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Entrepreneurs take big risks when they start their business. But it’s the ones who tackle hurdles with real grit and determination that win. That’s part of Wyatt D. Kneaper’s amazing story, as founder of accounting company The Lighthouse Group.
Beyond running his company, Wyatt has been a valued member of Intuit’s Partner Council, and one of the accounting leaders we’re lucky to learn from, and collaborate with, as we build new experiences on our all-in-one platform. Thank you, Wyatt, for sharing your journey!
Alright, awesome. Well, thank you so much for for doing this. Yeah, my pleasure. Thanks for having me. So tell us a little bit about your company. I'd be happy to. So I'm the founder of the Lighthouse Group. We're a California headquartered full service accounting firm. Overall, we have a team of 11 and we're about 5050 split amongst remote and in person. Ohh. OK, so tell me about the name. How did you come up with the Lighthouse? Coming from Humble County, California, I'm right on the coast and after quite a bit of whiteboarding, we finally came up with Lighthouse and ended up sticking with I, I love the name. The lighthouse, we actually named one of our internal teams Lighthouse because we want them to create a lighthouse with the clients that we serve and to learn how do you scale that across every client. So anyways, I love the the name. Tell me what you love about what you do. You know, every day is a different challenge and giving clients tools to truly feel empowered by their financials is one of the best jobs in the world. What's the biggest challenge you've ran into to deliver that? Amazing experience for your clients. So as far as personal challenges, I'm very open about the fact that I'm a survivor of Crohn's disease, being a younger entrepreneur and the accounting space in a very antiquated industry. It was a pretty big shift going from a nine to five with good benefits to being self-employed and not only having me on my shoulders, but also my team. So how did you, how did you make it through that? The first company I started, I told myself going out of a nine to five, I'm going to do payroll for everybody and. That was before I even thought about tax and unfortunately that company failed right before COVID. So picking back up and learning those lessons and moving forward has ultimately pushed me to continue. Wow. It's one heck of a gift to continue forward, but also give our clients those tools. You know, you are a great, another great example of why I admire entrepreneurs. What you do is amazing. What you do is comes from a place of passion and what you do is hard. So I love your great thanks for doing that.
Grit often gets celebrated, but what really sustains entrepreneurs is judgment—knowing which hurdles to push through and which to rethink. Stories like this remind us that endurance and learning matter as much as the initial leap.
Grit often gets celebrated, but what really sustains entrepreneurs is judgment—knowing which hurdles to push through and which to rethink. Stories like this remind us that endurance and learning matter as much as the initial leap.