Xero Blog

When I reflect on the single biggest technology change in 2020, I think of the way that small business owners around the world rose to the challenge and adopted digital tools at a speed and scale unlike anything in living memory.

The 13th October marks Ada Lovelace Day – an international celebration of the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). It aims to increase the profile of women in STEM and, in doing so, create new role models who will encourage more girls into STEM careers and support women already working in STEM.

How do you continue to engage youth and educators, showcasing opportunities in tech while under lockdown? In the Tech Outreach space, the large majority of initiatives have been event based. I’m a big believer in introducing students to the environment we work in and people (in person) who work in the sector.

At Xero, we have a strong focus on thinking innovatively so we can solve big challenges on behalf of small businesses around the globe. In Denver, where our Xero Americas HQ is located, innovation and entrepreneurship was on full display at Denver Startup Week earlier this month.

Xero’s app marketplace has over 800 apps which help small businesses and their advisors reach their goals. Each month we celebrate an app partner who stands out for helping small businesses thrive.

Paying bills is a time consuming task for all small businesses. We’re working to update this process in Xero to reduce friction and streamline it where we can. The existing batch payments interface was one of the first features to be built at Xero.

This morning, we were delighted to hear the news that iwoca, one of our longest standing alternative lending partners, received a grant of £10 million from the Banking Competition Remedies’ (BCR) Capability and Innovation Fund.

At Xero, we believe that valuing diverse ideas leads to innovation, as well as inclusion. A diverse workforce reflects our global small business customer and partner communities and allows us to be relevant and well connected to both.

Thanks to Google’s Women Techmakers grant, I was fortunate enough to be one of the 15 recipients to attend the Google I/O conference held in San Francisco in early May. I can certainly say that if you ever get the chance to attend #io19, then do!