May 22, 2025
What Drives Real Financial Impact?
What does it take to scale a business to 150+ locations through 28 acquisitions? For Ira, CFO of GO Car Wash and a recent CFO of the Year, it starts with culture. With over 30 years of experience, Ira shares how transparency, structure, and people-first leadership have fueled Go Car Wash’s growth from day one.
In this episode, Ira breaks down why culture matters more than cost savings in acquisitions, how finance teams can become true business partners, and why being "controller-ready" opens new career paths. Plus, you’ll hear how custom sneakers and open board decks help keep teams aligned and engaged.
Tune in to The Confidence Curve for a refreshing take on scaling, culture, and financial leadership—delivered with insight and just a touch of stand-up comedy.
00:00 - Meet Ira: CFO's Growth Journey
02:48 - Building a Scalable Financial Framework
05:55 - Culture and Mission-Driven Leadership
10:45 - Acquisition Integration: Myths and Realities
13:32 - Business Partnering: An Underrated CFO Skill
21:22 - Recognition, Transparency, and Team Development
35:32 - Career Advice and Paying It Forward
43:31 - Final Thoughts and CFO Humor
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Welcome to the Confidence Curve with Ashley and Rick Bowers, where personal and professional journeys define the art of scaling with confidence.
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Whether you're a business leader navigating change or someone seeking personal growth, this podcast offers insights and actionable advice to help you thrive.
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Now let's dive into today's conversation with our incredible guest.
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Welcome to the Confidence Curve with Apex GTS Advisors.
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My name is Ashley Bowers and my co-host, rick Bowers.
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We are here today with Ira.
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He is the CFO of Go Car Wash and we are so excited to have you with us today on the podcast.
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We can't wait to get to know a little bit more about you and, specifically, the amazing culture that you're building and scaling inside that business.
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But why don't you kick us off?
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Give us a little bit of your background and what you're doing these days with Go Car Wash.
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Yeah, sure, thank you for having me.
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It's great to be here.
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You know I'm on my 30th year in accounting and finance and mostly work for high growth companies.
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I started I like to tell people I started my career in banking but I lost interest.
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But I did start in banking and then quickly moved to public companies.
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I worked for Republic Services and United Rentals.
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After a little bit of time moved sort of in the private company and then with Isagenix and moved over to private equity where I really found a home with American Vision Partners and currently I'm with Go Car Wash.
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American Vision Partners was a roll-up, so a little bit of taste of integration etc.
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And the last six years was is Go Car Wash, where it was a startup in 2019.
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Awesome.
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So what's your favorite from the different things?
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Do you like from the startup and the growth that you've done, or were one of the other ones kind of fit better?
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Yeah, I think from a startup perspective it's great because you get to do everything from the beginning and it's yours, and so there's a little bit of benefit there.
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I do like that you can build it the right way as opposed to having to re-engineer things.
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It's sometimes even harder, but you do take a lot for granted.
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You know when you start up there's no infrastructure.
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You know the computers go down and you don't have a computer guy.
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You are the computer guy and so there's a lot of those challenges.
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But I think sometimes, when you don't have to rebuild and you can just set it from the beginning, you could set the strategy.
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For us at Go it was huge to be able to set the culture, as you mentioned, and from the beginning and really set the tone for how you want the company to run, whereas if it's already sort of an established company, it takes a little bit of different management to be able to do those things management to be able to do those things From startup to over 150 locations in a pretty quick time frame.
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What are some of those lessons that you learned that you might want to share with some other entrepreneurs out there that are doing the whole startup and scale phase of their business?
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You?
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know you do take a lot for granted.
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That that's the first thing, but I think the biggest thing with a startup and when you want to be able to scale big sizes, you have to have standard processes, especially multi-site.
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So you have to have the same processes, you have to you send them down to train up everybody the same way and then you just manage the variation.
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So that's the first thing.
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The second thing is you really have to build an infrastructure that is set up for bigger than what you think you need, and to do it earlier.
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It doesn't mean it's going to be more money, it's just the way you set things up to be able to be at scale.
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And so being able to do that from the beginning was super helpful.
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We were able to.
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You know we're not at 500 car washes, but that was sort of the thing in our mind was build it for 500.
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And that helps you in a lot of different areas.
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So those, those were some of the biggest things.
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And then you know the communication cadence is so important, both on operations and finance and sales, because when you are smaller, the need doesn't feel you important at that point.
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If you have 10 sites, you know everybody there you've talked to them all the time.
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The key is to set those cadences up, whether it's teams meetings on a regular basis, slack to be able to communicate, because then, as you say, you know, quickly add sites, you're able to scale and not lose anything.
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But it's setting up that cadence when maybe you don't feel like it's necessary because you can talk to everyone.
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Do you think it's helped?
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You put a focus on that, because you're here in Arizona and you guys don't actually have sites in Arizona, right, and so you've kind of had to deal with that gap right from the beginning, whereas sometimes people start a new business, it's in one place and then they go to other locations and now it's like wait, how do we duplicate the culture in other states and other cities?
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100% agree, okay.
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Yes, and the fact that you know we started in Kansas City with sites and we knew this would be a field facing business, that we knew we had criteria for what markets we want, and this goes with any business that you might be acquiring You'll have criteria that fit your acquisition pipeline, but you don't know always where they'll be, and so for us it was really important to set those up, because we had Kansas City locations, then we had Vegas locations, texas locations, and so right from the beginning it was a field-facing, remote business, and so that definitely helped facilitate that cadence that we set up and make sure that once we added other sites, it just became part of our regular operations.
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It's just what we did, sure.
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Sometimes, in certain companies that we've talked to or worked with, you ask about mission and vision and they'll be able to rattle it off right off the top of their head.
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Some companies, um, it's like, yeah, we have it, we don't really focus on it too much.
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When I mentioned that in our conversation earlier this week, you're like, yeah, this is something that we really focus on.
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So with, in the spirit of transparent communication and communication, all these locations and, would you say, 1900 employees.
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How do you make sure everybody is bought in and a part of the mission and vision of Go Car Wash?
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Yeah.
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So you know I get pretty excited about it, as I mentioned with our shoes.
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So you know we have Go Car Wash customized shoes for award winners and socks and things.
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And we get pretty excited about our mission, vision, values.
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And it's one thing to just say it and then there, pretty excited about our mission, vision, values.
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And it's one thing to just say it, and then there's another thing to do it.
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So some of the things that we've done is it starts with hiring.
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So you have to hire.
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You don't have to hire like people, but you have to hire people that fit your culture and that will help and integrate other businesses into your organization.
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But you have to hire people that fit your culture.
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Things we do to keep the culture is we have team-wide calls, like a town hall type call, where we try to be transparent with where we're looking, things we're interested in things, we're building resources, we're adding.
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We also want them to understand where else in the country we're at.
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You know, one of the things we have an employee base of 1,900, is that they could work anywhere in the country.
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Almost we have 10 different states we're in, so there's a lot of opportunity.
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So we share this.
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On calls like go-big call, and we try to share as much.
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Now, transparency is really huge because it builds trust and it builds confidence in the direction that you're going.
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So we want these people to know what we're thinking.
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Obviously, there's a few things we can't share, but for the most part, we want them to know what we know and where we're going and we want to get their thoughts and feedback on it.
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So it's been a big thing for us, and where the culture has really been important is we had 28 transactions for 100 sites and as you bring on new teammates, the culture is so important.
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Some of the teammates don't fit the culture and they just self-select themselves out, but the majority of the teammates are looking for something bigger than just a three car wash chain in our example, and so they're looking for a culture and then they fit right in and it just it makes the integration and trans, you know, much easier for us, and so that's where it really really pays off.
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How have you really looked at scaling the financial systems, obviously having the financial background where they're supportive of the growth and everything that you're trying to achieve, and at the same time don't kind of push and break the whole operation?
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I mean, that type of acquisitive growth can obviously put strains on an operational model as well as a financial model.
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And so what have been some of your tips and tricks and maybe some things that didn't go so well, as you were integrating in the sites and scaling the financial systems at the same time?
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Yeah, I think from a financial perspective in our group in particular and it could be in any businesses you want to hire people with the skill and the will and you want to hire people with talent.
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Obviously, everybody's going to say that, but a lot of times when you start you think you don't need that kind of talent at that time.
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And I take a different approach.
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It's incrementally a little bit more maybe, but the rewards are much bigger and that person will scale with you.
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And so number one is get the best talent.
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Number two culture that talent.
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And so these people are learning what you know and they're evolving and developing.
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And with a system perspective, just like I mentioned with the field standards, you build standards within your accounting organization.
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So standard checklist, standard procedures, and as you get systems integrated, you make sure that your accounting system talks to your other systems.
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That's so huge.
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And then you'll add some automation and that will free up a lot of time for you actually to be business partners.
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Because you're freeing up, you know administrative, you know tasks and you can be more of a business partner.
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So we tried to put in some automation.
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We have systems that integrate and then we train up people to be able to do everything, and I think that's allowed us to have people who can do multiple things and that's allowed us to be able to continue to keep up with the growth.
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So, as mentioned before, 28 acquisitions, what are some of the myths or misconceptions that people have about kind of that?
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process.
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Well, you know, first thing they think is this acquisition does business like us and so the integration will be a little more seamless.
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That's not true.
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Everybody's business is slightly different and, even if they do it, very similar, which could be great for the culture and the fit.
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The integration is not necessarily easier unless you have the cadence of communication and the culture set up and you're well established in terms of those things.
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The other thing people think is, when they acquire someone smaller, that they're going to save a ton of money in the cost structure.
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And that's actually not always the case either.
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Often you will provide more than maybe what the smaller company was, for example benefits for employees.
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What the smaller company was, for example Benefits for employees, you might have.
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That you might insure for more.
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Because you're bigger, you might have richer recognition plans.
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So the cost doesn't necessarily go down.
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But there are areas where now you're bulk purchasing and so you could save some money there, and then where the real bang for the buck is is on the top line.
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You know you're able to put in some investments that can then draw, you know, higher returns on the top line, which then trickle through.
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So I think one of the misconceptions is you know we can do it cheaper, and that's not always the case.
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Yeah, I did a handful of acquisitions during my years in real estate and I almost felt like the ones that had the most synergy from culture and just thought process and everything were actually the hardest integrations, because every time you turn you're like, oh, that's like a really good idea, right?
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And so then you're second guessing yourself constantly.
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Well, wait, should, should we bring them into?
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how we do it, or maybe should we do it the way they do it, and I feel like the best success is when we had a little bit of mix of both.
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We learned from each other and we made some improvements, and it seemed like the teams came together a little bit more in those instances as well, just because they didn't feel like it was only one sided.
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I think we've evolved throughout.
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Right, we've taken best practices from all the different acquisitions.
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We think we had a good basis on how to run car washes or ophthalmology, whatever it was, but, you know, getting a lot of smart systems, different processes and integrated into our system, so, no, they're huge.
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I mean, as we acquired these businesses, they are successful for a reason and so we can learn from them as well.
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So, yeah, no, we definitely took on a lot and, you know, made us better as a company.
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It seems like you've worked with some pretty amazing leadership teams throughout your career.
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You know, sometimes I know that financial executives can find themselves kind of put into a box a little bit and not always brought up to the strategic table for all the different decisions.
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What do you think the most underrated skill of a CFO is today?
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What's kind of overlooked?
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Yeah, I think business partnering is a huge, huge skill that a lot of CFOs may.
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If they do have it, they're very successful.
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If they don't, then maybe not as successful.
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And for me and my career I started at, you know, republic Services.
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In terms of my, the biggest partnerships that I had was where I was a controller for maybe five locations and I had general managers at those locations.
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And so every day you're working with these folks, you're building relationships.
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You understand what it takes to get what you need done, but also get what you know, help them get what they need done.
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And I think you know we we sat in a room once.
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It was, uh, you know, the general manager and I, we were with the districts and the district said you know, ira, we never gotten an expense report from you.
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Up here, who's signing off on your expense report?
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And I said, well, john's my general manager, he's my business partner, he's signing them.
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So they said John, you know, we've never gotten an expense report from you.
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He said, well, ira's my controller, he's my business partner, he's signing them, or he's my business partner, he's signing them.
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And they said no more, no more.
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But you know, that's the kind of business partnering that you have and, lucky for me, that that's sort of the structure that they had, and so that was where I was able to learn.
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Guys like James Culver and Mark Klatt back in the Republic days really were great role models for me on how they were able to acclimate to whether it's sales or ops or any department, so I was able to just learn from them a little bit and then, you know, learn the skill.
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A great example would be and I know a lot of people probably, especially in accounting and finance was the Sarbanes-Oxley timeframe, was the Sarbanes-Oxley timeframe, which was very hard for accountants but equally as hard for ops because it was an internal control thing and they weren't used to that and while we're used to it, we weren't quite at that level and so those and then that was when I was at Republic Services and so embracing that and not running from it and then relying on those relationships with operations made us really successful to be able to then implement these internal controls that were, you know, big public company like that has to pass, and so you know it's it's.
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That's just one example, but the whole business partnering is really an underappreciated skill that I think has been huge for me in my career is there something in that that you've been able to pass along to your team?
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Can they kind of learn and grow from that specific skill that you've been talking about?
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Yeah, yeah for sure.
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So one thing that I'm a firm believer in is and obviously it's about people.
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But as we develop people, we want them to be.
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I always say I want you to be controller ready.
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Okay, so my accountants have to be controller ready, which means that they're not only booking entries, they're doing P&L reviews themselves, so they're financial analysts.
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And then, one step further, they're the ones conducting P&L reviews with field management and going through those P&Ls as a business, sort of pushing them in the direction of a business partner, and so they're conducting those calls and building those relationships with operations.
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And so that's sort of how we do it.
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I think if you don't want to be a controller, that's totally fine, but I think it should be your choice and not that you lack the skill or experience, and so we're trying to get everybody to be control or ready.
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And then also, I think typically people will stay a lot longer with you because they're developing, they're getting these other skills.
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We try to rotate tasks to enrich people on different things.
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Somebody might be sick of it, the other person's excited to do it, and so we try to do a little bit of that and I think that creates some tenure with your team in a good way, and so I think in becoming controller ready business, partnering with ops are some of the things we do to try to keep that within our little mini culture in accounting and finance.
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Let's brag on you a little bit.
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So you were recently named CFO of the Year.
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Obviously, that comes with a lot of support and nomination from your teams and your leaders and your community.
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You know the people who work with you and around you.
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So what does that mean to you and how did your team help make that possible?
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Yeah, it was very humbling because you look around the room and there's a ton of really talented, hardworking people.
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It's a good crowd, it's a good crowd to be in for sure, and so it was really humbling.
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This is a team award and I was telling my team and we all say we won and it's great because we won you know it wasn't me, we won.
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You have eight players performing.
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It's a team award, right?
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If they're not developing and being able to do these things, we can't provide other things outside of accounting and finance.
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So that was really great, that it truly felt like it was a team award, which was great.
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And then what personally was great about it is it was I have a daughter in law school now and a son just finishing second year at ASU, and it was great for them to see that the sacrifice that I've made over the years is being recognized.
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And it's just great for them in their development and as they start to think about how hard they want to work or things they want to accomplish, to be able to see that, and so that was great.
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And then, lastly, just as you know from a CFO and accounting mindset, it was great to have the recognition to see that there's a lot of great work being done by controllers, staff, accountants and CFOs that largely will get unrecognized.
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And this was a night that we could recognize all that hard work.
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And even the people that didn't win, they were recognized for what they've accomplished and the hard work they've done, and their teams know that they're sitting there because of the contributions they've made.
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So it was really great for just sort of the accounting and finance field in general.
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So that was really cool.
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Awesome.
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Yeah, it's kind of exciting.
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It gives some encouragement to the team, like there are things out there that you can strive for, and it's kind of what are those things you want to be known for?
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And kind of, how do you build a strategy, set goals to kind of get to that point and really bring it in as a piece of your culture as well?
00:20:24.704 --> 00:20:46.125
Yeah, it's just a great reinforcement to, you know, the team concept of you know, if we, some of our, our, our values are caring, continuous improvement, fun, and so you know these, this, the fact that we care about each other and we're supporting each other, that these kind of things could be recognized, so it just reinforces what we're trying to do.
00:20:46.125 --> 00:20:54.130
It it was, it was a great night and, uh, you know, back back to work the next day yeah, never ends right.
00:20:54.651 --> 00:20:55.472
That's why we do it.
00:20:55.472 --> 00:21:02.182
So, okay, you've mentioned the shoes a little bit, um, but tell us a little bit more about the culture and the Go-Getter Awards.
00:21:02.182 --> 00:21:03.686
And you've mentioned Go Shine.
00:21:03.686 --> 00:21:04.647
What's all that about?
00:21:05.189 --> 00:21:05.450
Yeah.
00:21:05.450 --> 00:21:14.940
So our vision is to be the most admired car wash company, and we say while enriching the lives of our teammates and customers.
00:21:14.940 --> 00:21:21.119
And we say teammates first because we feel like if we enrich our teammates, they'll, in turn, enrich our customers.
00:21:21.119 --> 00:21:26.948
And we say teammates first because we feel like if we enrich our teammates, they'll, in turn, enrich our customers.
00:21:26.948 --> 00:21:30.259
And so some of the things we try to do is to recognize some of the people in the field for the day in and day out of work they're doing.
00:21:30.259 --> 00:21:48.511
We have some of the hardest working people in the industry and so to be able to recognize them on a call with the entire company, to be able to say, hey, you're nominated for a Go-Getter Award, and then you have a chance to win some sneakers that are, you know, customized for Go Car Wash.
00:21:48.511 --> 00:21:53.656
These are the kinds of things that just reinforce the culture that we have.
00:21:54.305 --> 00:22:02.712
And the Go Shine, you know, we like to say it's your time to go shine, and it's really to shine for the customer.
00:22:02.712 --> 00:22:04.250
Right, this is your time.
00:22:04.250 --> 00:22:19.595
We enriched you to now do this for your customers, because these are the folks that are seeing people every day and washing cars every single day, and so we want them to carry that sort of customer service torch, and so let them go now and enrich the customers.
00:22:19.595 --> 00:22:20.809
So it's been great.
00:22:20.809 --> 00:22:24.796
We have a lot of different swag, different things we're trying to incorporate.
00:22:24.796 --> 00:22:38.795
We had a trade show just recently where we brought some of the winners and able to celebrate them sort of at a trade show, which was great Some of them never been and for them to be recognized.
00:22:38.904 --> 00:23:06.336
And we're going to continue to do that because I think you know if you want to become the most admired company, regardless, you know you have to enrich the teammates, and so we're going to continue to do that, okay, so one of the things that we talked about too is is maybe, maybe in a lessons learned or a maturity in your career kind of a thing, but catering to, not catering to the sweet seat, maybe in a lessons learned or a maturity in your career kind of a thing, but catering to, not catering to the C-suite.
00:23:06.336 --> 00:23:19.684
Say that easy was something that you learned and it really ties back to a culture piece, I think as well, where the people that are doing the work are as important or more important than making sure the C-suite is happy.
00:23:19.865 --> 00:23:24.257
Yeah, no, it's so hard when you're a young manager learning how to manage people.
00:23:24.257 --> 00:23:26.833
Where should your emphasis be on?
00:23:26.833 --> 00:23:35.914
Whether it should be on upper management or people who report to you, and how do you balance it and how do you navigate?
00:23:35.914 --> 00:23:41.958
And there's no real lessons to be learned is the way to do it.
00:23:42.045 --> 00:23:54.289
And so I think early in my career I might have pandered to the C-suite a little bit too much, or upper management, so don't pander to the C-suite, but I think it goes a little bit past.
00:23:54.289 --> 00:24:00.832
That is, it's also the perception more so than the reality, but I think it's just equally as important.
00:24:00.832 --> 00:24:23.497
And so a couple of things that I learned was you can create a culture within your organization that's consistent with the bigger organization, and so, no matter what the noise is, maybe on the peripheral, but you also have your own culture within accounting and finance, and I think that really puts the focus back on your team and people who report to you.
00:24:23.497 --> 00:24:47.196
And so it takes a little while, and I think early in my career, you know, I might have been too focused on pleasing upper management and not quite managing the team the way I should, but growing pains way I should, but growing pains and you know it's a great lesson to be learned because I think it takes on a lot of different facets besides just listening to your team.
00:24:47.597 --> 00:25:10.385
It's so much bigger than that and once you can sort of understand that and balance those priorities, you're so much better at your job and it's so much more enjoyable, really is I had a uh a meeting earlier today and it was with one of my high potential coaching clients, so helping them kind of understand the people, skills and the things that they need to kind of move into that next level up.
00:25:10.906 --> 00:25:14.355
And one of the things we talked about today was was grit or grittiness?
00:25:14.355 --> 00:25:17.670
And I said to him I said what does that mean to you?
00:25:17.670 --> 00:25:33.753
And he, well, making sure I do the things that need to be done and show people that I can do these things, versus having to tell somebody and I said so, the people that do things and when the boss is around, and then when the boss isn't around, they're standing in the corner.
00:25:33.753 --> 00:25:34.890
He's like, yeah, not that.
00:25:34.890 --> 00:25:55.363
And so it's like helping the younger people understand that it's like it's important to do the things when nobody's watching, and so I think that's just something that that that level of team needs to understand is that you never know who's kind of seeing it, from where, whatever angle, but that's kind of that mentality that you just build into you know one of our values.
00:25:55.423 --> 00:25:56.749
Is integrity right and it's uh, it's.
00:25:56.749 --> 00:25:57.250
It goes beyond just.
00:25:57.250 --> 00:25:58.698
You know right and it goes beyond just.
00:25:58.698 --> 00:26:01.106
You know right from wrong it's.
00:26:01.106 --> 00:26:03.154
Are you doing the right things when no one's looking?
00:26:03.154 --> 00:26:11.365
And you know, a lot of times no one's looking right, especially if you have some trust built up amongst your supervisors.
00:26:11.365 --> 00:26:18.373
And so we always say that you know the results that we have at the end of the month are not due to anything we did at the end of the month.
00:26:18.373 --> 00:26:22.096
The results that we have at the end of the month are not due to anything we did at the end of the month.
00:26:22.116 --> 00:26:23.638
This is doing something every single day.
00:26:23.638 --> 00:26:33.028
Whether it's accounting recons, you know accounts payable, making sure things are coded right.
00:26:33.028 --> 00:26:44.093
Or, if it's on the operations side, you know making sure the equipment's running, making sure you're providing the best customer service, sales, making sure that you give the right pitch because you think that package is the best package for those folks, and so you're doing this every day.
00:26:44.093 --> 00:26:51.416
Often nobody's looking, but if you can do the right things when no one's looking, you're going to do the right things when they are.
00:26:52.287 --> 00:26:53.090
So good habits.
00:26:53.090 --> 00:27:01.837
So you mentioned transparency a few times today Obviously a big believer in that and the value that it brings into the organization a few times today Obviously a big believer in that and the value that it brings into the organization.
00:27:01.837 --> 00:27:04.383
How do you practice and demonstrate that transparency on a regular basis?
00:27:04.383 --> 00:27:08.734
Because there takes a little bit of vulnerability right in order to do that.
00:27:08.734 --> 00:27:11.147
Lots of trust to be completely transparent.
00:27:11.147 --> 00:27:12.772
But what does that look like?
00:27:12.772 --> 00:27:15.287
How does that show up for you in your day to day interactions with your team?
00:27:15.626 --> 00:27:19.712
Yeah, I think first you got to be authentic, right, and I think that resonates with people.
00:27:20.513 --> 00:27:32.708
What we do and what I think is important is we have a weekly call, whether it be Echo Car Wash or American Vision Partners, wherever I've been, and now it's teams and you're on camera.
00:27:32.708 --> 00:27:36.415
But what we do is we go through board decks.
00:27:36.415 --> 00:27:57.076
Now, if I have to take a few out because I can't share, I'll do it, but for the most part I'll take them through the board deck, or I'll take them through a presentation I did, or I'll take them through the management package that month because their piece is a part of it, right, but they may not other than see because they've contributed to it.
00:27:57.076 --> 00:27:59.171
They may not see some of the schedules.
00:27:59.171 --> 00:28:10.551
So we usually take, you know, either one week a month or sometimes two, depending on work is to share that with them.
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