#473 Feedback & Strong Culture = Scaling Successfully: with Mark Rees, CTO of Xero

Today we’re talking to Mark Rees, CTO of Xero; and we discuss what it’s been scaling a fast-growing tech company in New Zealand, how Xero differentiates itself with its culture to attract top talent, and why it’s imperative to keep tight feedback loops with your customers, developers, and leadership.

All of this right here, right now, on the ModernCTO Podcast! 

Learn more about Xero at https://www.xero.com/

About Mark Rees:

Mark Rees is responsible for Xero’s global technology strategy and direction. 

At the center of Mark’s role is enabling Xero’s platform for innovation, growth and operational excellence with the support of world-class talent across Xero’s platform, security, data, engineering and architecture teams.

In his time at Xero, Mark has been a key part of driving some significant achievements at the company; not least of which is the scaling of Xero itself; from a startup to a global tech company. This scaling has been relentless — from 10 teams to 14, then 22, 36, 60, and now over 100.

Prior to joining Xero, Mark was Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft New Zealand and Chief Product and Technology Officer at Trade Me. 

Mark graduated from the University of Canterbury with a PhD in Chemistry and a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Mathematics. He was also a research fellow at Technische Universiteit Eindhoven.

About Xero:

Xero is a cloud-based accounting software platform for small businesses with over 2.7 million subscribers globally. Through Xero, small business owners and their advisors have access to real-time financial data any time, anywhere and on any device. Xero offers an ecosystem of over 1,000 third-party apps and 300 plus connections to banks and other financial partners. In 2020 and 2021, Xero was included in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index and in 2020, Xero was recognised by IDC MarketScape as a leader in its worldwide SaaS and cloud-enabled small business finance and accounting applications vendor assessment.