2025 Year in Review

As 2025 comes to a close, we’re proud to reflect on a year of meaningful growth — for our clients, our community, and the WAA team. Our mission remains the same: to help business owners and founders actualize their legacies – making clear financial decisions, creating long-term value, and building businesses positioned for exit.

This year also brought many new opportunities to expand that mission in exciting ways.

Expanding Our Firm Through Strategic Acquisitions

In 2025, WAA took a major step forward in broadening our service offerings by acquiring multiple accounting firms, allowing us to bring accounting services fully in-house for our clients.

This growth means our clients now benefit from a unified suite of services, including:

• Personal financial advising

• Business valuation and exit planning

• Business Accounting

These acquisitions represent more than firm expansion — they’re part of our long-term vision to offer seamless, full-spectrum support for business owners under one roof.

A Purposeful Content Strategy

Throughout 2025, our focus on delivering insightful, actionable content continued across LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram  and our blog. From strategic financial tips and year‑round planning ideas to founder‑focused thought leadership, we stayed connected with leaders at every stage of their financial and business journey:

We shared educational posts on goal setting, retirement planning, and financial wellness, helping business owners and individuals think ahead with confidence. Highlights from our Legacy Lab resources were featured, introducing entrepreneurs to frameworks for building long‑term value and planning for exits

Legacy Lab: Empowering Founders to Build and Exit with Clarity

Another key piece of our 2025 review: Our Legacy Lab framework became a foundational resource for business owners who want to be proactive about long-term planning. Through self-paced modules, entrepreneurs gain:

• A deep understanding of business value

• Tools to assess readiness for exit

• Strategies for preserving legacy

Many founders have accessed this content since we launched it in the spring of 2025, and the feedback makes it clear: founder education is a game-changer. 

Inside the Mind of a VC: Building to a Successful Exit

This year, we launched a new monthly workshop series: Inside the Mind of a VC — a hands-on experience that demystifies what investors look for when evaluating a business.

Covering the 8 Drivers of Business Value, this series helped founders shift their own mindsets and models to building toward a scalable, investable future.

This series has been a reflection of our commitment to making strategic insights accessible, and our true passion for doing so — whether you're raising money or thinking about an exit soon. What we tell founders: begin with the end in mind. Our team steps in wherever founders are in the journey to help orient them towards the successful exit we know they can achieve.

Client Events, Community Engagement, and Private Fund Activity

This year brought the opportunity to reconnect in person with many of the clients and partners who help shape our work. One of the highlights was a private LP dinner hosted in partnership with Exit Quotient Ventures, where we gathered with investors and founders to discuss shared goals, strategy, and value creation.

This event — and others like it — represents the deep relationships we prioritize at WAA: not just advisors and clients, but partners building something together.

Our sister brand, Flying with Founders, has also been growing in engagement with the community beyond our hometown–flying all over the midwest sharing founder stories, offering monthly Founder Wellness meetups, and hosting unique Founder Retreats at key conferences like SXSW or all as far away as El Salvador.

Behind the Brand: Team Members Who Lead With Heart

In 2025, we continued to put names and faces behind the WAA logo. Our “Meet the Team” features highlighted team accomplishments like getting CFP and CEPA designations, and real stories of passion, growth, and purpose. Because we believe great advising starts with genuine relationships.

Whether it’s serving on the board of a nonprofit, volunteering as an entrepreneur-in-residence, or mentoring new founders, our team is deeply engaged — both in and outside the office.

Plus, our team of thought leaders like WAA Partner Nick Pope has been featured repeatedly this year in publications like the Kiplinger Collective and Forbes Business Council, even launching a public speaking page to share the content he’s developed with large groups in person.

From a 2025 Review to a Look Ahead

This year, we didn’t just deliver financial guidance — we created spaces for founders to ask hard questions, build smart strategies, and feel supported at every step.

We grew our firm in scope and talent, broadened our educational offerings, and deepened our presence in the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

To our clients: thank you for trusting us.

To our community: thank you for engaging with us.

To our team: thank you for always showing up with care and commitment.

Here’s to continuing the journey together in 2026 — with financial clarity, intentional growth, and legacy in mind.

— The Washington Avenue Advisors Team

Get in touch: https://www.waadvisors.com/contact-3