002: Back to BASIC, with Anne Allibone

What happens when a chartered accountant decides the general ledger needs rebuilding from scratch? Anne Allibone trained in audit at KPMG, spent years as a fractional CFO, and grew up with a dad who wrote Sinclair BASIC, the software that made the ZX81 and Spectrum work. Now she's founder and CEO of Finzu, an AI-native general ledger built for SME founders. We talk about why month-end makes finance useless to founders, whether you'd trust AI with your books, the "verification tax" that comes with AI that's right 98% of the time, and the question everyone's asking: is Finzu just a wrapper around Claude? Anne also makes the optimistic case for the profession. AI was supposed to be the end of developers, and it's still hard to hire one. Chapters 00:00 Cold open and intro 02:41 From KPMG to fractional CFO 05:32 Her dad and the Sinclair Spectrum 07:18 Why rebuild the general ledger? 14:13 Who is Finzu for? 16:04 Would you trust AI with your books? 18:16 Is Finzu just a wrapper around Claude? 21:29 The verification tax 22:38 The month-end problem 25:15 From compliance to advisory 28:08 Why be optimistic 30:41 Launch, beta and the DAS reaction 35:39 Growth, churn and why the right product wins 40:15 What we decided not to build 42:38 Founder judgement and values 47:15 Best advice for choosing software 48:47 Final thoughts Links Finzu: finzu.ai The A to Z of AI Accounting Software: atozaiaccounting.com Disclosure: Damon is an advisor to Finzu. This episode is not sponsored and Finzu had no input into the edit. Demo footage supplied by Finzu. Choose Wisely is independent. No paid placements.