So, thanks to an American rock band changing its name in the previous decade to commemorate a Santa Monica park in their home town, Accounting 2.0 died as a brand, and Xero was born.

Even on a cell phone from nearly 9,000 miles away, you can feel Rod Drury’s energy. The co-founder and CEO of Xero, the cloud-based accounting software company that this year made it to the top ...