Patrick Sergott
Partner & CFO
Patrick has bought, fixed and helped sell private companies as a fund partner and family-office CFO. At SPRCHRGR he leads CFO assessments, exit planning and pre-sale earnings reviews, and gets owners' books ready for a buyer's diligence.
Denver, CO
Resources & News Featuring Patrick Sergott
ARTICLE
How One Professional Services Firm Increased Profit by $600K Without Growing Revenue
Most professional services firms believe the same thing: if you want higher profit, you need more revenue. It’s a common assumption, especially for owners ...
Article
Strategic Pricing for A&E Firms: Combat Rising Costs with Data-Driven Fee Structures
The cost of doing business in the A&E industry has skyrocketed — labor, material, software, compliance, even your clients' expectations. But many firms...
ARTICLE
How A&E Firms Can Stop Overpaying for Talent and Start Maximizing Profit Margins
You're hiring top-tier talent architects, engineers, and project managers. You're investing in their development, offering competitive salaries, and yet, y...
About Patrick
Patrick is an experienced entrepreneur, investor, and CFO who is passionate about helping businesses achieve their goals by connecting the dots of operations, finance, and market forces. He holds a degree in accounting and finance from the University of Nevada, Reno, and a California CPA license (inactive), and has spent his career on both sides of private-company deals. Before SPRCHRGR he was a partner in an investment fund that bought businesses with untapped potential, and CFO of a diversified family office, where he led the turnaround and recapitalization of a 500-employee portfolio company.
As Partner & CFO of SPRCHRGR, he leads our fractional CFO work and takes the engagements where the money question is largest: CFO assessments, exit and succession planning, earnings reviews before a sale, and the accounting changes that make a company ready for diligence. He has quarterbacked countless debt and equity financings and worked on business exits up to 9-figures. His test for every number is simple: would it survive a buyer's quality of earnings review?
His current work shows the range. For an architecture firm with staff in New York and Arizona, his CFO assessment and action plan moved the firm to accrual accounting, rebuilt the chart of accounts to accurately track project profitability, and fixed a botched billing-software rollout. Ahead of a sale process for a project-based contracting business, he normalized owner pay, tested the add-backs, called for a work-in-progress schedule, and raised a qualified small business stock (QSBS) question up front so it wouldn't surface late in diligence. He reviews client tax returns against the books before filing and routinely surfaces missed opportunities that save our clients real money.
Patrick writes on what he sees in the field: how a professional services firm added $600,000 in operating profit while revenue fell 1%, how architecture and engineering firms can price their fees and staff their projects for margin, the most common deal pitfalls for business sellers, and what owners should have in place before due diligence starts. He works the same way on every client engagement, keeping what already works and fixing what costs money first: get into the ledger and the bank detail, size the problem in dollars, then put the fixes in order of cash impact. Our clients appreciate his strategic lens. In his words: "I don't want to recommend a giant cleanup project to start you off with. I think we need to figure out what's going to give us the most bang for the buck first."
Background
Before joining SPRCHRGR, Patrick sourced and acquired businesses for an investment fund, wrote and ran the turnaround and operating plans, and raised the debt and equity to fund them, across automotive and retail, asset management, real estate investment and property management, specialty finance and e-commerce. As CFO of a diversified family office, he led the turnaround and recapitalization of its flagship portfolio company, a 500-person business. He found the problems in its financial projections, assembled the team that brought in an equity partner, restructured the debt, and returned capital to the parent company. Earlier he held leadership roles in asset management, mining and natural resources, and consulting.
Education + certifications
- BS, Accounting and Finance, University of Nevada, Reno
- Certified Public Accountant, licensed in California (inactive)
Off the clock
Patrick lives in Denver, CO, and enjoys the great outdoors with his wife and two Australian Shepherds, Sadie and Yogi. When he's off the clock and not analyzing his Strava segments, you can find him competing in running, cycling and triathlon events with friends and family.
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