Case study · Finance and accounting
How Acquisition.com built a finance team around one exceptional hire, and what happened when they hired the next one.
The story in eight slides
Client case study
Proof over promise
Acquisition.com wanted one GL accountant. Who they hired changed their finance function.
Proof over promise01 / 08
The problem
Before the match
Before Assistantly, Acquisition.com's team was holding month-end close, GL, vendor recs, and an ERP rollout while the business scaled around them.
Proof over promise02 / 08
The problem
The real risk
The job needed someone who'd catch issues and hold the standard under pressure, without being checked on. That's the part most hires get wrong.
Proof over promise03 / 08
The shift
Our first placement
Their first hire, Nissan, set the standard on daily cadence, error-flagging, and communication. The team leader stopped supervising the work and started reviewing it.
Proof over promise04 / 08
The shift
A whole team
Jeanie joined on GL, her pay equalized with Nissan's. Kia came in as Team Project Manager. Then a fourth hire: an AP and Accounting Specialist.
Proof over promise05 / 08
The outcome
Career growth
The team leader found the capacity to step up. The promotion was strengthened by the Unicorn team, not achieved in spite of it.
Proof over promise06 / 08
From the client
The vibe is not ‘are they working?’ — it’s ‘we love them, and they help our business.’”
Shannon FultonController · Acquisition.com
Proof over promise07 / 08
Talent matched to how you actually work, the kind you'll trust with the keys in 90 days.
Start hiringProof over promise08 / 08
Part IOne hire becomes the standard
Acquisition.com, the business education and investment company founded by Alex and Leila Hormozi, operates with a bias toward speed, ownership, and high performance. When Shannon Fulton joined as Accounting Manager, she needed a team that could match that standard. Assistantly gave her one.
What started as a single GL Accountant placement has since grown into a four-hire finance support structure, two promotions, a maternity leave seamlessly covered, a controller promotion, and a brand-new AP specialist search, led in part by the Unicorn who started it all.
Acquisition.com's finance function was growing faster than its internal headcount could support. Shannon was managing month-end close, GL accounting, vendor reconciliation, and an evolving ERP implementation, all while the business scaled around her.
The work required more than execution. It required someone who could operate with real ownership: catching issues before they became problems, keeping communication going without being managed, and holding a high standard under pressure.
Internal bandwidth couldn't absorb it. She needed reliable outside support, and it had to be good.
What Assistantly put in place
GL Accounting, formerly AP Specialist
The first placement, and she set the tone for everything that followed. From early on she operated with what Shannon's notes describe as partner-level trust: strong ownership, proactive communication, and a daily cadence that kept the team aligned. She didn't need to be managed. She managed herself.
GL Accounting
Ran alongside Nissan. Coachable, responsive to feedback, and steadily better at flagging errors and communicating at month-end. Shannon's response was concrete: she asked for Jeanie's pay to be raised to match Nissan's.
Team Project Manager
As Shannon moved into higher-level controller work, Kia joined from another team to coordinate projects, organize the workload, and create structure as the org kept evolving.
What changed
Shannon asks for Jeanie's pay to be raised to match Nissan's.
Nissan's first increase lands, and Jeanie's pay is equalized before she has to ask.
The Unicorn team absorbs the execution layer that makes the step up possible.
Each change initiated by Shannon, not prompted by Nissan.
Assistantly sources and onboards coverage within weeks, so Nissan can enjoy her leave without worry.
An AP and Accounting Specialist search to backfill Nissan's old seat, with Nissan leading the evaluation.
“They are doing really, really great. I love them. The vibe is not ‘are they working?’ — it’s ‘we love them, and they help our business.’”
Shannon didn't just need someone to close the books. She needed someone she could trust while she grew into a bigger leadership role, someone who would hold the line on quality without being managed.
Nissan did that. And because she did, Shannon had the capacity to step up. Her promotion to Controller was strengthened by the Unicorn team, not achieved in spite of it.
The clearest proof isn't a metric. When Shannon needed to hire again, she asked Nissan who to hire.
Part IIHiring the next Nissan
When Nissan was promoted, Shannon needed to backfill her AP role, and Nissan helped choose who would fill it. That hire was Nelrose "Nel" Ortega.
Ninety days later, she runs AP on her own, has rebuilt key SOPs, and helped the team set a new close record. And her success has already set off the next domino.
Nissan's promotion left an open seat in a role she had defined. Whoever filled it would be measured against her, and they would be stepping in at a demanding moment:
Finding someone qualified on paper wasn't the hard part. Finding someone who could meet Nissan's standard without slowing the team down was.
What Assistantly put in place
Before Shannon ever met her, Nel completed a Day One™ simulation built around the role. She verified an invoice before acting on it, then flagged the root cause to the manager with a corrective action plan. Reviewers called it the strongest AP submission in her cohort for process depth.
Ramp was Shannon's non-negotiable. In her interview, Nel walked through the full Ramp workflow unprompted, from coding review to reconciliation. It was the most technically detailed Ramp walkthrough of any AP candidate Shannon reviewed.
Nissan built the SOPs and led Nel's training: observe, do with oversight, then do independently. Shannon handed the day-to-day to Nissan and stayed in the loop through daily EOD reports.
Shannon set the milestones at onboarding: first vendor correspondence by week 2, independent execution by day 90, and at least one process improvement. Assistantly checked in at 2 weeks, 30, 60, and 90 days with both Shannon and Nel.
The 90-day journey
The 90-day goal was independence, with Nissan reviewing rather than supervising. Nel got there with a record close and a bonus.
In Shannon's words
“We just need another Nissan, but hopefully now Nelrose is on her way.”
“Thank you for your hard work and for breaking our close record and hitting our 12 day stretch goal for August. We could not have done it without you!!”
“All Assistantly folks on the finance team are fantastic.”
Shannon FultonController, Acquisition.com
The next domino
Shannon came back for another finance hire: a specialist with Ramp and tax expertise for sales tax, payroll tax, and gross receipts tax compliance. Candidates are already in front of her.
Most new hires reach day 90 with everyone quietly hoping it works out. Nel reached day 90 with a record close and a bonus.
The difference is that the proof came first. Shannon didn't hire Nel on a resume or a good interview. She hired someone who had already done the work, in a simulation built around the role, and had been scored on it. Then Nel was trained by the person whose standard she was stepping into.
Part I showed that one great hire can become the standard. Part II shows that standard can be repeated, and that every proven hire opens the door to the next.
That's proof over promise.
Tell us the role, and we'll show you who has already done the work.
