GrowthForce History
GrowthForce was founded in 2004 in Kingwood, Texas, by Stephen King, a certified public accountant with close to three decades of experience in the accounting industry and a passion for helping small businesses grow.
King created GrowthForce to give small businesses access to the business systems, expertise and services typically available only to Fortune 500 companies. King modeled GrowthForce after a Web-based outsourced bookkeeping service named Virtual Growth Incorporated (VGI) which he established in New York City’s Silicon Alley in 1995.
In six years, King turned Virtual Growth into the largest outsourced accounting services firm in the U.S. Many of the outsourced products that were invented and tested at Virtual Growth are now incorporated into GrowthForce products and services.
To finance the Virtual Growth start-up, King raised more than $40 million in venture capital from Bessemer Venture Partners, Citigroup Investments, StarVest Partners,European Technology Fund, Chelsea Capital Partners and Administaff. Virtual Growth’s success earned the attention of Administaff, the country’s leading professional employer organization (PEO) and provider of outsourced human resource services.
Administaff bought the business in 2001, in their first ever business acquisition, and renamed it Administaff Financial Management Services (FMS). King moved to Kingwood in northeast Houston and ran the Administaff FMS division for two years as its president.
Challenges with the post 9/11 economy and the PEO industry caused Administaff to re-focus on its core outsourced HR business. FMS was sold back to King in early 2004. An entrepreneur at heart, King welcomed the opportunity to own his own business once again and set up shop in Kingwood – just down the road from Administaff’s headquarters.
He launched the new business as Finance & Administrative Outsource, but his marketing team soon found a more apt name in GrowthForce. The term GrowthForce describes exactly what the business does for its clients – providing outsourced bookkeeping and financial services as a force to help small businesses grow.
By leveraging new systems technology and a ripe small business market, the timing was right for GrowthForce’s services. Since its conception, GrowthForce has experienced rapid growth, doubling its revenue every six months, as more small businesses discovered the GrowthForce solution.
With clients demanding more proactive financial advice, GrowthForce opened its Consulting Services Division in 2005. The division lead by Jeff Brown helps GrowthForce clients strategically plan their future growth.
In May of 2006, GrowthForce expanded into a bigger customer service center in its headquarters building. Less than a year later in February 2007, the company doubled its service center size to better accommodate its growing staff and customer base.
With a commitment to building strong client relationships, GrowthForce is on its way to accomplishing its vision to become the leading national provider of outsourced bookkeeping and financial services to small businesses.
