Naturally Chicago Salutes Accelerated Growth on Its Acquisition by Sikich

Naturally Chicago mostly celebrates food and natural products brands that are enjoying growth and success. Today, we congratulate a service provider in our network: Accelerated Growth — a provider of accounting, finance and technology services for entrepreneurial organizations — which has been acquired by Chicago company Sikich, an industry leader in those services.

Accelerated Growth has long been a major supporter of Naturally Chicago. The company is a Premier level sponsor and founder/CEO Bobby Achettu is a member of the Naturally Chicago Board of Directors. Moreover, Accelerated Growth provides vital accounting and financial consulting services to help us grow Naturally Chicago into a national epicenter for the Good Food and Natural Products community.

“I am thrilled to see Accelerated Growth’s great work rewarded through its new partnership with Sikich, and even more thrilled that Bobby Achettu will be on-boarded by Sikich in a leadership role,” said Jim Slama, Naturally Chicago’s Managing Director. “He and his company have been great allies and great to work with, and we look forward to continuing that relationship as their new partnership evolves.”

No one knows Accelerated Growth better than Bobby Achettu, so here are the details in his own words.

From one rocket ship, to another…

I’ve always been driven by growth. From one person in a client's storage room … to 120 team members in 3 offices globally ... growth is in our DNA ... and of course in our name.

That’s why I’m thrilled to share that Accelerated Growth is being acquired by one of top professional services firms in the country, Sikich.

In the 10 months I’ve gotten to know Christopher Geier and his team, I’m amazed by how much alignment there is between us and our organizations: culture, vision, servant leadership, focus on diversity, tech-enablement … that’s just to start. What’s more … the leadership team Chris has built? The best way to describe them is a group of entrepreneurs aligned by big audacious goals that will change our industry.

There is an African proverb I love: If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

After growing AG organically on average 37 percent each year over the past 10 years, there is no question we’ve grown fast and gone far. We’ve been setting our targets in the 10s of millions, but now I’m excited to join an organization that has their eyes firmly set farther than I could have ever taken AG alone. Sikich’s target is not just to cross the billion-dollar threshold, but to be the most innovative and knowledgeable provider of professional services for businesses worldwide.

Why partner with Sikich? For our team, our clients, and our ecosystem … this is game-changing.

For our team: Opportunities for growth and learning that can only come with being part of a ~1,500-person company

For our clients: Access to an array of additional expertise from the most tech-enabled services organization in the entrepreneurial and middle market sectors 

For our ecosystem: Sikich has 15,000 clients. That's millions of lives impacted both directly and indirectly.

As for me, if I were to summarize my career so far:

• 12 years in large global organizations working in the #big4, middle market and #fortune500 with Grant Thornton LLP (US), CVS Health and PwC

• 12 years as Founder and CEO at AG … including seven years as an Adjunct at Northwestern University and Loyola University Chicago … and 10 years of for-profit and nonprofit board experience including Naturally Chicago,  EO Chicago and others

What's next for me? INTRApreneur within Sikich!

24 years ago when I started my career... while I had no clue what was yet to come ... I couldn't have written it better.

I can't wait to share more about my journey from startup to exit to intrapreneur. For now, I’m going to pause, reflect, and just be grateful. Grateful for the support of my team (too numerous to mention but especially: Shrinivas, Ashley, Pete, Robert, Julia, Snehal, Manan, Tapasya, my clients, our alum, our strategic partners, my community and most importantly my family.

Also… grateful for what I know is going to be an amazing next chapter in my personal Accelerated Growth with Sikich.