On Market Street, Smith + Howard’s Chattanooga office occupies a workspace that feels built for scale. From here, the independent CPA firm serves closely held businesses, nonprofit organizations and growing companies whose needs stretch beyond tax returns into advisory, transactions and strategy.
That wasn’t always the case.
Less than a decade ago, the roots of this office trace back to a small, independent practice founded by Chattanooga native Kevin Rose and a handful of colleagues. What began as Market Street Partners in 2016 grew rapidly, weathered the uncertainty of the pandemic and ultimately merged with Atlanta-based Smith + Howard in 2023. Today, the Chattanooga office stands as both a local anchor and a gateway into a much broader platform.
At the center of the operation are two partners with different paths to the same destination: Rose, a hometown founder who wanted to build something from scratch, and Travis Shears, a managing partner who returned to public accounting after years in industry.
Together, they represent a firm navigating one of the accounting profession’s most significant transitions – consolidation – while trying to preserve the relationship-driven approach that fueled its early growth.
A Chattanooga boomerang
Rose’s path into accounting was shaped early. His mother taught accounting at Dalton State College, and while he never studied under her, the profession felt familiar.
“It made sense,” Rose says. “Accounting is one of those things that either clicks or it doesn’t. For me, it did.”
After earning his undergraduate degree at the University of Georgia and a master’s in taxation from Georgia State University, Rose spent several years working in Atlanta. Professionally, it was a productive stretch. Personally, it wasn’t where he saw himself long-term.
“My wife is from Cleveland, and she wanted no part of Atlanta,” he says. “So we moved back here in 2011.”
Back in Chattanooga, Rose joined Henderson, Hutchinson & McCullough as a tax partner. The role was stable, but over time he began to feel constrained by legacy systems and established ways of operating.
“I wanted to work in a different environment, to create our own ecosystem where we didn’t have legacy ways of doing things,” he says. “That allowed us to reconstruct processes and build a different kind of client service model.”
The impulse to test himself and build something independent eventually led to Market Street Partners.
Building Market Street Partners
Rose and co-founder Kyle Bryant launched Market Street Partners in June 2016. The firm started modestly, with a small team and office space in the Loveman’s Building, a few blocks from its current downtown footprint but a world away in terms of space and accommodations.
“We had about five folks when we first started,” Rose says. “We were sharing space with the claims department of an insurance group. It was interesting; there were CPAs on one side, insurance claims on the other, and we were just trying to get through tax season.”
The early years required improvisation and stamina. Rose and his partners leaned heavily into client relationships, prioritizing responsiveness and proactive communication. They wanted to avoid the stereotype of accountants as distant or transactional.
“We wanted to be normal people to deal with,” Rose says. “Not someone in an ivory tower that a normal person wouldn’t want to talk to or have a beer with.”
That approach resonated in Chattanooga’s growing business community. As startups formed and existing businesses expanded, Market Street Partners found itself increasingly in demand.
“Every client wants their CPA to be proactive,” Rose says. “They don’t want to find out at the last minute that they owe a big check. If you know ahead of time, it takes some of the sting out of it.”
Within a few years, the firm moved into a larger space, added staff and continued to build its reputation. By the time the pandemic arrived, Market Street Partners was no longer a startup, but it was still young enough to feel vulnerable.
COVID as a crucible
For many businesses, the early months of COVID-19 were paralyzing. For Market Street Partners, they became defining.
“Clients were looking for a lot of different value-add services,” Rose says. “PPP loans, stimulus programs, and nobody really knew how they worked at first.”
Rose described the firm’s role during that period as part interpreter, part problem-solver.
“There was so much information flying around,” he says. “Bankers didn’t always know how to interpret it. Business owners didn’t know where to turn. We didn’t have all the answers, but we were figuring it out.”
Over roughly 18 months, the firm worked intensely to help clients navigate relief programs, cash flow disruptions and regulatory uncertainty. When the dust settled, Market Street Partners emerged stronger.
“Our reputation had grown,” Rose says. “We’d done a lot of good things for our clients, and we were off and running.”
The numbers reflected that momentum. From zero revenue in 2016, the firm grew to approximately 40 employees and between $7 million and $8 million in annual revenue within seven years. It ranked among the 400 largest CPA firms in the country – a surprising milestone for a firm founded in Chattanooga less than a decade earlier.
Hitting the ceiling
Growth, however, brought new challenges.
As clients expanded, attracted investors or sold to private equity-backed buyers, Market Street Partners increasingly found itself on the outside looking in.
“We’d have a good client we started with, and they’d grow to the point where they became a target for private equity or a strategic buyer,” Rose says. “When that happened, we weren’t always on the preferred vendor list anymore.”
The issue wasn’t performance but scale.
“We’d do a good job the entire time,” Rose continues. “But after a transaction, the new owner would want a larger firm. So we’d lose a good relationship through no fault of our own.”
At the same time, the accounting profession itself was changing. Succession challenges, a shrinking pipeline of new accountants and increasing client complexity were pushing firms toward consolidation. Private equity capital began flowing into the profession, offering liquidity and funding for technology and service expansion.
Market Street Partners began exploring options. Several firms reached out; conversations started informally and then grew more serious. Eventually, an introduction through accounting industry adviser Allan Koltin led Rose and his partners to Smith + Howard.
Finding the right fit
Founded in the 1970s, Smith + Howard had built a reputation as a strong regional firm based in Atlanta. In late 2019 and early 2020, firm leadership developed a long-term growth plan – Vision 2030 – that would later include outside investment and strategic acquisitions.
Market Street Partners became the first.
“The more we talked to the Smith + Howard folks, the more we liked them,” Rose says. “It started to make sense.”
The merger closed in 2023, giving Market Street Partners access to a broader platform while preserving local leadership in Chattanooga. For Smith + Howard, the deal provided a foothold in a growing market with an established client base and leadership team.
Shortly after the merger, Shears joined the Chattanooga office as managing partner.
A return to public accounting
Shears’ path to Smith + Howard took a different route.
After studying computer engineering at Tennessee Tech, he pivoted to accounting and finance, eventually joining Ernst & Young in Chattanooga in 2005. His career took him to Atlanta and Nashville before he left public accounting to join U.S. Xpress, where he served as vice president of tax. When U.S. Xpress was acquired in 2023, Shears began thinking about returning to public accounting – and returning to Chattanooga.
“My wife is from Red Bank, and we wanted to get back here,” he says. “Chattanooga is a great place to raise a family.”
Shears joined Smith + Howard’s Chattanooga office in January 2024, bringing both Big Four experience and an industry perspective.
“I spend up to 70% of my time serving clients,” Shears says. “The rest is focused on staffing and planning.”
Rose sees the partnership as complementary.
“You need someone to zoom out and see how things are going,” Rose says. “Sometimes people get bogged down in the work, and someone has to make sure things stay balanced.”
The Chattanooga office today
Now located at 715 Market Street, the Chattanooga office reflects the firm’s evolution. It operates with local autonomy while drawing on the resources of a firm that has grown to nearly 700 people across multiple markets.
The culture, Rose and Shears say, remains rooted in mentorship and sustainability.
“This profession uses an apprenticeship model,” Shears says. “You learn by working under someone. You want people to grow. You don’t want the career equivalent of ‘Groundhog Day.’”
Tax season is still demanding, but expectations have changed.
“When I started, 70- or 80-hour weeks were normal,” Shears says. “Now we’re more like 55 hours for a stretch, maybe a little more here and there.”
That balance matters in a profession struggling to attract new talent.
“If you want more accountants, the starting salaries are going to have to go up,” Shears says. “The lifestyle also has to be sustainable.”
The workspace includes a shared common room outfitted with a golf simulator, ping pong, a couple TVs and cold brew on tap. Between calls and deadlines, staff drift in and out, taking short breaks from the number crunching to hit a few golf balls or play a quick game.
The space offers a change in pace and a chance for co-workers to interact informally, a small counterweight to the intensity of client work. As Shears puts it, “The little things can differentiate you.”
A broader menu of services
One of the most immediate changes following the merger was the expansion of services available to Chattanooga clients. Smith + Howard brought specialized expertise in areas such as research and development tax credits, state and local tax, credits and incentives and sales and use tax – areas that are increasingly critical during transactions.
“Sales tax is incredibly nuanced,” Shears says. “Every jurisdiction has its own rules, and once you start multiplying that across multiple locations, it gets complicated fast.”
That expertise can materially affect deal outcomes.
“We’ve had situations where a buyer’s adviser says there’s $10 million in unpaid sales tax,” Shears says. “We come in, analyze it and find it’s closer to $2 million or $3 million. That’s real value.”
More recently, the Chattanooga office added fractional CFO services by hiring a former construction company CFO locally.
“Instead of hiring a full-time CFO, a company can get eight or 10 hours a week of high-level expertise,” Shears says. “It’s a real need we’re seeing right now.”
The firm has also expanded executive search capabilities, helping clients recruit controllers, accountants and finance leaders.
“Before, we’d have to tell clients, ‘We’re sorry, but we can’t help with that,’” Shears says. “Now we can connect them with someone who can.”
Why the work matters
For Rose, the most meaningful work often happens with business owners whose livelihoods are tied directly to their companies.
“There’s a local restaurateur who was on the ropes,” he says. “We worked through projections, helped secure financing and relocate one of his restaurants. Now all of his locations are doing really well.”
Those moments, he says, provide the greatest sense of fulfillment.
“When someone’s entire financial universe is wrapped up in their business, helping them through a tough spot really means something,” Rose says.
He traces that mindset back to the pandemic, when CPAs became de facto first responders for small businesses.
“We were helping people navigate lifelines,” he says. “That’s when you realize why you do this.”
Looking ahead
Both Rose and Shears see Chattanooga continuing to grow – and the firm growing with it.
“I think we’ll continue bringing more specialty services into this office over time,” Shears says. “Rather than calling Atlanta, clients will have more resources here.”
Rose agrees.
“Chattanooga is in a good position,” he says. “There’s a lot going on, and hopefully most of it’s good. We want to be positioned to help people take advantage of those opportunities.”
For Rose, the journey feels like a circle coming to a close.
“When I graduated high school, I thought I was leaving and not coming back,” he says. “A lot of people did. Now a lot of us are coming back. Chattanooga has changed a lot.”
From a shared office in the Loveman’s Building to a downtown hub serving clients across markets, Smith + Howard’s Chattanooga office reflects that change – and how a firm built locally has learned to operate at a much larger scale.