Steve Stagner: From Mattress Firm to CPA Firms

Before Rolling up CPA Firms, Stagner Built a Retail Empire on Acquisitions — Then Watched It Buckle.

Stagner: Will formulas from mattress retailers and veterinarians work for CPA firms?

By CPA Trendlines Research

Steve Stagner now runs Current, the accounting platform that has gathered more than 40 firms in roughly three years under backing from Thrive Holdings and describes its holding period as effectively permanent.

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But before he arrived in the profession, Stagner spent a 23-year run building, taking public, selling and then rescuing the largest mattress retailer in the United States — a company whose climb and near-collapse trace almost entirely to the same instinct now reshaping the accounting business: growth by acquisition.