More says Thriday is designed to reduce the time small businesses spend managing financial admin to just 30 minutes per week, while also saving them a significant amount of money.

“It’s like having a bookkeeper, accountant and transaction account in your pocket,” he explains. “Thriday is more than just a financial management platform – it’s a productivity platform designed to simplify the lives of small business owners.

“Our real differentiator that allows us to automate so much more and save so much more time is the built-in transaction account feature, where the real-time income and expense data powers the automation behind the scenes.”

Serverless cloud architecture ensures data security and compliance

More and his team started designing the platform in August 2020 and it went live for sole traders in August 2022, after passing a range of security tests and gaining ISO/IEC 27001 certification – a globally recognised standard for information security management systems. The platform was officially launched to the broader public in October 2022.

Thriday uses serverless, event-driven architecture in Microsoft’s Azure data centre regions across Australia to power its web platform and mobile app, keep data secure and meet compliance requirements. It also uses Azure DevOps and Visual Studio App Center for work item management and software development, as well as Microsoft 365 for office productivity and endpoint security.

More says that using these Microsoft services has resulted in a very agile and effective development team, satisfied end users and peace of mind around securing valuable data.

“We were fortunate to get into the Microsoft for Startups program in 2020 and leveraged the tech consult sessions with Microsoft architects to review our platform and offer advice,” he adds. “We also work with Microsoft Specialised Partner Arinco to assist us with identity management, DevOps and performance troubleshooting.”

Long-term growth philosophy key to Thriday’s thriving platform

“Thriday provides back-end automation today and will deliver intelligent growth for the SMB sector tomorrow. Its Microsoft AI powered platform not only takes the headache out of financial admin, but enables transformation and agility for small business owners. Our trusted cloud and technology are key ingredients for startups to scale and we look forward to seeing Thriday drive economic progress in Australia, and eventually across the world.” Ahmed Mazhari, President, Microsoft Asia

Thriday has grown rapidly to have 30 employees working worldwide, including in Australia, India, Scotland and South Africa. Thriday launched in October 2022 to a waitlist of more than 11,000 small businesses.

“We’re very conscious of scaling too fast and would prefer to have happy customers that we retain,” says Winford. “Our philosophy is that we’re in it for the long haul rather than quickly growing to 200,000 users.”

One of those happy customers is Lauren Deuble, whose company All Wrapped Up VA provides administration support for small- and medium-sized businesses.

“I find Thriday incredibly simple to use. It makes sense to me,” she says.