Before I built companies, I audited them. I spent three years at Deloitte as an Audit Senior and Associate in Los Angeles, running financial and internal-controls audits for Fortune 500 clients — and earned the highest rating in a regional group of 400 professionals.
What the work actually taught me
Auditing sounds like box-checking from the outside. It isn't. A good audit is forensic: you learn to read a business through its numbers, to find the one control that's quietly broken among the thousands that work, and to hold a standard of accuracy where "close enough" doesn't exist. You develop a nose for exactly where reality and the spreadsheet diverge.
Why I left
I advanced quickly — took on management responsibility ahead of my level — and then hit an honest realization: I wanted to build the things I was auditing, not verify them after the fact. Examining other people's companies made me want to make my own.
Why it still matters
That training never left. It's why financial modeling and revenue forecasting come naturally in every venture since. It's why I can sit across from a club treasurer as "David the Accountant" and mean it. And it's why I care about systems that are correct and owned rather than rented and approximate — the audit mindset pointed at how a business runs itself. Deloitte gave me the rigor; everything since has been about aiming that rigor at creation instead of verification.
By the numbers
- 3 years · Audit Senior & Associate
- Fortune 500 financial + internal-controls audits
- Highest rating in a regional group of 400 professionals
