Opsahl Dawson Thrives in First Nine Months on the Ascend Growth Platform

OCTOBER 2, 2023 (Vancouver and Longview, WA)

Just nine months since merging with Ascend to become the first on the company’s new age growth platform for regional accounting firms, Opsahl Dawson & Co. Advisors LLC  (ODC) is thriving.  The firm today announced it completed two acquisitions of its own and expanded its senior leadership team to include a Chief Growth Officer.  

Acquisitions
StraderHallett PS of Lacey, WA, merged into ODC in August, and Futcher Group of Kelso, WA, joined in September. The transactions are ODC’s fifth and sixth acquisitions since 2015. Terms of the deals were not disclosed.

 Together the firms add two new locations and 33 people to ODC, expanding total headcount to 125.  StraderHallet Managing Partner Phillip Hall and Futcher Group Managing Partner David Futcher both become ODC principals.  

“These transactions were three to four times larger than any of our previous acquisitions. It would have been a really big stretch for us before, but we had the confidence and courage to go for it now because it was a great fit with the plan we developed under the Ascend Growth Model,” said Aaron Dawson, CEO of ODC. “We are on a path to build the best firm serving small businesses in the Pacific Northwest. We are so energized by the people, culture, and intelligence that Ascend brings to our firm. This is exactly the infusion we needed to prepare for the future.”

“Opsahl Dawson is a great CPA firm with a stellar track record in the small business services space. As the first partner firm on our platform, they have totally embraced our growth program and aligned the whole company around a shared vision of where they want to go and how they’re going to get there. It’s been great to see Aaron and his team so excited about the progress they are already making, and to partner with people we already consider friends,” said David Wurtzbacher, Ascend’s CEO. 

Matt Lee, ODC partner in charge of M&A/Business Development, said, “It has always been our dream to have a pipeline of mergers and acquisitions, but we didn’t have the bandwidth or the capital to do more than one small deal a year on our own. We never could have pulled this off without Ascend’s team, which helped us line up the financing and get the deals across the finish line. For the first time, we are in a position to go after our dream.”

In addition to Opsahl Dawson, Ascend previously invested in the non-attest businesses of ATKG of San Antonio, TX (May) and LMC of New York City (June).  In July, Ascend acquired Sentient Solutions for Accounting (“Sentient”), an offshore accounting services and technology solutions provider with offices in India and Mexico. The company is concurrently making investments in leadership development, talent acquisition, technology and AI, advanced billing methods, and client accounting services.

Chief Growth Officer
To support its aggressive growth vision, ODC expanded its leadership team by adding a Chief Growth Officer position in the C-suite. Brian Smith of Portland, Oregon, became the firm’s first CGO on September 5, joining ODC from Turning Point Healthcare Solutions, a healthcare services firm where he was Senior Vice President of Operations. Smith, a Navy veteran, received his MBA from Harvard Business School.

 “Brian will manage the people, process, and timeline to keep us on track with our plan, including the vision and strategy check-ins that are integral to the Ascend Growth Model. It may be a truism, but having a Chief Growth Officer will free me up to work on the firm, not just in the firm, so I can focus on making sure we deliver world-class client service and provide rewarding, fulfilling careers for our people at a place they love to work,” Dawson said.

Growing with Ascend
Ascend’s growth model is underpinned by a PeopleFirst workshop that focuses the team’s efforts and rallies everyone around a shared vision and the path to get there.

“Our process allows leadership to dream big and aligns everyone around the same set of transparent goals,” Wurtzbacher said.

“Being on the Ascend growth platform has transformed our firm profoundly, from how we run our business to how we support our team and plan for the future. As CEO, my only client is the firm itself.  If I can take care of our firm, our people will take very good care of our clients,” Dawson said.

“We’re doing something pretty rare in the CPA world. We are teaching our people how to actually run the business, so we have a pipeline of top-notch people who can take over leadership one day. And we’re giving them a financial stake much earlier so they don’t have to spend their careers waiting for the big payout. It’s a transparent way to get people to an ownership level so there is continuity and a clear succession plan,” he said. 

“As a small business owner, my dream state has always been to build the best business possible,” Dawson said. “But at some point, capacity became a challenge. So when I met Ascend and learned about their plan to partner with entrepreneurial CPA firms, I was interested. Ascend is bringing together top firms while allowing us to maintain our identities. I would never want to merge ODC into a larger firm, so this is the best of all possible worlds,” Dawson said.

“At the end of the day, Opsahl Dawson will have a presence throughout Washington and Oregon, and we’ll be able to look back and say we did something really great here for our people and our clients.”

About Opsahl Dawson
Founded in 1979, Opsahl Dawson (https://opsahlco.com/) specializes in tax and accounting services for small businesses. The firm prides itself on its traditional values, cutting-edge technology, and world-class service. ODC is routinely recognized as one of Washington’s leading businesses. In 2022, the firm was honored as the “Best in Business” (Accounting) winner by Vancouver Business Magazine and was named a “Best Firm to Work For” by Accounting Today.

About Ascend
Ascend empowers entrepreneurial CPAs to reach their goals with an innovative growth model that brings their firms into the new age. Backed by private equity from people-focused Alpine Investors, Ascend is building a modern platform for regional accounting firms that enables them to stay independent while accessing the resources of a large CPA firm to help them grow. Ascend provides access to growth capital, robust talent acquisition, best-of-breed technology, a catalytic leadership system, shared back-office services, and modernized equity incentives so that firms can surmount today’s industry challenges and reach their full potential. Founded in January 2023, the company attained revenues sufficient to qualify it as a Top 100 U.S. accounting firm within six months of operation. For more information, visit ascendtogether.com.

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Contact:
Julie Gross Gelfand
juliegrossgelfand@gmail.com
(516) 729-8067