Retriever

Retriever is a Google Sheets app that syncs your QuickBooks data, letting you build reports, models, and dashboards that never go stale. We are proudly funded by our customers.

Founder

EmojiClue

Chief Emoji Officer

PriceSpider

PriceSpider is a retail data and technology company that provides insights about consumer purchasing behavior to the world’s largest brand manufacturers. Powered by proprietary crawling technology that collects data sets from thousands of e-commerce sites, we help brands discover what, where, when and how people purchase.

Director, Strategic Projects

Frontier Capital

Frontier Capital is a growth equity firm focused exclusively on software and tech-enabled services companies. Founded in 1999, Frontier seeks to partner with management teams, investing $25-75 million to accelerate growth, fund acquisitions, and generate shareholder liquidity. Frontier has invested in over 50 companies and raised $1.5 billion of committed capital since inception.

Growth Equity Senior Associate

Growth Equity Associate

Raymond James Financial Inc.

Investment Banking Analyst

One of the more negative thoughts I’ve had over the past year goes something like this.

I’m not curing disease, building AI, or launching rockets to Mars. Therefore, I don’t deserve to be bold.

In fact, my ambition should shrink to match the size of my mission!

I should keep my head down, contain my excitement, and be “reasonable.”

That all changed the other night when I stepped into Mama D’s, a casual family restaurant in my neighborhood.

As my friend Tyler and I sat down, our server didn’t just throw the menus on the table in typical fashion. She placed them (along with a laminated card) directly into our hands.

On one side was their mission statement.

On the other was Steve Jobs’ famous “Here’s to the Crazy Ones” speech.

I kind of laughed at first to be honest. This place is not the least bit fancy. They’re definitely not designing the iPhone here.

Don’t they know they’re just a restaurant?

But they were not faking it.

The staff provided some of the best service I’ve had and reiterated their desire to make sure we enjoyed everything about our visit. Simply put, they cared. A lot.

Suddenly, I started reckoning with the less generous thoughts I have with myself about building… wait for it… financial reporting software for small businesses (yes, B2B SaaS).

Who am I to go all-in? Who am I to be bold about this?

But deep down, I’m obsessed with it.

Nothing makes me happier than when a customer tells me how our product has been a game changer for their firm.

Or how someone used our reports to help their client navigate a cash flow crunch.

That night, something changed for me.

Why should landing rockets or creating AGI be the only work worthy of audacity?

If my neighborhood Italian restaurant can be this bold about pasta, why can’t I be bold about financial reporting?

If they don’t need a Michelin star to delight their customers, I don’t need awards or venture capital to delight mine either.

Boldness is not about scale. It’s about care.

So to my fellow crazy ones, if you feel like your work is “too small” to be bold, remember the story of this restaurant.

The size of the mission doesn’t determine the size of your spark.

It’s not cringe to care.

Boldness isn’t reserved for billion-dollar companies.

And no job is too small to give a damn.

Aubrey Threadgill

Helping Accountants & CFOs scale QuickBooks reporting | Spreadsheet connoisseur | Founder @ Retriever

I recently learned the fascinating history of Google (shoutout to the amazing hosts of Acquired).

It's a wide ranging podcast (at 8 hours 😊 ) but includes the history of how Google Sheets + Docs came to be.

It started with Google's stock price suffering from being a "pure play" search / ads company.

To diversify, Google launched "Workspace" to take on Microsoft "Office" and drive more web adoption (and therefore more Google searchers).

Instead of trying to make a "better" Excel/Word, Google focused on making something "different."

That differentiator was real-time, multi-user collaboration.

Today, we take for granted that we can just have 8 people simultaneously updating a spreadsheet. At the time though, it was an incredible engineering breakthrough.

What surprised me the most was that Google Sheets and Docs both sprouted from acquisitions! (XL2Web: founded by Jonathan Rochelle and Writely: founded by Sam Schillace)

Today, Google Sheets + Docs + Slides have an estimated 1 billion users, far exceeding Microsoft's ~300 million Office users.

Me, when my wife rushes in the room and asks why I'm yelling

I recently had the pleasure of meeting Joe Fischer (aka CFO Joe). I thought I’d share a bit about his journey as a Fractional CFO.

What immediately stood out was that he has several vantage points into the finance function of various businesses.

He earned both his CPA and CFA and worked at both EY and Goldman Sachs. 

He then started and scaled an e-commerce business to over $5M in revenue before selling it. (Oh and when he left Wall Street, he moved to a farm outside of St. Louis, Missouri).

When he first started “Fractional CFO’ing,” he had two big insights.

The first was that some business owners weren’t getting a great ROI on the higher fees of Fractional CFO services.

The second was that business owners weren’t getting the strategic insight they needed.

So to address this, Joe started focusing on making a real-dollar impact in the first 90 days.

With two recent clients (both tech companies), he was able to improve their cash flow substantially. His efforts covered the entire annual cost of his services right out of the gates.

In another example, he began working with a client in the food & beverage industry who was in the middle of an acquisition. He quickly got up to speed, discovered issues in the target’s financials, and proceeded to help his client negotiate $60k in savings.

In short, he combines his blue chip expertise and real world experience to generate actionable insights.

This ultimately allows business owners to get out of the grind, see around corners, and find the areas ahead of them with the biggest opportunity (often the things they enjoy most).

If you know a business owner with $2M+ in revenue who could benefit from having Joe as a partner, I’d be happy to put you in touch.

Well this made my day 🙂 One of my favorite parts about Retriever is getting to see all the cool dashboards that customers have been building.

The only thing that tops it is hearing about the impact those dashboards are having on their businesses.

Honored to be supporting Tim and the amazing work he's leading at Bridgeway Community Church.

P.S. Tim has been sharing some great insights lately. If you're in the nonprofit or ministry space, give him a follow!

Turning Financial Stress into Strategic Clarity for $2M–$10M Churches Ready to Grow with Confidence and Faith | CPA & Fractional CFO

Every year churches risk millions of ministry dollars by relying on reports that confuse boards more than they clarify.

For over a decade I’ve been chasing the fix. Tried. Failed. Walked away frustrated.

I wanted it to work for a church of $1m or $10m and for it be automated.  

Today is the day. I built the start of it and I’m so excited.

One page
Instant clarity
Color coordinated 

QuickBooks Online + clean books + classes + API pulls.

Here are the first three ratios.  

Compensation-to-Contributions shows what portion of giving goes to staff.

Months of Cash on Hand shows how long the church can run if giving stopped.

Debt Service Coverage shows if income can actually handle the loan.

Three ratios down.  This report is automated and I don’t have to recreate the spreadsheet each time. I have seven more ratios to go and already it feels like I’ve cracked the code.

Clarity protects the mission.

#financialdashboards #qbo

Took a screenshot of the test environment to show you all!

Chris Williams is one of my favorite “build in public” entrepreneurs. He shares an honest account of life as both 1) a search fund entrepreneur and 2) accounting/bookkeeping firm owner.

A couple of recent posts I enjoyed are “the top 2 things to win in ‘search’” and one detailing how he added ~$750k ARR in 2 months with a new accounting offering.

All that to say, I was honored to see him highlight Retriever and how we’re solving the “stale spreadsheet spiral” for accountants, CFOs, and business owners.

Whether you’re a searcher, a bookkeeper/accountant looking to join a firm that prioritizes balance, or a firm owner looking for a good home for your practice, I highly recommend giving him a follow.

Relentlessly fixing your accounting woes. Empowering & elevating remote professionals

Just because you CAN do it all in a spreadsheet, doesn't mean you should.

Often, this is a reminder to myself! 

Whether it's building reports with products like Retriever or LiveFlow or Amalgam or just moving away from the spreadsheet entirely, it's 2025. There's a better, more efficient way to do things.

Read more below, and reach out if you're looking for a new day to day finance team that can move you into a more modern way of doing things

We're here to help

#CAS #remoteaccounting #remotefinance

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