As I hinted in Valuing the Sage bashers a few weeks back announcing that Duane Jackson had sold some of his shares in KashFlow (cloud-based accounting system for SMEs) for just short of £1m to Nathan Kirsh – the 80 year old South African business/property magnate, KashFlow has now appointed former Exact CEO, Ray Patel, as its Executive Vice Chairman. Patel has been working in an advisory capacity with KashFlow for some 9 months – so hopefully both parties now know each other ‘warts and all’. Patel has also bought an equity stake in Kashflow.
Jackson asked me for a quote to use in his press release. I don’t know Patel personally so can’t really vouch for him. But I was able to say “'I've followed KashFlow for many years. They really have given Sage, and other established companies in the market, a real run for their money. It's difficult enough to grow a company from scratch to £1m. Even more difficult to make the transition from 'startup run by the founder' to the next stage. The appointment of highly experienced new executives to join Duane Jackson is extremely good news and bodes well for the future of Kashflow and its customers'.