In this episode, you meet Chris Hooper. Early in his life, Chris began to see accounting as the language of business and despite having had success as an accountant, he realized that his business could not scale beyond him. The company he is building is called Accodex. Accodex is disrupting what some describe as the most boring profession in the world, Accounting. He is building a company to avoid what he calls the Accounting Apocalypse.
Chris noticed that just as the innovation of the double entry accounting had revolutionized Accounting, there were new trends that were also about to disrupt the field of accounting. His company Accodex, his striving to be a platform to support the future accounting. Although it is often described as Uber for accounting, the analogy does not fit well. If Uber gave you the same driver each time, and spent time ensuring that you trusted the driver, then that would be Accodex.
The company Chris is building is based on the insights he gained while studying the history of Accounting during his MBA. He noticed four trends that were changing the future of Accounting:
- Changing labour force dynamics and expectations
- Technological change
- Globalizations
- Changing expectations of owners and entrepreneurs
Driven by the entrepreneurial bug, he set himself on a journey to build a company that met his needs as an accountant. He built a company to satisfy his own needs.
One of my favourite insights from Chris was his use of the analogy of sailing a ship. You can build a ship but if the winds are not blowing, or the weather is not right, it is hard to get the ship moving. What I love about this analogy is that it acknowledges the uncertainty involved in building a business. It acknowledges that we all have limited control as we try to build the future.
Chris is ambitious and wants to build a company that last well beyond his lifetime. Very few companies make it past forty years. What I admire about him, is that once he noticed that there was incongruence between what he was doing and what he wanted to be doing, he took the time to fundamentally shift his course. This is a common theme among people I interview on Disruptive Conversations.
Being an entrepreneur is hard work, and Chris suggests that entrepreneurs need to believe that the fight is worth fighting for. They need to be so committed to it that they’re almost willing to die for it. If you believe that fight is worth fighting for, then fight relentlessly. Chris believes in hard work. His favourite quote is, “the elevator to success is out of order, but the stairs are always available”.
To learn more about what Chris means by the accounting Apocalypse you can check out his video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO2Iy0yvdEY
Learn more about Accodex here: