How PeopleFirst Leadership Powers Growth at Ascend

For decades, small and mid-sized founders have faced a tough decision: stay independent and hold onto what makes their company special, or sell to a larger organization and risk losing their culture, their team, and their name on the door.

Ascend, Alpine’s accounting services platform, provides a solution for founders looking to grow without sacrificing their autonomy, and drives growth by fully embracing Alpine’s PeopleFirst philosophy. PeopleFirst is a structured growth system—anchored in talent-led investing, cultures built on trust, and a leadership program aimed at executive goal setting and alignment—that helps companies scale through their people and their purpose.

Ascend is a prime example of how effective PeopleFirst Leadership Programming can drive incredible business outcomes within private equity. Launched in 2023, Ascend enables independent accounting firms to grow without sacrificing identity, providing leadership training, shared tools, and a powerful peer community.

Watch the video below and read on for more about how the PeopleFirst Leadership Program helps Ascend grow their partner companies.

PeopleFirst as a Growth Engine

At Alpine Investors, PeopleFirst isn’t just a mindset—it’s a demonstrated system embedded into every aspect of our firm. It shapes how we invest in new businesses, how we hire exceptional leaders, and how we operate every Alpine company.

We think of PeopleFirst in three parts:

1. An investing and recruiting strategy focused on acquiring great talent. We hire people first, invest in them, and then find a company for them to run second.
2. An ethos for being good people who do what’s right and hold each other accountable. PeopleFirst is the culture at Alpine.
3. A concrete set of practices called the PeopleFirst Leadership Program. This program is our playbook for how every business is run day to day.

At Ascend, implementing the PeopleFirst Leadership Program has unlocked incredible growth for their 19 add-on acquisitions.

“PeopleFirst is not soft—it’s a concrete system for building great businesses and great cultures.” —Mark Strauch, Alpine Founding Partner & President

Creating a Platform for Independence

Ascend’s mission is to empower independent accounting firms to scale, without compromising their culture. From its inception, the Ascend team—cofounded by CEO David Wurtzbacher and Chief People Officer Erin Aguglia—has used the PeopleFirst Leadership Program to onboard and grow new firms to align on vision and strategy from the very beginning of the partnership.

Every new firm that joins Ascend starts with a Vision & Strategy workshop led by a PeopleFirst consultant. Leadership teams walk away from that workshop with a clear One Page Plan (OPP) that defines their mission, values, and sets a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG).

From this foundation, leaders are encouraged to share their BHAG with their entire team at a Whole Company Alignment event. This event is designed to drive tangible excitement for what the firm and Ascend can do together, and to showcase the individual development opportunities unlocked by the Ascend network.

Finally, each new firm also enrolls their CEO and their Chief Growth Officer (CGO) in a defined executive coaching program dedicated to helping them attain next-level leadership in their roles.

“There’s constant focus not just on the financial health of the business, but its cultural health. Those two are inextricably linked.” —Mark Strauch

The LMC Story: Dream Big and Go All In

Founded by Lee Cohen in 2010, LMC Advisors is a regional accounting firm based in New York City. By the time LMC partnered with Ascend in 2024, Cohen had already grown his firm to a 100-person team and an impressive $19 million in revenue. But like many founders, Cohen hit a ceiling. He knew the business could do more but needed new structure and support to reach its next level.

Cohen joined the Ascend platform and went through the PeopleFirst Leadership Program. At first, the LMC team was skeptical about what the program could offer a seasoned accounting firm.

During the Vision & Strategy workshop, LMC set a Big Hairy Audacious Goal to build a $70 million firm in the New York market. Their new vision statement captured the firm’s spirit: Dream Big and Go All In.

After one year with Ascend, LMC doubled their revenue to $40 million. By year two, they’re on track to hit $60 million, tripling growth and knocking on the door of their original BHAG set from the beginning.

LMC’s story isn’t an outlier for Ascend and it isn’t an outlier for Alpine. We’ve seen time and time again that growth like this can only happen when a firm invests in its people and its purpose.

Building Community: The Ascend Magic

The PeopleFirst Program at Ascend doesn’t just transform single companies—it builds communities.

Today, Ascend includes 19 firms across the U.S., each using the PeopleFirst Program to scale in its own way. Beyond the PeopleFirst Leadership Program and executive coaching, Ascend also hosts regular, in-person gatherings where leaders across all their firms share playbooks, learn from each other, and collaborate on challenges.

This includes:

• Leadership workshops
• A peer network
• 1:1 executive coaching

Ascend’s growth is measured not just in revenue but in engagement. Their firms are stronger, more aligned, and more confident about the future.

“Our duty is to win in business because of our people, not at the cost of our people,” says Erin Aguglia, Ascend’s Co-Founder and Chief People Officer

Ascending Together

Is it possible to retain your independence and still scale? At Ascend, the answer is absolutely. Leveraging the PeopleFirst Leadership Program gives Ascend’s firms the framework to grow intentionally, stay true to their values, and build lasting impact.

Across every Alpine platform company, from IT services to accounting, PeopleFirst is the through-line. When you build around people, everything else follows.

Interested in learning how Ascend helps independent firms grow through PeopleFirst? Book a call with our team today to get started.