yeah I've got too many screens like what is going on. So I think to go. We need to do this for it to be getting delivered and the feedback to all be hey thank you. I think that makes me really happy.

Speaker 1: 3:53

I've heard that echoed throughout as well. So there's eight of our team are up this year and we've gone to a whole bunch beforehand, and sometimes, when you come to a conference where there's announcements, there's oh yeah, whoop, you do this. One is different. There's been people who've? Been like oh okay, oh, there's some really cool stuff coming like. I feel like there's been a lot more buzz um from zero, but also from the rest of the ecosystem here as well.

Speaker 2: 4:16

Um then, I reckon I've seen uh, if I, if I think back at surprise zero cons like two years ago, four years ago, there wasn't that many product updates. We were building it back in. We all knew that. So, it's so exciting to see that next stage of the product is back. Innovation is back. There are some really core things happening here, Like even with the SIFT coming on board, the auto-reconciling. That's massive.

Speaker 1: 4:41

As you can see, Alty gets extremely excited about this kind of stuff. I'm excited I mean, I do as well, I do as well, but Ali loses her fucking mind on this stuff. I do, I really do.

Speaker 2: 4:52

But also the things like able to link into the tax agent portal, into your tax program. I've been banging on about that forever To finally see it.

Speaker 3: 5:04

it it's like, oh my gosh, yes, amazing I would say that that's the uh sorry, cut you off, ali. I think that's. But that speaks to our teams. Really, it's not just that we said, hey, what are all the features we could launch? It was like, what's the experience? What do we want our customers to actually be able to do? How do they work? What problem do they actually able to do? How do they work? What problem do they actually need to be solved? So I think that's what makes it really good. And your point of sounds like you're back.

Speaker 3: 5:34

You know I had the benefit of being at Nashville.

Speaker 2: 5:37

Oh, look that was great Checks.

Speaker 1: 5:38

And it was good.

Speaker 3: 5:39

But for the US audience and customer base they were like hey, you're back, thank you. And I know there was a feeling in the southern hemisphere of like, well, what about us? And so I think it makes me feel great that when you walk the floor, there is that like you're back.

Speaker 2: 5:54

You're back. You're back, baby yeah, and I just wanted to say there was one thing when you stood up and you were talking about the community and the things that Like that really hit me to the heart and I didn't want to shed a little tear because that is exactly how I feel.

Speaker 2: 6:15

When I walk into a room and I see my friends, my deepest friends, who are truly competitors, that I never did even think about, gosh, they're competitive and that we as an industry are so special because we have that, because a lot of other industries don't have that, and that was such a resounding moment and you articulated that so clearly and I was was like, oh my gosh, yes, like that hit me to the soul. So I just want to thank you for that insight because it just makes you really aware sometimes yeah, sometimes you just overlook it and it's not.

Speaker 3: 6:44

Uh, like, that's not a made-up thing, like that's what I've. You know, hopefully the reason it feels real is, I see it like that is actually what you observe on the floor.

Speaker 1: 6:53

I think as well as like it.

Speaker 1: 6:54

The more you spend time with people it's really easy when you just sit in an air chair and listen to thing and go home and the more you spend time around the people who are trying to build, create and drive and create the change and bring, that is more you go.

Speaker 1: 7:04

No, no, they actually want to do good things. Yes, just sometimes there's hard work that has to happen before you get to see the good things. And I love that we get to celebrate some of those good things at places like this together. When we all come together and we all, you know, see stuff and celebrate that stuff, have a whole bunch of fun and and bring that unity together. You know whether it's someone that might be a competitor, whether it's an app that might be doing something that's different or not. Like, we can learn, we can celebrate, we can connect and there's we kind of remove a bit of that, move a bit of the nasty stuff away from it, right, yeah, and I think there's so much gold in the community and the connections, because we're learning from each other so we learned a lot on the main stage.

Speaker 2: 7:38

We learned a lot of the discovery stages and the partner stages, but we've also learned from each other.

Speaker 1: 7:42

Angar, what did you learn the last couple of days?

Speaker 2: 7:44

about our community.

Speaker 1: 7:46

That's a really great question. So one thing that I'm super passionate about is the community, the people and how we operate as a collective. What have you learned about the community of accountants over the last couple of days?

Speaker 3: 7:57

I'm going to actually go. Probably the main thing is not just the accounting community but, actually the exhibitor community, because the one you know.

Speaker 3: 8:04

I described what I've observed, which is you all embrace each other, you're all learning from each other. But actually what I love watching is equally and I spend a lot more time on the explorer floor this time is you can see people from one exhibitor going to the next and true curiosity like what's, how come you're doing that? Hey, I've seen people from two different booths that are both saying we will help you chase cash flow and they're talking to each other and you can see that it's just like well, what, why, how are you doing that differently? Okay, and I'm sure they'll evolve and I'm but I think everyone sees that the opportunity to help small businesses is so large that you don't need to kind of protect it like, just be open share the insight.

Speaker 2: 8:47

There's so much opportunity back yourself into what you've got and, that being special, and somebody in the ecosystem will need it. I think that's so powerful, and it's also so exciting seeing some newbies come up. I've seen some great new guys come up and they're doing really well. Do you know what I get excited when I see lineups at their stand. I'm like, oh go guys, that's so fantastic, I feel so good for them.

Speaker 3: 9:09

So yeah, it's amazing you know to partly answer your question now because I skirted it a little bit, um, but you talked about vinyl. Vinyl, it's a great example. Think about trent like he's been in this community in so many different ways. He was an advisor at ignition when we knew them. He's been doing so many and that just, I think again, speaks to people that are doing this and not. It's not like a shingle, it's not. Oh, can I quickly get a buck out of this? They care about that end customer problem and if one thing they try doesn't work, they'll come at it a different way.

Speaker 1: 9:41

There's a deep, long-term personal investment in trying to bring solutions into a space. They get to know the broader community, they start to care about them, and it is that I found a lot of people in the ecosystem where they weren't in the accounting space. And then they were and they're like holy crap, this is such a great bunch of people. Like. This is a community who want to actually invest and give me, like, support and guidance on the thing I'm building.

Speaker 3: 10:06

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 10:08

And it's amazing, I love to see it. Amazing, I love to see it.

Speaker 3: 10:10

So I've got to ask a question. Am I allowed to do that Please? Oh my gosh, I love it.

Speaker 1: 10:14

I was going to ask you to ask a question. Oh my God Taking the lead.

Speaker 2: 10:17

Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1: 10:18

We have a third. He should be in a leadership role.

Speaker 2: 10:20

He should be in a leadership role. You need to check Ali, Andrews and Ankhards contract done um, I'll look forward to it. Uh, I'll send you the right email this time.

Speaker 3: 10:34

Thank you so much as you've been to many zero cons. You've been in the product. What got you excited this time?

Speaker 2: 10:42

look, I stick on x-factor, so I I was aware of product.

Speaker 1: 10:44

Yeah, you got the behind the scenes. Look, I'm a few years out of that.

Speaker 2: 10:47

I don't get, I don't I enjoyed actually watching people's reactions to it yeah um, do you know, who I really loved was Joe Brumby from the Bluey. He blew me away. Do you know? What really came to for me was that he just had this simple, simple story, but he just told it with heart and authenticity and he was so raw. Yeah, warts and all.

Speaker 1: 11:20

And he hooked me in and I was just lapping that up.

Speaker 2: 11:23

And you know, out of every zero con, I always come away with something, and that, for me, was like thank you, because I just needed to hear that story.

Speaker 3: 11:32

I think and then I want to hear yours you're not off the hook. I think that a big shout out to Justin and the crew that put on Zerocon their ability to find the speaker and the kind of surrounding speakers where the message lands for the audience. But it's subtle.

Speaker 2: 11:52

You adopt it in a way that's relevant for you.

Speaker 3: 11:55

There's no push, it's not in your face. They nail it every time.

Speaker 2: 11:59

Yeah, absolutely, I completely agree with you. I was like, yeah, I was so for me.

Speaker 1: 12:05

I believe a certain person said something about having a psychological condition of being too optimistic. I believe I heard that phrase thrown out at some point and that stuck with me as like a really interesting way of phrasing a thought process there and I feel like zero con and the space there is like that's a place to be where you can be overly optimistic and it brings that contemplation of the future and what it could look like and things where we could be afraid and nervous and scared of AI and is my job going to be here and all of a sudden say, but what, we can actually sit back and we say, well, there's, there's three and a half thousand of us that are here today and we're all coming together to look at what that looks like. And so I'm very comfortable to have a psychological condition of being overly optimistic.

Speaker 3: 12:46

I have no issues with that at all, and I'm going to encourage that in people in a safe way.

Speaker 2: 12:52

Obviously, obviously, do you have one defining word, or one word just to wrap it up, about Zero Condom that either you want that was for you or that you want people to take.

Speaker 3: 13:03

Community, community yeah.

Speaker 2: 13:05

That's Ellie's favorite word too. It is it is it is?

Speaker 3: 13:08

It's my favorite word.

Speaker 1: 13:10

Well, hey, thanks for joining us.

Speaker 3: 13:11

Thank you, thanks for having me A pleasure.

Speaker 1: 13:12

Amazing, I didn't get to ask a really strange and wacky question. I'm not going to ask because we don't have time. You've got way more important things to do than to talk to us about it.

Speaker 2: 13:31

But later tonight, when we're at the Safari Glir yeah. Next AAA podcast.

Speaker 1: 13:33

Well, yeah, aaa, we'll put it in your calendar.

Speaker 3: 13:35

I'll get through Jeff.

Speaker 2: 13:36

It's just there. We'll get you the contract to sign in blood in just a moment. All right, awesome.

Speaker 1: 13:40

Thanks so much Angar.

Speaker 3: 13:41

Thank you very much we appreciate it, thank you.

Speaker 1: 13:50

Wasn't that a fun adventure, my friends. Thank you so much, so incredibly much, for hanging out with us today. Ali, you've been amazing. Andrew, you've been all right. How good is it to be able to have adventures together it so is, and you know what.

Speaker 2: 14:04

Keep following us. We are all over the socials at accounting adventures. Check us out on the website. Give us a bit of a like. You know how much we love that stuff.

Speaker 1: 14:14

The best thing about the adventure is the people that we do it with. So thank you so much for listening, thank you so much for hanging out with us, and please bring all the ideas, keep them coming. We can't wait to share more cool adventures with you.

Speaker 2: 14:26

We love you guys. Bye.