KPMG Partner quits and goes Boutique with high end advisory firm: Now has 5+ offices & 75+ team

• Hi, I am Vishal Gada. After years at KPMG and Dhruva, we co-founded Aurtus, a boutique tax advisory firm, in 2020.
• We aimed for ₹4 crore in revenue in our first year and blew past it!
• What we thought would take years – matching our Big 4 salaries – happened in just two years, with 30-45% bonuses and THREE acquisition offers. 
• Now, Aurtus is 70+ professionals strong, with offices in Mumbai, Delhi, GIFT City, Ahmedabad, and Singapore.
• This shows the immense potential of boutique advisory and Consulting firms in India.

Back story: Audit to Tax Partner KPMG and Dhruva

In 2002, as a freshly qualified Chartered Accountant, I started my career at PwC Mumbai in Statutory Audit.

Yes, I dove right into hardcore audit for the first two years…Only to realise that my interest lay in international tax.

Also, I didn’t last long in my first job, leaving after only 16 months due to a challenging senior.

Thankfully all of this led me to join the Tax team at Ratan S. Mama, which, in my opinion, was the best firm I ever worked with.

I learned and thrived there, but eventually, the firm sold its practice to PwC, bringing me back to my former employer.

I continued at PwC from 2007 to 2010, but everything changed after the Satyam accounting scandal.

Many of my mentors and bosses left for KPMG, and I soon followed suit.

My journey at KPMG was transformative. I was tasked with a significant project – to establish their Ahmedabad office. It was a surreal experience to hand-pick my team and build a business from the ground up.

Eventually, I became a Partner at KPMG in Mumbai, but even with the achievement, I felt something was missing. That initial thrill of entrepreneurship kept calling to me.

Then, as luck would have it, the tax leader at KPMG left, and some of us decided to join him, myself included. That’s how Dhruva was born.

Fun fact, the name, an acronym for its five founding partners, DHRVA, includes me as the “V”.

Spotted a huge gap…Quit Dhruva and started a Boutique Tax Firm

I had a wonderful six years at Dhruva, but unfortunately, the partnership couldn’t continue.

A few of its Partners – Rutul Shah, Zeel Jambuwala, and Jay Parmar – also moved on.

So, I thought, why not start our own firm once again? I proposed the idea, and all three of them jumped on board.

Our logic was simple…we were in our late thirties and early forties. So, why not try it for a few years? If it didn’t work out, we could always return to working with larger firms.

But it wasn’t all by chance; our decision was grounded in solid reasons:

• The tax market was growing, dominated by the Big 6, leaving space for firms like ours to make an impact.
• After 12 years in the Big 4, I was ready to create a firm with a different, more flexible approach.
• In India, professionals are often more glorified than firms, leading to collapse when they leave. We aimed to build a brand that outlives its partners.
• Our goal: To become one of the top 10-12 tax firms outside the Big 4, known for exceptional service.
• At a certain stage, money takes a backseat, and the focus shifts to making a meaningful impact.

In 2020, we launched Aurtus, a full-service boutique firm providing well-researched tax, transaction and regulatory services.

Scaling Business Consulting & Tax Advisory firm

Initial Capital

• Started with a modest investment of INR 1,000 and I extended a short-term loan of INR 50 lakh, which my firm repaid within a few months.
• Thankfully, I didn’t need to invest any additional capital.

Building the Team

We have been very cautious about when to hire more people and build more offices.

• Year 1: 12-14 people
• Year 2: 20 people
• Year 3: 35 people
• Year 4: It took us 4 years to reach 70-75 people, and add 2 more offices. We plan to cross the 100-employee mark by the end of this financial year.

Talent Retention

• Over the last 4.5 years, only two people have left Aurtus to join other companies, even among senior staff.
• Most departures were due to personal reasons, like moving abroad or career transitions.
• One of our biggest challenges, however, has been the talent shortage in the market.

Financial Performance

• Our first-year revenue target was ₹4 crore. Safe to say—we completely undershot it!
• I honestly thought none of the partners would see substantial earnings for at least the first two years… but we started earning from DAY ONE!
• Our bonuses in those first two years? A remarkable 35-45%!
• Why? Minimal overhead, robust revenues, and no need for financial sacrifices. The outcome? Thrilled partners all around!

Expanding Offices

• For the first 2.5 years, we operated from WeWork, having launched just before COVID.
• Post-COVID, we shifted to our own spaces—starting in Ahmedabad, then Mumbai, and now expanding to Delhi. GIFT City is still a co-working spot for now.
• In 2023, we launched our Singapore office. Pure luck? Maybe. My partner there, Mahit, was actually my ex-boss! He started his own firm, we reconnected, and within a week, decided to merge practices.
• Looking back, it was one of our best moves. The synergy between Aurtus India and Aurtus Singapore has been incredible!

Securing Clients

We informed our clients, and apart from a few, almost everyone signed up with us.

It was a clear sign that tax is a sticky business when clients are happy – they don’t care about the brand, as long as they’re working with the same team.

More importantly, clients are now realizing that smaller firms can often provide deeper, more personalized insights than the large ones.

Profit margins

You can play at 10%, or aim for 40%. For a reputable consulting firm, gross margins of 30-40% are standard.

It’s all about how you position yourself. For us, we’ve set clear boundaries – our minimum margins are non-negotiable.

Many times we bill more than the Big 4s!

Talent, in particular, is becoming more expensive.

Our Services at Aurtus

Our expertise and true strength lie in tax, and that’s where we choose to stay focused.

Due diligence, for example, is a branded field, so we don’t prioritize it in our offerings.

We’ve also chosen not to handle valuations ourselves, even though they complement M&A work. Instead, we collaborate with trusted valuation partners.

Despite frequent client requests, we’ve stayed out of the audit space.

Aurtus may appear to be one business, but in reality, it consists of 8 to 9 businesses combined.

• Corporate and International Tax: Our foundational service, offers strategic tax advice across corporate and international tax matters.
• M&A Tax: Assisting clients with the tax implications of mergers and acquisitions, guiding them through tax-efficient structures.
• Litigation: Litigation is a growing pillar for us. With leaders like Chintan, Ritesh, and Meetika—who joined us from a prestigious law firm—we cover complex tax litigation matters comprehensively.
• Indirect Tax: We provide GST and customs litigation services, an area that’s expanding quickly in response to regulatory developments.
• Regulatory Services: This includes advisory on FEMA, RBI, and SEBI compliance, helping clients navigate India’s regulatory landscape effectively.
• Transfer Pricing: Anticipating the impacts of Pillar 2 regulations next financial year, we are actively building out our transfer pricing services with increased investments.
• Family Office Services: This area has experienced surprising growth. We manage over 50 to 60 prominent families, providing private trusts, succession planning, and HNI planning. To support this, we are establishing Aurtus Aspire – a division dedicated to individual clients, separate from our corporate services.
• GIFT City Advisory: We focus on establishing funds and family offices for international clients in GIFT City and support Indian entities with global expansion plans.

Looking at the future

AI and Tax Advisory

At present, we’re exploring how AI can enhance the effectiveness of our services and accelerate deliverables.

However, we’re also considering whether AI could become a standalone product.

The market for that is huge, and I don’t see any comparable products being launched in India yet.

We’ve been debating internally and have a blueprint ready that we plan to launch next year.

The idea is to explore something like Aurtus Digital, which will be our focus for the next 12 to 24 months.

Now this would require significant investment, unlike our tax practice which we bootstrapped.

Global Expansion Plans

Singapore

Our Singapore office has grown to over 30 team members.

Mahit, a former colleague, now leads our Singapore operations, bringing synergies between Aurtus India and Aurtus Singapore.

UAE

UAE is a great market to be in and our expansion to Dubai is on the horizon, will complete this triangular access between India, Dubai, and Singapore.

We are working to find the right local leader and expect to establish our presence there soon.

USA

We aim to eventually enter the US market. However, given its complexity and investment needs, we are first focusing on strengthening our India, Singapore, and Dubai connections.

Are PE investments the future of advisory firms’ growth?

About a year ago, while helping an investment bank structure a deal, a Partner pointed out that tax firms, like ours, have a more stable business compared to deal-driven firms.

He wondered why tax firms aren’t valued more, given our steady organic growth.

I agreed and highlighted that overseas firms like Ryan (a US-based tax firm) are backed by private equity.

Even KNAV recently received investments from people like Nikhil Kamath, showing the trend is catching on in India.

We’ve had three acquisition offers in just the past two years—and turned every single one down!

Why? Because our value just keeps going up, and we’re not done yet!

Also, consolidation outside the Big 4 is coming, and we’re preparing for it.

How do clients view tax consulting at non-Big 4 firms?

In the audit space, branding plays a huge role. However, tax is a value-added service where the client doesn’t need to shout about who’s advising them.

Yes, for something like due diligence in a major transaction, a Big 4 report may be necessary, but for personalized, high-quality advice, clients often prefer boutique firms.

The key difference is that tax advice doesn’t depend on the size of the firm.

Clients are now more mature. They understand that a small, specialized firm can often provide better advice than a larger organization. It’s all about building one-to-one relationships.

And the opportunity is genuinely huge!