This week we are talking with Chris McKee, President, Venturity. Chris McKee is the Founder and CEO of Venturity Financial Partners. Founded in 2001, Venturity’s 50-member team provides outsourced accounting and fractional CFO services to small and medium sized for-profit and not-for-profit businesses.

1. What was the big idea behind Venturity?

At the time we started it, outsourced accounting didn’t seem like such a “big idea”. Lots of people had tried it over the years, and a lot of people were doing it at the time out of their home. Seemed really easy to get into as well. The big idea ended up being finding a way to scale the business. Even today, 20 years later, very few outsourced accounting firms serving our market have scaled beyond 10 employees. My original partner and I sketched out the model on a big white board we had drug onto my back deck. Remarkably, that white board model is largely how it’s played out, with a few tweaks along the way.

2. Does Venturity have any new innovations on the horizon?

While there are a lot of fractional CFO firms and a number of outsourced accounting firms around, the “holy grail” in our industry has been to marry the two together. We’ve built a great outsourced accounting practice and now we are working to layer on fractional CFO services. No guarantee we’re going to be successful, it’s a competitive marketplace. We’re hopeful that having the support of the accounting team combined with CFO expertise will prove to be a significant competitive advantage.

3. How would you describe an ideal work environment?

I hope we’ve created it at Venturity. Open, collaborative, transparent … I think that describes not just the physical space but how we work together as a team. A low-ego environment, with a lot of laughter as well. I like to laugh, and a friend once described me as “having a low threshold of laughter.” I think lightening people’s load through humor is one of the most effective aspects of my leadership.

4. What is unique about Venturity’s values and culture?

I don’t know that our values are terribly unique, but maybe the fact that we refer to them as our Passions rather than our “values” is a little unique, especially for a profession that isn’t know for its passion. People have often said to us, in a positive way: “You’re not typical accountants.” I think that’s true, and I think that about sums up what makes us unique.

5. What piece of advice would you give to an entrepreneur starting their first business?

Don’t do it.

Just kidding. I wasn’t a natural entrepreneur. I started a business doing what I already knew how to do (accounting), just changing the context (outsourcing). I wanted to do accounting, not run a business. I had to learn how to think entrepreneurially from other entrepreneurs. EO (Entrepreneurs Organization) was a huge help for me. So, my advice would be to, as soon as possible, plug into an organization of other business owners so you can learn from them. Because you don’t know everything, and if you’re like I was, you don’t know anything. Other business owners have already been through everything you’ll go through, so the more you can learn from them, the quicker your path to a stable and eventually successful business.

6. What’s your “one thing” that most drives your professional success?

Seeing my team succeed. I love bringing great people into our organization early in their career and watching and helping them grow. I got into this, truthfully, to create an environment where accountants could learn and grow their career while truly enjoying what they do. My job is just to remove obstacles and create an environment where they can be successful. I feel like that’s what has allowed us to attract a great team, which in turn has led to our success.

7. What are you reading right now?

West With The Night by Beryl Markham. It’s her memoir, she was one of the first female pilots, and the first pilot to fly non-stop across the Atlantic from east to west. But there is so much more to her life, and her writing is unforgettable.

To learn more about Venturity and their outsourced accounting and fractional CFO services to small and medium sized for-profit and not-for-profit businesses, please click here.

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Conversations with Innovators - Q&A with Chris McKee of Venturity