Accountant Shortage Reality

Sam Parr shares his experience launching "Sam's List" (sam's list.co), a platform designed to connect people with accountants. His key discovery was that the accounting industry faces a fundamental supply problem, not a demand problem, which challenges the traditional lead generation business model.

Key Points:

• Project Genesis:

  • Started from a personal need to find a better accountant
  • Initial tweet asking for accountant recommendations got 300 responses
  • Many people bookmarked the tweet, indicating strong market interest

• Platform Development:

  • Built on Bubble platform
  • Investment of $15,000 in development
  • Created a quiz-based recommendation system
  • Included direct scheduling functionality

• First Week Performance:

  • 13,000 website visits
  • 6,000 quiz completions
  • Only 100-200 information submissions
  • Very few actual appointment schedules

• Key Market Insight:

  • Major shortage of accountants in the industry
  • Accountants aren't actively seeking new clients
  • Most accountants are overwhelmed with existing business
  • Many aren't interested in significant practice growth

• Business Model Challenges:

  • Modeled after SmartAsset.com's financial advisor lead generation
  • Financial advisors pay $250-700 per lead based on client assets
  • Accountants aren't willing to pay similarly for leads
  • Traditional lead generation model doesn't fit the accounting market

• Future Outlook:

  • Planning to shut down by May 30th if not profitable
  • Current model losing money
  • Needs fundamental rethinking of approach
  • Lead generation might work better with fewer, larger clients rather than many small accountants