Meet Our Founder

AdaptCFO founder and CEO Eric Josovitz always had an affinity for numbers, but like most children, he didn’t dream of becoming an accountant when he grew up. “As a kid, I always wanted to be a veterinarian,” he shared. “Growing up, I had this little book with different descriptions of insects and animals that I would go around looking for. I just loved animals and wanted to take care of them.”

That interest in animal care led Eric to pursue a biology degree before switching to a pre-med program at Georgia State University. However, after the years of schooling required to become a doctor began to lose their appeal, he pivoted once more — this time, to business. 

So how does a biology-turned-pre-med-turned-business major end up launching a successful financial services and consulting company? Like many startups, the journey to launch isn’t always a linear one — and we were interested to find out how Eric arrived at the concept for AdaptCFO. We sat down with the entrepreneur, athlete, husband, and dad of two to learn more about running a business, how he weathered an unprecedented year, and what other startup founders should be doing now to get (and keep) their finances on track. 

What do you enjoy most about the industry you work in? 

“After I made the switch [in college] to accounting, I started immediately working in public accounting as an intern. During that time, I realized that I could help a lot of people, which is ultimately what motivates me to this day. 

Around this time in college, I also played Division II football. This taught me to be not only physically and mentally tough, but how to truly be a team player. Back then, I didn’t know there was a link between football and accounting, but today I realize the strategy and sportsmanship is something that applies to my business as well as countless other areas of life. 

So that's why I love what I do with AdaptCFO — we can help so many people and companies streamline their processes and grow their businesses to be successful through strategy and teamwork. Because if you can get your accounting and finance organized, you can be really successful.”

Why was it important for you to start your own business? 

“I always knew I was going to invest in something. After going through two acquisitions [at previous companies], I had the choice of getting a corporate job or starting my own business. And I decided that I would much rather help entrepreneurs on a personal level. The clients I work with are mostly CEOs, and they’re brilliant. They just need a little bit of structure [when it comes to financial planning] and that’s so gratifying to be able to provide that. With the support of my wife, I was able to launch AdaptCFO. It was scary to jump in feet-first, but thankfully we saw some success and revenue pretty early on.”

How has this unprecedented year impacted your business and your plans for the future? 

“While we were limited from a growth perspective since we couldn't go out to conferences or meet with prospects, we did discover that we could really help our existing clients — which was the most important thing. We were able to bring in roughly half a million dollars for four clients in PPP funds from the SBA, which was great. 

One of our clients, however, was hit really hard when the pandemic initially started. All revenue abruptly stopped, we went from a couple hundred thousand a month to zero overnight. Layoffs were made, and it was an incredibly difficult time. Nonetheless, we weathered the storm and came up with a financial plan, and were ultimately able to turn things around. We rehired about 70% of those previous employees, and as of November, the company hit a $30 million valuation, which compared to the pre-pandemic valuation of $10 million, is a pretty big turnaround.

The thing is that, even in a pandemic, everyone still needs an accountant. We were, fortunately, able to pivot slightly, taking everything 100-percent remote, and were able to revise a lot of budgets and forecasts. Our mindset was, even though 2020 was a hard year, we can hunker down and use it as a learning experience. Let's make 2021 better than we thought it was going to be. It's all about strategy.”

AdaptCFO prides itself on using the latest technology and software. Why was it important for you to take this approach? 

“In my experience, most CFOs and CEOs we've come across primarily use Excel. So, anytime I review an organization’s financials, I think to myself, ‘How can I get this company out of Excel and into a more efficient cloud-based system?’ The other reason our tech stack makes sense is that there are a lot of financial planning programs out there that are very expensive. 

The software we use, however, empowers our clients to make the most of our tech stack without additional cost. AdaptCFO covers some platforms while others are offered with a partner discount. That way, clients can have both a financial platform in addition to CFO services for an extremely reasonable rate that’s comparable to some of those more expensive softwares on their own. It really is a no-brainer.”

What financial advice would you give someone who is looking to start their own business?

“I would recommend laying the foundation now because it's a lot harder to do so down the road — and it's more expensive. For example, I had a client with multiple business accounts, personal accounts, and credit cards which require many hours to sift through. We were able to cap our hours, but ultimately, the client spent way more money than they came to us earlier on. In those cases, we would have consulted them to say, ‘We want you to stop using all these accounts. We advise you to properly segregate funds, implement internal controls, and put some policies/procedures in place.

So, because of that, my best advice to startups is to get something like QuickBooks to start out. Do the most basic plan, connect your business bank account, connect one credit card. Even if it's just a simple Chart of Accounts, that's just a very basic way to start tracking things. Because even if you're recording your transactions quarterly, at least you have some record of it, and there's a system. Having a very basic system is better than having no system at all.”

Any final words of wisdom regarding their financial management?

“You know, we really enjoy what we're doing. We can see firsthand that clients are really happy when we help them. In many cases, they're lost on an island and they're not sure about the next steps, and it's our job to communicate with them; to be transparent, and tell them how they can achieve their goals. 

We use our core values — mastery, integrity, and accuracy — to help them achieve success. They know they can trust us with our integrity. Our numbers are going to be accurate. And we're masters of our craft; we have accounting degrees and over 10 years of experience working with startups. Helping clients is what it’s all about.”

‍

Want to know more about AdaptCFO? Visit our about page, and be sure to check out all of our services here.