Dark Horse CPAs Announces Hiring of Jay-Anne Mandingin as Associate Principal

Mandingin Joins Principal Accelerator Program to Build an Accounting and CFO Advisory Practice Focused on Growing Businesses

CARDIFF BY THE SEA, CA, UNITED STATES, October 9, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Dark Horse CPAs, a leading accounting and tax firm serving small businesses and individuals across the nation, announces the hiring of Jay-Anne Mandingin, MBA, as an Associate Principal in the firm’s Principal Accelerator Program. Mandingin brings extensive experience in finance and operations, having worked alongside founders and executive teams to help businesses scale, strengthen their financial infrastructure, and navigate periods of significant change.

Mandingin began her career as a CPA before moving into internal finance and operational leadership roles across a variety of industries, including high-growth startups. Her experience working directly within businesses shaped her approach to financial advisory, with an emphasis on understanding the operational realities behind the numbers and helping leadership teams put financial strategies into practice to improve company performance.

After spending much of her career as an internal finance resource, Mandingin saw Dark Horse as an opportunity to bring that experience to a broader range of businesses while building a practice on her own terms. “What drew me to Dark Horse was the opportunity to build a practice around the way I believe business owners should be served, rather than fitting clients into a predetermined service model,” said Mandingin. “Dark Horse really gives you the ability to build with the firm, using its platform, resources, and collaborative model while creating a practice that reflects your own experience and the needs of the clients you serve.”

Her approach to advisory is rooted in her experience working inside organizations, where financial decisions are closely tied to the systems and people responsible for carrying them out. Rather than treating finance as a separate function, Mandingin looks at the broader business to understand the challenges facing leadership and the resources available to address them. “My approach comes from an operator’s lens because I’ve spent much of my career embedded in businesses, working alongside owners, founders and CEOs to figure out how to grow and navigate what comes next,” said Mandingin.

Mandingin is particularly interested in working with emerging and founder-led businesses as they outgrow their existing accounting infrastructure and begin to require more sophisticated financial and operational support. She also sees significant opportunities in helping small and mid-sized businesses adopt technology and artificial intelligence to improve efficiency and expand their capabilities. Her interest in these technologies extends to the accounting profession itself, where she hopes to collaborate with other Dark Horse professionals to explore new applications of AI while drawing on the firm’s collective tax and accounting expertise.

“I think clients need an advisor who is genuinely curious about their business,” said Mandingin. “That curiosity is what allows you to be proactive rather than reactive, to understand what the financials are really telling you, and to help the owner look ahead and see around corners.”

“Jay-Anne brings something particularly valuable to our advisory practice: she’s spent much of her career on the other side of the table, being responsible for enterprise resource planning and management as well as being an entrepreneur,” said Chase Birky, CEO and co-founder of Dark Horse CPAs. “Both of these prior capacities enable her to truly understand her clients and their needs as she’s lived them herself. Additionally, her experience in building AI-native solutions and tooling will bring invaluable leverage and value to her clients. Our Firm-as-a-Service model gives her the infrastructure to build these AI-native solutions in a secure and supported environment with collaboration from other forward-thinking practitioners. I’m excited to see what she builds here, and I know her peers are as well!”

About the Dark Horse Accelerator Program

The Dark Horse Principal Accelerator Program was created for entrepreneurially minded CPAs who want to build a scalable book of business without the personal and financial sacrifices required to start a firm from scratch. Dark Horse provides its CPAs with the resources and support needed to grow intelligently and profitably. Its proprietary technology, flexible staffing model and established systems allow CPAs to focus on advising clients and building lasting relationships.

Accelerators complete a training program covering the firm’s technology, sales process and practice-building model before beginning to develop their own books of business. They receive one-on-one coaching and access to full-time and fractional professional personnel as they grow. After successfully completing the program and meeting the firm’s ownership requirements, Accelerators may become equity Principals of Dark Horse CPAs.

The Dark Horse Principal Accelerator Program is currently accepting new Accelerators. Interested CPAs can learn more at abetterway.cpa or by emailing info@darkhorse.cpa.

About Dark Horse CPAs

Dark Horse CPAs provides integrated tax, accounting and CFO services to small businesses and individuals across the United States. The firm was founded to give small businesses and their owners access to the tax strategies, accounting insight and client experience often reserved for larger companies. To learn more, visit darkhorse.cpa.

Justin Kurn
Dark Horse CPAs
justin@darkhorse.cpa
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