Stories

Mark Hill’s journey to founding Kamozo began with a unique mix of hands-on business experience and a commitment to process-driven management. Initially, he joined forces with a friend to start a small food logistics business, growing it into a 17-truck catering operation. Managing this business taught him the importance of structured processes, which proved invaluable in his later ventures.

When Mark sold the catering business in 1995, he found himself unexpectedly stepping into his family’s small bookkeeping practice. Starting with just three clients, he decided to build a full accounting practice. Leveraging his background, he took a unique approach by applying the same business acumen and focus on creating long-term value that he’d used before. His prior experience running a trade business resonated with clients, helping him grow the practice quickly.

Mark experienced first hand the challenge many accountants face: the struggle to truly understand their client base’s profitability while juggling the demands of daily practice management. “It’s always a finger in the air,” he recalls, describing how, amid the day-to-day rush, there’s rarely time to dig into the data that shows which clients and services are driving the most value.

As his practice expanded, Mark realised he needed a robust system to manage client workflows, deadlines, and costs more effectively. This led him to collaborate with Vince, now Kamozo’s technical director, to create a custom management solution. This tool, which ultimately became Kamozo, enabled Mark to streamline operations and drive profitability, giving him and other accountants the ability to understand their businesses deeply, improve efficiency, and build lasting value.

This early version of Kamozo allowed Mark to go from £100,00 turnover to £300,000 quickly and most importantly profitably. His practices now deliver 4-5 times that in fees, and thanks to Kamozo he doesn’t even have to work in them full time, which allowed him to launch Kamozo as a commercial product in 2020, with an ICAEW technology accreditation following in 2021.

During an acquisition two and a half years ago, Mark had an opportunity to implement a more analytical, data-driven approach to the process using Kamozo. By examining client profitability in detail, Mark was able to refine the acquired client base, keeping those who contributed real value and parting with a few who didn’t align with the firm’s objectives. This strategic filtering meant that Mark could confidently say he knew—not just assumed—the worth of this acquisition.

The payoff was evident. For a purchase that was generating £115,000 in fees, the acquisition now generates nearly £150,000 annually with no extra staff. “Because I can validate the profitability, I know its true worth,” Mark explains. Through Kamozo’s insights, he realised that the acquisition had significantly increased in value, now worth around 1.4 to 1.5 times what he initially paid.

Kamozo was born from this insight: a tool designed to give accountants a clear, actionable view of their business value, helping them make informed decisions, drive profitability, and confidently validate the worth of their client base.