Recorded live from day two of Xerocon London.

Xero opened the show with two solid hours of announcements. Xero Force, the Ultra plan, smart data capture, JAX and a big push on the rise of the builder. Most of it is in beta and lands later in the year. So we spent two days in the hall asking the people it lands on what they actually made of it.

The centrepiece is our interview with Kate Haywood, MD of Xero UK. We put it to her straight. The accounting and bookkeeping channel arguably is not as important to Xero's revenue as it once was, so does there need to be a bit more honesty about where accountants and bookkeepers sit in the hierarchy? She did not dodge it. "They are fundamentally important to us at Xero, and especially here in the UK."

We also pushed her on the ecosystem. When Xero ships data capture, invoice chasing and reporting, it starts competing with the app partners who built on top of it. Kate says Xero is an open ecosystem led by what is right for the customer, and that if you try and build everything you end up building nothing.

The vendors are less relaxed about it. Daniel Rock of SuiteFiles reckons "there's a lot of app vendors that will feel very squeezed". David Tuck of Mayday is delighted, because the Ultra plan points straight at his market. Jordan Vickery of Vinyl says nobody is running scared, which was disappointingly uncontroversial of him. Reuben from Briefcase wishes more people were trying to do what they do.

The accountants are warier. Plenty of hope in the room, not much validation yet. Stuart Hurst points out that JAX launched two years ago and not a great deal has happened. Sharon, ten Xerocons in, says this one felt different, because Xero has become a bigger and more corporate establishment and it is "lacking a little bit of the human side". David from Youtopia goes further. "I don't think people actually implement anything from these shows."

Featuring David Tuck (MayDay), Daniel Rock (SuiteFiles), Vipul Sheth (AdvanceTrack), Jordan Vickery (Vinyl), Reuben (Briefcase), Kate Haywood (Xero UK), Jim, Ravi, Sharon, Stuart Hurst, Will, David (Youtopia) and Sam.

Is Xero still building for accountants, or around them?

Chapters 00:00 Cold open 00:37 Live from day two. The party, the slide and the design lab 07:06 David Tuck, Mayday. The Ultra plan 08:32 Daniel Rock, SuiteFiles. Who gets squeezed 09:46 Vipul Sheth, AdvanceTrack. The proof is in the pudding 11:10 Jordan Vickery, Vinyl. Is anyone running scared? 12:22 Reuben, Briefcase. AI native, and welcoming the competition 13:28 Kate Haywood, MD of Xero UK. The full interview 47:11 Jim. Hope, but not much validation 48:35 Ravi. JAX, and small steps with AI 49:49 Sharon. Ten Xerocons, and a missing human side 51:24 Stuart Hurst. Best in years, but Dext and Chaser look nervous 52:47 Will. It all looks good. Now show us it working 54:07 David, Youtopia. Nobody implements anything 55:39 Sam. First Xerocon 56:55 Wrap up