In this checkout episode of Add to Cart, we sit down with Danny Chiha, founding partner at Kelly+Partners Accountants. With a hands-on approach Danny is on a mission to help e-commerce business owners understand the numbers behind their businesses, empowering them to make smarter, strategic decisions. Together, he brings a fresh, human take to accounting that moves beyond numbers and into the heart of business strategy. In this episode he talks about the tech he relies on, the key lessons he’s learned in helping ecom startups succeed.
An Unlikely Shopping Habit
When it comes to his own online shopping habits, Danny had a surprising confession: he barely shops online at all.
“I literally don’t buy anything at all from the shops. My missus buys all my shit for me, rightly or wrongly,” he said, adding with a laugh, “Maybe that’s the accountant in me. I hate spending money!”
Danny’s laser-focus on managing finances is definitely something that trickles down to his own spending.
From Warehouse Floors to Multimillion-Dollar Brands
Danny has worked with many inspiring ecommerce clients over the years, but two in particular stand out. He points to Vic Gigliotti from Muscle Republic as an example of someone who built their brand from the ground up—literally. “We’ve definitely been on the journey since he started, and watching him go from sleeping on his warehouse floor to where he is today, which is still kind of going as hard as he goes every day, is quite inspiring to watch.” Today, Muscle Republic is a multimillion-dollar business, and Danny sees Vic’s journey as a testament to the power of persistence.
He also talks highly of Geedup Co founder Jake Paco, whose relentless determination saw him rebuild his business from nothing. “For someone who’s so tough..he’s actually a soft guy when you talk to him, very in touch with who he is but also very strong headed in the way he approaches business. He always has an idea that’s so different to what everyone else is doing”. While Danny admits that while they sometimes argue about numbers, Jake always sticks to his guns—and it’s working. These stories show how important it is to stay focused, be resilient, and keep pushing through the tough times to achieve real success.
Turning a Logistics Disaster into a Success Story with the Right Tech
Having run the back end of his wife’s business, The Little Homie, Danny has firsthand experience with the impact of using the right tools to succeed in e-commerce. He remembers the early days when a huge Australia Post issue left them scrambling. “We had a massive Australia Post fuck up,” he said recalling a time where about 1,500 international orders got lost.
Danny and his wife were managing customer service manually via Gmail. “Every night from like seven o’clock… we were on the emails doing customer service…to like one in the morning, just going through a Gmail inbox, responding to clients.” It was then that they discovered Gorgias, a customer service platform that changed everything. “Gorgias took our customer service time from hours to seconds,” Danny said. For him, it was a game-changer in managing the chaos that often comes with running an e-commerce operation and a timely reminder for all of us, that we are only as efficient as our tool stack.
Lessons from Nike and Amazon
Hannah loves to stay inspired by tuning into podcasts and diving into great reads. One of her favourite podcasts is The Diary of a CEO by Steven Bartlett, Danny is a big believer in learning from the successes of others, and two books that he highly recommends for anyone in ecom are Shoe Dog, which unpacks the struggles Phil Knight faced in building Nike, and Working Backwards, a book about Amazon’s journey. Danny recounted that Shoe Dog is “ a raw look at the ups and downs of building a brand…It shows how difficult the journey is, but also how rewarding.”
Working Backwards has also shaped his thinking, particularly when it comes to using data to improve business operations.
There’s a chapter in there… all about data…how Amazon got into the detail of their website visitors…I think it’s a really good… reality check on what it takes to build something in terms of knowing the numbers and the data,”
Walking in the path of these retail giants we can see that by combining grit with data-driven decision-making is a sure-fire way to grow a successful business.
Building a Team That Aligns with Your Vision
One of Danny’s biggest challenges at Kelly+Partners is recruiting people who align with the company’s vision and goals. “We need people who get what we’re trying to do—who want to help e-commerce businesses grow,” he said. As Kelly+Partners expands into the U.S. and Europe, finding the right talent becomes even more critical. “Our growth can only happen as fast as we can find the right people,” Danny explained, highlighting the importance of having a strong team to fuel that expansion.
However, recruiting for accounting roles isn’t always straightforward. “It’s tough because accounting is not seen as the sexiest career,” Danny admitted. “You know, we’ve got to break the barrier of what being an accountant is versus what people think it is.” Kelly+Partners is actively working to change that perception by fostering an environment where accounting is about more than just balancing numbers—it’s about helping businesses grow.
For Danny, it’s about finding people who are not only good at what they do but are also passionate about the big picture. “The technical stuff is the easy part—debits will always equal credits,” Danny explained. “But finding people who align with the business, who fit into what we’re trying to build, that’s the challenge.” In other words, building a team aligned with your vision is crucial to driving growth. It’s not just about skills, but about finding people who will be linchpins in carrying out your mission.
Balancing Strategy, Growth and Leadership
Through his work with e-commerce businesses, Danny Chiha shows that success isn’t just about understanding the numbers—it’s about balancing strategic decisions with strong leadership. True growth in e-commerce comes from a focus on data-driven insights, building aligned teams, and taking calculated risks. It’s about creating a solid foundation, making informed choices, and leading with vision.
The Checkout is a short snippet of our conversations.
