Frank Longobardi started a five-person CPA firm in Hartford, Connecticut on November 1st, 1984, with a first-year revenue goal of $300,000. For the next 23 consecutive years, the firm grew both top and bottom line, every single year. By the time he and his partner decided to merge up, they had built a $14.5 million firm with over 100 people and ten partners.

In this conversation, Frank walks through every phase of that journey with the kind of candor that only comes from having lived it. He talks about the early days of working 3,000-plus hours a year, the moment he realized hating to lose a $400 tax return was holding his firm back, and why he told every partner the same thing: it is not your client, it is the firm's client. He also shares his perspective on the partnership model at scale, why private equity entered accounting, and what the profession's talent structure will look like as AI reshapes the work.

The conversation covers:

How a five-person startup grew for 23 consecutive years without a single down year
Why hating to lose any client, even a $400 return, was the biggest early mistake
How to transfer client relationships to the next generation of partners without losing the client
Why he told every partner "it is not your account, it is the firm's account" and what shifted when they embraced that
How the CohnReznick mega merger came together and what it took to lead a $430 million combined firm
Why the traditional pyramid staffing model is evolving into a diamond shape as AI changes the work
How private equity entered accounting and what PE firms are actually looking for in acquisitions

Frank's career is a rare example of someone who has seen the profession from every angle: sole proprietor, regional firm leader, mega merger architect, top 25 CEO, and now PE advisor. His perspective on what it takes to build something worth buying, merging, or leading is grounded in 40 years of doing exactly that.

This episode is for firm owners curious about what the path from small firm to large firm leadership actually looks like, leaders wondering how to transfer client relationships without losing them, practitioners thinking about whether merging up makes sense for their next chapter, and anyone interested in how private equity is evaluating and reshaping accounting firms from the inside.

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Brannon Poe intro and podcast welcome
00:13 - Introducing Frank Longobardi, former CEO of CohnReznick
00:56 - Why Frank chose accounting: a blue-collar family, a high school course, and the University of Connecticut
01:55 - Frank's career path: regional firm, Big Eight, and starting his own firm in 1984
02:42 - The first business plan: $300K goal, five people, $40K salary each
03:02 - 23 consecutive years of top and bottom line growth at Longobardi and Company
03:27 - Merging into J.H. Cohn in 2007 as their entree into Connecticut
04:33 - Running industry groups and earning a board seat at J.H. Cohn
04:46 - The CohnReznick mega merger of 2012: combining a $240M and $190M firm
05:09 - Becoming a $430 million firm and one of the first mega mergers in the profession
05:43 - Running for sole CEO in 2015 and serving a four-year term with mandatory retirement at 65
06:01 - What the CEO years were really like: navigating the compliance-to-advisory shift and people challenges
07:01 - What Frank learned from wearing every hat at a small firm that big firm leaders never experience
07:27 - Strategic planning, partner coaching, and the reality of 1,500 to 1,600 charge hours a year
08:13 - Managing expectations during busy season: communicating with clients and keeping the team motivated
09:13 - The biggest challenges in growing from startup to $14.5 million
10:35 - Client service intensity and keeping good people for the long term as the two main growth drivers
11:07 - Home-grown partners and the value of developing talent from within the CPA firm
11:57 - The biggest mistake: hating to part ways with any client, including a $400 1040
12:13 - What managing at scale taught Frank about the discipline of bringing in the right accounting clients
12:31 - How difficult clients affect team morale and why post-Covid firms have gotten better at weeding them out
13:14 - Why technical CPAs struggle to let go and why letting go is how firms scale
13:46 - How to transfer client relationships to the next generation: patience, coaching, and making it a two-year process
14:42 - Clients belong to the firm, not the partner: why that mindset shift matters for CPA firm succession
15:27 - How Frank developed next-generation leaders by helping them build on their own strengths
16:17 - The partnership model: what works, what does not, and why 270 partners makes decision-making complex
17:26 - Why accounting has become capital-intensive and what that means for the traditional profit distribution model
18:01 - Retaining 5% of revenue inside the firm: why Frank pushed for it and why partners pushed back
18:35 - Why private equity entered accounting: capital needs, governance limitations, and the cost of M&A
19:25 - How accounting firm M&A economics shifted from deferred retirement payments to cash-heavy PE deals
20:05 - The profession is changing faster than ever: AI, private equity, and what that means for CPA firms
20:28 - Frank's post-retirement path: offshoring advisory, private equity diligence, and board seats
21:03 - Working with an offshoring firm post-Covid and watching augmentation services boom, then normalize
22:32 - The build-operate-transfer model for offshore accounting centers in India and South Africa
23:05 - The most critical principle in offshoring: treat the offshore team like any other office
23:40 - Consulting for private equity firms evaluating accounting acquisitions: 8 to 10 diligence projects
24:34 - Board seats at a PE-backed accounting firm in Rochester and a CAS firm in Salt Lake City
25:02 - What Frank has observed about how private equity grows organizations from the inside
25:34 - AI as the biggest trigger for change in the accounting profession over the next 3 to 5 years
26:08 - How AI will affect assurance, tax, advisory, hiring, and training in CPA firms
26:52 - The shift from a pyramid to a diamond: why mid-level technology and analytics talent will matter most
27:32 - Why AI is creating an opportunity to add more value to clients than ever before
28:25 - Accounting enrollment is increasing for the third year in a row: why that matters
28:50 - Starting salaries need to be competitive with private equity and investment banking to attract top talent
29:33 - Book recommendations: "The One Minute Manager" and "Who Moved My Cheese?" and a note on EOS
30:56 - Living your values as a leader: calling people out when they exhibit them, not just stating them
32:06 - Where to connect with Frank: LinkedIn and frank.p.longo@gmail.com

The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson

Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson

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23 Years of Consecutive Growth: How One CPA Built a Firm Worth Merging Up

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23 Years of Consecutive Growth: How One CPA Built a Firm Worth Merging Up