This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ascend Together CEO David Wurtzbacher. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
I went to business school because I knew I wanted to lead a business, but I thought it might take me decades to get to the C-Suite seat.
Now, seven years after graduating from business school, I’m the CEO of accounting platform Ascend Together, which is growing by the day.
It wasn’t easy. It took lots of long hours and self-reflection, plus the help of private-equity firm Alpine Investors’ CEO-in-training program. But now I am living my dream of leading a company and its people.
Here’s my story of how I went from MBA to CEO.
My start on Wall Street
I began my career out of college working in asset management at JPMorgan Chase, which crystallized my interest in finance. I learned a lot at the investment bank and it was very challenging. But something was missing. I felt like I wanted to have more of an impact.
I sought advice from mentors who questioned me on what I really wanted and the purpose of my career. It took me a few years of self-exploration, reading, and late-night conversations with friends to realize what I wanted.
I wanted to run companies instead of just investing in them. I wanted a chance to make a positive impact on other people’s lives through leadership. I loved my years at JPMorgan, but I hung it up and left for business school.
From Harvard to Alpine
I was studying for my MBA at Harvard when a job posting for Alpine Investors’ CEO-in-training caught my eye. Alpine, I discovered, is a San Francisco-based private-equity firm that buys up small businesses and combines them into a larger company with shared resources. It’s a business strategy known as consolidation that was one of my main interests during business school.
I interviewed for Alpine’s CIT program in the fall of 2016. Unlike some other interviews, there was nothing I could do to prepare. They just wanted to get to know who I really am.
As I relayed every step of my life up to the interview, they asked questions to understand my life’s patterns: What decisions have you made? Why did you make them, what have you been through? How did that change you? Successes, failures, what have you learned? What did people think about you?
The interview focused heavily on my grit and resilience, some of the most important attributes that the firm looks for. I spoke a lot about my years in the notoriously challenging investment banking world.
I was lucky enough to get selected, and in the second semester of business school, I entered the matching process: essentially a speed-dating process to find where you’ll go once you get to Alpine. You fill out a scorecard of all of your preferences: location, career goals, what kind of work you want to do, and then meet businesses that fit some of your preferences.
I told the firm I wanted to be a CFO because I wanted to leverage my financial background and get more hands on experience with mergers and acquisitions. I also said that I wanted to start at a newly-formed consolidator so I could see the growth process from the beginning.
I didn’t know it yet, but I was describing a role at Lightwave Dental, a DC-based Alpine-backed company that was buying dental practices in Virginia and the Carolinas. The company was so new that they weren’t planning on placing a CIT in a role there, worried that it might be too challenging for someone so green.
Alpine Investors
I have to give them credit for their imagination, because they placed me in the role anyways. After graduating and then completing a two-week training program in San Francisco, I was off to DC to become CFO of Lightwave.
CIT Program
The idea behind Lightwave Dental was to bring Alpine’s people-first mindset to the dental industry. Dentists weren’t happy with previous private-equity consolidators as they earned a reputation for maximizing short-term profit over the dentists’ interests. The industry became a revolving door.
Alpine decided to give the dentists that sell their businesses to Lightwave more control. They were able to retain leadership roles in their own practices, while also getting the support and capital of Lightwave.
Because of this, we grew rapidly in my five years at the company, from roughly six locations to almost 80. It also led to industry-leading dentist retention and employee-engagement scores, which then led to sales growth. If they stay and they’re happy, we’re going to have growth and returns.
Alpine Investors
As a first-time CFO, my main task was to build the finance and accounting teams, raise debt and equity for the company, and build a team that could bring in new dental practices. When I left, that finance team had grown to 20 people, and we had done dozens of acquisitions with equity and debt raised from many different sources.
It was the thrill of my career at the time. I was so proud of what we had built. But after five years I realized it was time to move one. It was hard. When you start early in an entrepreneurial job, you start to feel like it’s your baby. I got to do that without the risks of raising your own capital. I wanted to have that chance again, but this time in the CEO role.
Pitching the CEO role
I was ready for the next phase, known at Alpine as being in-residence. I spent eight months working on a business plan for what became Ascend Together.
Before we even named the company, over 20 people at Alpine were involved: recruiters, deal sourcers, investors, and marketers, to name a few. This level of support is one reason I call this program turbocharged entrepreneurship.
With Ascend, we helped bring the strategy we employed at Lightwave to the accounting world. Technology is rapidly changing how CPAs work, and they have lots of issues retaining talent. By bringing in capital, we can give them resources to use this new tech and make it more fun to be a CPA, while also honoring their independence.
This has been yet another thrill of my career. In less than a year and a half, we’ve already done a couple dozen acquisitions, and have momentum to continue growing.
We’re also opening up equity for people deeper in the organization that normally don’t get access to it, a strategy we employed at Lightwave.
In accounting, usually only partners receive equity in a firm, but we just recently closed our first equity program round where we opened up equity to people two levels below partner.
Every person who was eligible invested to the maximum extent. If they stick with that, it is going to change their life. That’s Alpine’s people-first philosophy in action.
Alpine Investors
I attribute this so much to Graham Weaver, Alpine’s founder and CEO. Graham has a special ability to inspire people and to show them what they’re capable of.
I think that’s why the firm has been so successful and gained the attention of so many investors. In my time at the company, the size of our fundraises has increased 10 times: from the $450 million fundraise that invested in Lightwave to the $4.5 billion fund that invested in Ascend.
And of the twelve people who started the CIT class with me 12 years ago? Eleven of them are still with Alpine.
Do work for private equity? Do you want to work for private equity? Contact this reporter. Alex Nicoll can be reached via email at anicoll@businessinsider.com, via encrypted messaging app Signal at +1 (646) 768-4772.