Blake Oliver – 2017 40 Under 40 Honoree

 

In 2011, I started an online bookkeeping service called Cloudsourced Accounting. My partners and I had the explicit goal of disrupting the business models of traditional CPA firms and freelance bookkeepers. As a completely virtual firm, we were early adopters of Xero and other cloud-based accounting tools such as QuickBooks Online, Bill.com, and Expensify. Within three years, we had a team of twelve, serving about 200 customers across the United States. In 2015, Cloudsourced Accounting merged with HPC, a virtual CPA firm based out of Atlanta, Georgia, and I joined HPC as Director of Technology and Marketing. I then worked for Xero before joining Armanino LLP as a Manager on the Outsourced Finance & Accounting team.

 

In my spare time, I curate a weekly newsletter called Cloud Accounting Weekly. It’s a free resource to accountants, bookkeepers, small business owners, and developers. Each week I share the best cloud accounting links I come across with my readers. It’s my hope that the knowledge I’m sharing inspires others to take the leap and build a business they can be proud of.

 

Favorite influencer(s) (authors, bloggers, mentors, speakers, etc.)

These are a few of my favorite people in no particular order:

 

• Ron Baker & Ed Kless – Telling it like it is on The Soul of Enterprise
• Jason Blumer & Greg Kyte – Making accounting fun and funny on the Thrivecast
• Chris Hooper – Reinventing the accounting firm over at Accodex
• David Barrett – Reinventing expense reports at Expensify
• Amy Vetter – Balancing business and bliss at Xero
• Wayne Schmidt – Educating the industry over at Karbon
• Bruce Phillips – One of the original cloud accountants and owner of HPC
• Clayton Oates – Thought leader and the guy you want to hang out with at every conference
• Guy Pearson – Building an amazing app called Practice Ignition
• Sholto Macpherson – Editor of Digital First
• Karen Reyburn – Master of marketing for accounting firms at The Profitable Firm
• Seth David – This guy knows literally all the apps
• Scott & Patti Scharf – The e-commerce accounting experts at Catching Clouds
• Caleb Newquist – Editor of Going Concern
• David Leary – Cloud accounting ecosystem evangelist
• Heather Smith – Author of Xero for Dummies
• Jeff Maddux – The “Lifestyle Accountant” redefining the career path of a CPA
• Gene Marks – The most prolific CPA writer on the planet?
• Geni Whitehouse – Makes boring subjects like accounting and technology interesting

Steph Hinds – Shaping the future of small businesses in Australia at Growthwise

 

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Read about the other 40 Under 40 Honorees for 2017.