Jody Grunden: Be Different. Make More Money.

Prove the naysayers wrong.

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

In 2013, Jody’s firm, Summit Virtual CFO, became one of the first financial firms in the world to go fully remote. At the same time, they narrowed their focus to creative agencies. Those two changes, combined with a weekly subscription pricing model they’ve been using since 2007, resulted in a “hockey slope type ramp up.” 

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Grunden, the partner and co-founder of Summit Virtual CFO, got his start as a thought leader and virtual CFO (as well as his signature wardrobe) when he was invited to speak at a conference in New Orleans. At the conference, he used an easel and pad of paper to walk a roomful of successful creative agency owners through the way they made money and how their decisions impacted the bottom line. 

Since then, they’ve been doubling in size every three years, reaching $10 million in revenue by 2022 while maintaining a profit margin of 10-25%. They also ditched the suits and ties back in 2004, and “decided to go against the norm…it really changed the way that people thought about accounting.”