Early Growth Financial Services Hits 150 Customers

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Amit Chowdhry at Pulse2

Early Growth Financial Services (EGFS) is a service that provides accounting and financial services for start-ups. EGFS CEO David Ehrenberg has a history of mentoring small businesses. EGFS has hit over 150 customers after starting three years ago. The company managed to increase revenue over 100% year-over-year and has doubled in size by every measurable metric.

“Startups and small companies face a huge burden in today’s economy, often having to choose between funneling resources toward creating their goods and services or managing the often complex accounting, tax and financial strategy planning necessary to run a successful business,” stated EGFS CEO and founder David Ehrenberg. “Our priority at EGFS is to take away the financial administration pain points that can come from business ownership and allow entrepreneurs to focus on what they do best—creating brilliant products and services. We are excited that the market has been so responsive to our business model, and are proud of the growth we’ve experienced in such a short amount of time.”

EGFS clients include Admobius, Formspring, Geeklist, Indiegogo, Klout, Phobos, Tech Shop, and Webaroo. EGFS is based in the Bay Area and has operations in L.A., Seattle, San Diego, and NYC.

Mr. Ehrenberg told me that he grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He got a degree in finance and did mergers and acquisitions on Wall Street before starting EGFS. He worked as a senior business development manager at Extreme Networks where he priced 16 new products that accounted for 40% of the company’s revenues.

After that he went to work at Microsoft to work at the New Markets organization. He was part of the team that worked on creating the SharePoint program. Mr. Ehrenberg worked with 9 venture teams within the new Microsoft business incubator to create new business plans. This operation felt just like a start-up. After that he worked as the VP of Finance at Radiant Research and the CFO of Abound Logic.

I asked what some of Mr. Ehrenberg’s challenges have been with dealing with rapid growth at EGFS. He said “internally we have to eat our own dog food.” They are helping start-ups with their growth while having to deal with their own growing pains as well. “We are always trying to maintain a high quality of personnel.”

I asked Mr. Ehrenberg how they work with the complex financial structures with companies as they grow. He said that the company generally assigns a financial controller, financial executive, and CFO at each company to put everything in place like accounts payable, general ledgers, payroll, and ensures GAAP is followed. As companies grow, they will need additional talent. Generally the need in terms of tax statement reports do not necessarily change.

When I asked Mr. Ehrenberg what he believes is one of his biggest achievements at the company is, he said that the company was at the forefront of 3 different movements in tech. They got involved in clean-tech early. The company also signed 3 big clients in San Francisco like Klout, Formspring, and Zendesk, which really helped them gain a strong footprint in the Bay Area. He said that the company has also grew quickly in Santa Monica, California where a major tech revival is happening. He is working with creative companies and incubators there.