Zoe Whitman

Zoe Whitman is a chartered accountant, CEO and co-founder of Hey Monika, and one of the more unlikely people you will find on a panel about software development. Hey Monika is an AI-powered work experience simulation platform for bookkeepers and accountants, built by a team of practitioners who had never shipped software before. It has a professional developer at the helm and is a commercially validated product with paying customers and a national AI award. Zoe knows where the line is between a proper software product and something you build yourself in a weekend. She also knows what is on the other side of that line. Moniledger, the custom-built accounting environment at the heart of Hey Monika's simulation, was originally vibe-coded by co-founder Stuart Hurst. Zoe has since been building on top of it — developing the styling, shipping features like working papers, and learning the hard way which decisions belong to a developer and which ones a determined accountant with a good prompt