THE DISRUPTORS

David Cristello: Growth Breaks Things – and That’s Normal | The Disruptors

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Build the firm you want by hiring only the best.

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The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

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When David Cristello launched Jetpack Workflow in 2016, the market already had plenty of solutions. “Are we too late?” he wondered. But he launched anyway, “and the only reason we launched is because we interviewed so many firms.” These firms told him about the problems with other solutions, and with his founders’ group, he was able to co-create a product that worked.

MORE DISRUPTORS: Candy Bellau: The $350 Pricing Mistake that Nearly Broke this Boutique Firm | The Disruptors | Poe: What P.E. Really Wants from Firms | The Disruptors  | Blake Oliver: Build a Biz that Runs Without You | Daiber: Use Succession as a Growth Strategy | Cannon: Busy Season is Self-Inflicted | Carroll: When One Person Can Break the Firm | Rampe: Build a Roadmap Even When the Road’s Not There | Chang: Killing SALY, One Agent at a Time |

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Back then, firms were tracking work on spreadsheets, as many firms today still do, and things were falling through the cracks. However, today’s users have more sophisticated demands. “What used to be just checklists and task lists is now about, what’s the operating system for the firm?” says Cristello.

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Yasso: From Wall Street to Main Street | The Disruptors

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Your real ROI comes from relationships, not spreadsheets.

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The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

Martha Yasso didn’t just balance billion-dollar books — she watched businesses crumble under them.

MORE Jackie Meyer: Tax Plans in 90 Seconds? Believe It  | Erica Goode: Build a $200K Firm in 15hrs/Week | Randy Crabtree: Live at the Intersection of Passion & Skill |McClelland and Telka: Women Ready to Rewrite the Rules of Accounting | Jacob Schroeder: AI Won’t Replace Accountants—But It Will Reveal Who’s Replaceable | Ditching Corporate America: The Bold Story Behind PBS Accounting’s Rapid Rise | Jean Zick: Happy Team = Happy Clients | Breslin & Greathead: Be a Client Advocate | Dominic Piscopo: Clear Pay=Bargaining Power | Debbie Kilsheimer: Stop Thinking Small |

Yasso began her career in the high-octane world of junk bonds on Wall Street, where she relished the analytical challenges of cash flow modeling. But what initially felt like powerful work soon turned emotionally draining. “I was ripping apart companies and watching it happen in real time,” she says. “It was exhausting and depressing.”

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Lochhead, Yoon: What Accountants Do when AI Makes Accounting Free | The Distruptors

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The old answers to old problems don’t work anymore.

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Sponsored by True Advisor: The Definitive Success Guide for Client Advisory Services by Hitendra Patil
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The Disruptors
With Liz Farr
For CPA Trendlines

Accountants, one of the most prized varieties of knowledge workers, are in trouble. AI is coming for the jobs. But Christopher Lochhead and Eddie Yoon may have an answer.

MORE DISRUPTORS: Ira Rosenbloom: PE Forces Firms to Pick a Future | Doug Slaybaugh: How to Define “Values in Motion” | Nancy McClelland: Bookkeepers Need a Safe Space to Collaborate |Chase Damiano: Good Operations Means Defining How the Hand-Offs Happen | Jeff Seibert: Digits Software Moves Toward Real-Time Accounting | Tyler Anderson: Audit Transformation Is a Mindset, Not a Destination | Sarah Flischel: The End of the SALY Audit | Sharrin Fuller: Build It Better, Then Let It Run Without You | Oz Demirdoven: Why U.S. Firms Lag the World in Advisory | Rebecca Driscoll: A Millennial and a Boomer Walk into a Bar… |

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Lochhead and Yoon, who style themselves “the Category Pirates,” are suggesting the biggest change in the nature of work in decades.

In the age of AI, Eddie Yoon says, “knowledge is essentially free.” The credentials, specializations, and years of study that went into becoming an accountant are becoming commodities. Yoon describes a pyramid of knowledge work. At the base is “memorize and regurgitate,” where the majority of professionals have thrived. Above that is “synthesize and curate.” And at the rarefied top are the non-obvious connections: the insights that link disparate facts in ways no one else sees. AI, he argues, is already demolishing the lower tiers.

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Ira Rosenbloom: PE Forces Firms to Pick a Future | The Disruptors

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PE makes CPA firms rethink strategy – even if they don’t want to sell.

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Sponsored by True Advisor: The Definitive Success Guide for Client Advisory Services by Hitendra Patil
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The Disruptors
With Liz Farr
For CPA Trendlines

With private equity becoming “a real player and a disruptor in the marketplace,” Ira Rosenbloom, CEO of Optimum Strategies, says, the dramatic influx of capital is intensifying competition for quality firms, especially those with strong client bases and growth potential.

MORE DISRUPTORS: Candy Bellau: The $350 Pricing Mistake that Nearly Broke this Boutique Firm | The Disruptors | Poe: What P.E. Really Wants from Firms | The Disruptors  | Blake Oliver: Build a Biz that Runs Without You | Daiber: Use Succession as a Growth Strategy | Cannon: Busy Season is Self-Inflicted | Carroll: When One Person Can Break the Firm | Rampe: Build a Roadmap Even When the Road’s Not There | Chang: Killing SALY, One Agent at a Time |

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Firms that PE wouldn’t touch are now being approached by brokers without accounting industry experience, hired by PE groups striving to “build an engine,” Rosenbloom says. But the unwanted attention has “helped some of the smaller firms quickly decide they don’t want to go down that path.” So they “take themselves out of the running for a PE situation quicker because of a better understanding of what private equity wants,” he explains.

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Doug Slaybaugh: How to Define “Values in Motion” | The Disruptors

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Are your firm’s stated values consistent with its behavior?

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True Advisor: Buy now | Learn more

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr
For CPA Trendlines

How does your firm define culture? Is your culture consistent with the values posted on the breakroom wall? Doug Slaybaugh, founder of CPA Coach, defines culture as “values in motion.” According to this definition, a firm’s stated values must be evident in the ways a firm actually behaves.

MORE DISRUPTORS: Candy Bellau: The $350 Pricing Mistake that Nearly Broke this Boutique Firm | The Disruptors | Poe: What P.E. Really Wants from Firms | The Disruptors  | Blake Oliver: Build a Biz that Runs Without You | Daiber: Use Succession as a Growth Strategy | Cannon: Busy Season is Self-Inflicted | Carroll: When One Person Can Break the Firm | Rampe: Build a Roadmap Even When the Road’s Not There | Chang: Killing SALY, One Agent at a Time |

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A firm with the value of philanthropy, for example, should give team members the ability to volunteer or sponsor nonprofit events. “There should be evidence,” Slaybaugh explains. “Otherwise, there’s no evidence of that value. It’s really not your culture.”

Slaybaugh’s previous firm had the often-clichéd value of “people first,” but actually executed on that. Team members were offered the option to buy an additional month of PTO, prorated from their salaries, resulting in an 11-month year with nearly two months of vacation.

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