New, millennial-friendly accounting firm hits 500-client mark [photos]

Kevin Rose, a partner at Market Street Partners, and Kyle Bryant, founding partner of Market Street Partners, talk about their innovative style in the accounting world that helped them gain 500 clients in their first year of business Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2018 in Chattanooga, Tenn. Market Street Partners works with small to midsize businesses, and about 30 percent of their clientele comes from startups. Kevin Rose, a partner at Market Street Partners, and Kyle Bryant, founding partner of Market Street Partners, talk about their innovative style in the accounting world that helped them gain 500 clients in their first year of business Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2018 in Chattanooga, Tenn. Market Street Partners works with small to midsize businesses, and about 30 percent of their clientele comes from startups.

By Tim Omarzu January 28, 2018 4 min read

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New, millennial-friendly accounting firm, Market Street Partners, hits 500-client mark

Kyle Bryant, founding partner of Market Street Partners, shows off the accounting firm's downtown Chattanooga, Tenn., office Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2018. Market Street Partners is a new accounting firm that gained about 500 clients in their first year of business.

Kyle Bryant talks about his path to becoming the founding partner of Market Street Partners Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2018 in Chattanooga, Tenn. Market Street Partners has roots in Chattanoogaճ startup scene, since Bryant was formerly the director of finance for the Lampost Group.

Market Street Partners is a new accounting firm that gained about 500 clients in their first year of business. Market Street Partners has roots in Chattanoogaճ startup scene, since the founding partner was formerly the director of finance for the Lampost Group. Market Street Partners works with small to midsize businesses, and about 30 percent of their clientele comes from startups.

Kyle Bryant, founding partner of Market Street Partners, shows off a workroom at their downtown Chattanooga, Tenn., office Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2018. Market Street Partners attempted to create a more laid-back environment for its employees than the typical accounting firm.

Market Street Partners is a new accounting firm downtown that just surpassed 500 clients, has roots in Chattanooga’s startup scene and is run by two men who don’t wear ties to work – a departure from the staid environment of big accounting firms.

“We’re trying not to be ‘the suits,'” said Kevin Rose, who runs Market Street Partners alongside founding partner Kyle Bryant. “Most [male employees at big firms] wear ties or at least business casual. They’re keeping the dry cleaners in business.”

The accounting firm, which launched in June 2016, had a head start lining up clients because Bryant is the former director of finance for the Lamp Post Group.

Lamp Post is a Chattanooga “incubator” of startup businesses that got its start when its three founders, Ted Alling, Barry Large and Allan Davis, made tens of million of dollars (the exact amount was undisclosed) in 2014 when they sold their startup logistics company, Access America, to Chicago-based Coyote Transport.

Bryant worked at Access America before its sale. He’s from Jackson, Tenn., and moved here in 2003 to attend the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he got degree in accounting.