Michael Wood truly lives and breathes the title entrepreneur. Currently he’s Founder & CEO of Translucent. His LinkedIn profile reveals he’s also the founder of 4 other companies. The company that you’re likely to know him from is Receipt Bank. Michael was the original co-founder and was there till April 2021, when it was acquired by private equity group HgCapital.

Please be aware I strategically partner with Translucent. I was an early adopter of Receipt Bank, and also am an early adopter of Translucent. I’m sure you will find this interview enlightening!

In this episode, we talk about . . .

• Michael’s journey from pursuing a Bachelor of Science in zoology to founding a marketing and growth consultancy firm, Tweed London.

• The origins and evolution of Receipt Bank, a digital receipt management platform. 

• The impact of Xero's API on the accounting industry. 

• Michael discusses how his experience at Receipt Bank led to the launch of Translucent, a solution for multi-entity businesses to manage their accounting setup.

• How Translucent is using a compound startup approach to build multiple apps within one platform, aiming to launch four apps per year.

• Michael explains that Translucent is like a data warehouse, providing a single source of truth for users to easily search and find data across all their entities.

• Michael discusses upcoming features for their financial management platform, including bank consolidation and intercompany loans.

• The future of accounting, globalisation, and the need for a more unified toolset.

• Michael shares his views on the future of accounting and technology industry through 2030, emphasising the value of data and its journey towards maximisation.

• Michael highlights the increasing importance of data in the industry, and how firms and finance departments will need to surf the technology wave to keep up.

Michael Wood : https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelwood/

Translucent : https://translucent.app/ 

Heather Smith : https://www.linkedin.com/in/heathersmithau/ 

If you enjoyed this podcast please share it with someone else who you think would benefit from it. For in-depth discussions about the ecosystem, do join the Xero Mastermind group on Facebook. I recommend subscribing to the Accounting Apps newsletter for a comprehensive insight into the ecosystem space, accessible at HeatherSmithAU.COM. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn and subscribe to the Cloud Stories podcast. I'm Heather Smith, and this has been the Cloud Stories podcast.