Fintech Leaders Steve Stagner on Building Crete's $500 Million AI Roll-up to Modernize Accounting
Miguel Armaza interviews Steve Stagner, CEO of Crete, an AI-powered roll-up deploying $500+ million to modernize the accounting industry. Backed by Thrive Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, and others, Crete is acquiring US accounting firms and transforming them with OpenAI-powered tools. Steve brings battle-tested insights from building Mattress Firm from a single $1,300 franchise to a $3.8 billion Fortune 500 giant.
In this episode, we discuss (1) Why "People, Process, Technology" - in that exact order - is the only formula that works for AI transformation; (2) How Crete's partner equity model differs from traditional PE roll-ups, letting firms keep their culture while accessing enterprise-grade AI tools; (3) Why firms that don't embrace AI will lose and how Crete has already seen 30-50% efficiency gains through AI-powered trial balance normalization and audit testing... and a lot more!
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Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
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