Rod Drury might not have started Xero until he was 40, but the idea behind his cloud-based accounting software has been simmering away since he was in high school.
In the early 1980s when he was a student at Napier Boys' High School, he was inspired by his computing and accounting teachers into a love of both subjects. Even then, he had big plans for his future career: "I knew when I was 17 or 18 that I wanted to do something big. Back at school, seeing the power of computing, and not being restrained to earn just on the hours you're putting into something - I just loved that you could build these machines that sell overnight. I knew it's what I wanted to do."
After a highly successful career in software development, Drury decided it was time to re-visit that idea of accountancy software. He knew the best way to start was to take the business public from day one, using the example of fellow Kiwi businessman Geoff Ross and his brand 42 Below.
Drury and co-founder Hamish Edwards figured they needed $15 million to kick things off. "We had the capital to do things right, but we had to stand there in the market banking on reputations and our big idea".
Since then they've raised about a billion dollars in capital, and Drury is constantly surprising himself with how fast the business is still growing. "I was just saying to the team, if I'd have heard the conversations in the board meeting yesterday three or four years ago, just the size of the numbers, I'd be dancing for joy because it's just so big now".
