Welcome back to The Fun CPA Podcast! This week, host Yuri Kapilovich is joined by Tim Petrey!

Tim is the CEO of HD Growth Partners and White Glove Payroll, where he leads with a mission to redefine the accounting industry through empathy, innovation, and community impact.

Starting his journey at HD Growth Partners (formerly HD Davis CPAs) in 2008, Tim took the helm as Managing Partner at just 25 years old. Under his leadership, the firm expanded from a small team to over 70 employees, earning accolades such as Accounting Today's #1 Firm in the Country for Women in 2021 and Karbon’s Breakthrough Firm of the Year in 2024.

In this episode, Tim shares his journey from humble beginnings to leading a transformative firm, offering valuable lessons on leadership, innovation, and the importance of putting people first in business – as well as more technical topics like his experience with merging and what to look for in a partner.

Episode Highlights:
0:00 - Teaser
1:21 - Episode beginning
2:37 - Intro to Tim Petrey
5:58 - How Tim got started
7:17 - Transitioning to running a firm
11:22 - Diving deeper into when Tim took over the firm
14:57 - Making changes right away, scaling
23:30 - Adding partners, growth and the income split
26:58 - Tim’s secret, “merging up”
33:55 - How do you find the right partner?
41:45 - Steps you can take to get your time back
47:14 - At what point should you hire someone?
51:20 - Tim’s advice for the profession as a whole
54:20 - Episode wrap-up

ABOUT HOST YURI KAPILOVICH

Yuri, aka #thefuncpa, has been in the accounting profession for over 15 years and has seen, first hand, the challenges the profession brings. After seeing that no firm was fitting the bill, Yuri set out to do things his own way with his firm K&A and the journey began with LinkedIn posting at the front end.

Yuri is proud to bring you #thefuncpa podcast highlighting the fun and all the amazing opportunities our profession can bring us all.

CONNECT WITH YURI KAPILOVICH
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ykapilovich/
Website: https://www.thefuncpa.co/
CONNECT WITH TIM PETREY
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petreycpa/
Website: https://hdgrowthpartners.com/tim-petrey/

Welcome back to The Fun CPA Podcast! This week, host Yuri Kapilovich is joined by two guests – Tom Zehentner, Director of Growth and Product at FinOptimal and the founder of FinOptimal, Jesse Rubenfeld!

Together, Jesse and Tom have a substantial level of insight and experience in the accounting field – specifically in developing software that make posting accruals, keeping up with monthly journal entries, and financial reporting easier than ever for founders, owners, executives and accountants alike.

The fellas join Yuri this week to discuss the future of accounting – more specifically, where automation, AI and apps in general are taking the space. From a business ownership POV, Jesse and Tom also share their views on addressing competition in software development, finding your ‘perfect fit’ and both of their approaches to the vital mixture of personality and brand.

For aspiring coders or those of you working on your own piece of tech, this is a great episode to get a sneak peek into just what it takes to create a successful product – as well as ways that you can disrupt the field at large and contend with tech skepticism.

Episode Highlights:
0:00 - Teaser
0:45 - Episode beginning and introduction to Jesse and Tom
3:59 - Jesse’s experience with LimeWire
7:02 - Tom’s interest in automation
9:31 - Tech skepticism and bad automation
17:13 - “How do you find your ideal client?”
21:40 - “Where do you see tech and accounting taking that next leap?”
27:24 - Deciding what to focus on and addressing the competition
33:52 - Trying out different areas of the profession
41:33 - Jesse’s approach to personality and brand
47:18 - Episode wrap-up, where you can find Tom and Jesse

ABOUT HOST YURI KAPILOVICH

Yuri, aka #thefuncpa, has been in the accounting profession for over 15 years and has seen, first hand, the challenges the profession brings. After seeing that no firm was fitting the bill, Yuri set out to do things his own way with his firm K&A and the journey began with LinkedIn posting at the front end.

Yuri is proud to bring you #thefuncpa podcast highlighting the fun and all the amazing opportunities our profession can bring us all.


CONNECT WITH YURI KAPILOVICH
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ykapilovich/
Website: https://www.thefuncpa.co/

CONNECT WITH TOM ZEHENTER
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-zehentner-cpa-a0591b5b/
Website: https://www.finoptimal.com/

CONNECT WITH JESSE RUBENFELD
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesserubenfeld/
Website: https://www.finoptimal.com/

This week’s guest comes from ‘across the pond’ – but his insights and expertise is far from foreign CPAs and firm owners alike.

Reza Hooda is the founder of Capture Accounting and a serious authority in the accounting industry. Reza delivers an invaluable service to his clients: He gets their time back and simplifies their processes so that they can focus on scaling, growing and generating revenue.

Additionally, Reza coaches others like him on how they can grow their own firm – everything from pricing, generating leads, closing deals and much more. You can check him out on his website, LinkedIn or podcast giving advice to shot-callers, accountants and aspiring entrepreneurs alike.

Yuri explores Reza’s come-up and experience that pushed him to go out and create his very own business where he can control (and design) his experience. You’ll also get a sneak peek into Reza’s POV on differentiation, the importance of niching down or specializing, and much more!

Episode Highlights:

0:00 - Teaser
0:53 - Introduction
2:43 - What surprised Reza when he went out on his own
8:46 - Reza’s “a-ha” moment
10:49 - Zooming in on Reza’s pricing experience
18:20 - Differentiating yourself w/o using price
21:15 - Building your dream team
26:34 - For new firm owners: how to successfully start right from the beginning
29:12 - How you can start and be like Reza’s example
31:53 - “Going deeper” and why you should specialize
35:05 - Episode wrap-up

ABOUT HOST YURI KAPILOVICH

Yuri, aka #thefuncpa, has been in the accounting profession for over 15 years and has seen, first hand, the challenges the profession brings. After seeing that no firm was fitting the bill, Yuri set out to do things his own way with his firm K&A and the journey began with LinkedIn posting at the front end.

Yuri is proud to bring you #thefuncpa podcast highlighting the fun and all the amazing opportunities our profession can bring us all.

CONNECT WITH YURI KAPILOVICH
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ykapilovich/
Website: https://www.thefuncpa.co/

CONNECT WITH REZA HOODA
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rezahooda/?originalSubdomain=uk
Website: https://www.rezahooda.com/