On our own behalf: A new chapter.

I’ve been looking for a business model for a long time that creates win-win-win situations and uses fundamentally new technology. As is often the case when you search for something for a long time, you only realize relatively late that it might be very close at hand. It was no different for me.

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Accounting like 100 years ago

There is hardly an industry that has undergone less renewal in recent years than the accounting sector. The market is opaque, characterized by many small providers and high prices. Accounting as such is perceived as complex by most people, but is in fact surprisingly banal in many areas.

On the other hand, machine learning (ML) as a technology and methodology is hugely underestimated and, above all, “under-applied”. This applies to the entire software and digital industry. I wanted and still want to write an article about machine learning. However, I lack examples of its use in conventional applications. Accounting and machine learning share this general perception of being insanely complex. In fact, neither of them are.

From October: Accounto Technology AG

And so, from October, I will be taking care of my new start-up Accounto Technology AG as CEO. The starting signal for this venture was given between Christmas and New Year last year, after I had already been running a small accounting firm for over two years. It was their employees who pushed me last fall to dedicate myself to this business as well. Which I then did, rather reluctantly, but with a “digital eye”. I invested a lot of time in the multi-step strategy – I’ll write something about that soon – and in developing and testing the business model.

A team was found surprisingly quickly. I knew my co-founder and CTO Jan-Hendrik Heuing from the TYPO3 community and he was involved from the very first day. And sometimes pulled me along when I didn’t want to know anything more about this start-up after five 20-hour days in a row. Little by little, all the pieces of the puzzle came together: More employees, new customers, investors, sparring partners. Today, a good 6 months later, we have a platform that will completely take over accounting for our customers and bring machine learning to the accounting industry.

I am convinced that in 5 years’ time, processing and booking receipts yourself will be as antiquated as going to a travel agency to book a flight today. Our customers already see it that way today. It is now time to take on a much wider range of customers and prepare for our first expansion into Germany.

Goodbye digital industry?

In order to do Accounto right, I have to give up my previous job at AOE with a heavy heart. Working with @aoepeople has been the best thing I’ve ever done in my professional life.

What founder and CEO Kian Gould achieves at AOE together with his management colleagues Daniel Pötzinger (CTO), Steven Bailey (VP Sales) and Joern Bock (VP PMO) is outstanding. For years, they have managed to form and develop a team with a sense of proportion and heart that is unrivaled in terms of professionalism in the digital industry and which, despite strong growth, has not lost its overarching spirit.

I consider their vision of the self-organized, agile company and a “Team & Method” basedbusiness model to be leading. AOE shows, even today with around 300 employees, that there are no upper limits to this form of organization. Fortunately, AOE will not be completely lost to me: I will continue to be available for selected projects and initiatives as part of a newly created board. My commitment to the Board of the TYPO3 Association and TYPO3 GmbH remains unaffected by the change of job.

I also try to write weekly about things in digital life and let different voices have their say. To be critical. Not just to describe digitalization as a trend or buzz, but to try to get to the bottom of things and initiate debates. For better or worse, machine learning and start-up topics will also find their way in. Sorry.

And last but not least, I will also be available in the future as a sparring partner and coach for managers, entrepreneurs and digital professionals when it comes to strategy and business model development. The 40 or so keynote speeches last year were also fun and provided interesting insights. And I learned a lot.

“Success is one of the possible outcomes”

Of course, Accounto also means considerable risk. But I think it has to be done now. The key to success, which may come as a surprise, is not primarily in the technology, because a lot of machine learning technology is already available. It lies in the application of the technology. I think we have found a model with which we can bring machine learning extremely economically into the accounting domain, and probably beyond.

Despite all the commitment and enthusiasm, you have to remain sober: It is not a given that Accounto will be a resounding success, it is only one possible outcome of the venture. It is even more likely that Accounto will only be moderately successful and there is also, fortunately, a smaller chance that it will be a disaster for everyone involved. However, the chance that we can really remove human labor from accounting with Accounto is too high not to try.

On that note: thank you for reading my blog, it’s an honor. And off to new shores.