Kevin Fitzgerald is the Managing Director - Asia for Employment Hero, an Australian software company that lets you manage your recruitment, HR, and payroll tasks in one place.

Currently serving over 200k SMEs, Employment Hero raised around $129M in 2022, following their Series E funding the year before.

‍

👋🏼 How would you explain your job to someone outside tech?

I lead the teams who run our business in Asia.

‍

🧐 What's something about you or your job that would surprise us?

I'm an ex-accountant and an ex-recruiter.

‍

🏆 What has been the biggest highlight of your career so far?

Passing my ACCA Exams. 

All roads led back to becoming a qualified accountant as that took me to recruiting accountants, joining an accounting software company (Xero), and now leading Employment Hero in Asia.

‍

🔍 What's a startup trend or space you're watching this year?‍

E-commerce and crypto accounting.

I still think there is a huge opportunity in e-commerce software and for crypto accounting. nobody has done it well yet.

‍

💼 What advice would you give someone starting out in your industry? 

Learn the mechanics of the business you are in, how it works, what are the dependencies across teams/departments, and why. 

This grounding will help you quickly understand other businesses and your clients and put you in a position to ask better questions.

‍

🗣 What's one thing you can keep talking about for hours? 

SMEs. 

‍

🎥 What's your favorite movie/TV show? 

Top Gun.

‍

🍨 What's your go-to ice cream flavor?‍

Vanilla.

‍

FYI. We've edited this interview for clarity.