Suggestions
Kenji Kuramoto
CEO @ Acuity | Building A Better Workplace For Accountants
Kenji is the Founder and CEO of Acuity which builds and maintains financial functions for innovative entrepreneurs. Through Acuity, he’s provided thousands of companies with a full range of financial solutions from high-level strategic financial counsel through its fractional CFO practice all the way to virtualized bookkeeping and tax services. Acuity has been named one of Accounting Today's Top Firms For Technology, Top Firms To Work For, and is a Certified B Corporation.
Kenji is also the co-founder of 404 Invests which makes seed-level investments in Accounting Technology, SaaS, FinTech, and Crypto companies.
Prior to Acuity, Kenji was the CFO of an Inc 5000 tech company and worked in the assurance practice at Arthur Andersen.
Kenji has served as a board member or advisor for The Entrepreneurs Organization, Staplehouse Restaurant (a subsidiary of The Giving Kitchen), Refuge Coffee, Synergies Work Seed Fund, Intuit, Xero, Gusto, Freshbooks, Mercury and Expensify. He has an accounting degree from Wake Forest University and was The Atlanta Business Chronicle's 40 Under 40, a TIE Top Entrepreneur, and a Hubdoc Top 50 Cloud Accountant.
Highlights
👀 Got your attention? Yeah... nothing feeds social algorithms and human attention like Caribbean islands, boats, and tropical drinks. 🏝 🚤 🍹
👉 But here's what many accounting firms miss. Our team here in St Lucia are EXCEPTIONALLY talented accountants. When you're driving through towns like Castries or Gros Islet you'll see more than just beach bars, you'll see the offices of EY, PwC, Grant Thornton (US), and KPMG where many of our team members began their careers. The big firms have been pursing global talent for years.
🌎 But as smaller firms we tend to think that global talent pool is out of reach. Or that our work can only be done in the US. Our experience at Acuity Accounting has shown us otherwise and I'd challenge firms to try looking for team members further afield than you do today.
📣 We have to shout out some great partners that have helped us and others along the way like Grow Resources Saint Lucia, TOA Global, Cadencia and Nimbl, so reach out to these good folks if you need help getting started.
🚤 But not going to lie... if I've got to spend time with great colleagues I'll take it from a boat with a cold drink in hand versus a Zoom meeting any day. 🍻
I will always think of the word "community" when it comes to Xerocon. This week in Nashville was my 6th and it was filled with even more community.... being with partners, meeting new friends, reconnecting with long-time peers, boot scootin' down Broadway 🎉 , and even winning a community award 🏆! Thank you Xero 💙 for hosting such a great week for our Acuity Accounting team and for continuing to make this more than a profession, but a great community of people. See y'all at the next one! 🤠

