Richard Roppa-Roberts: Collaboration Over Competition | The Disruptors

Find your community; find your people.

The Disruptors

With Liz Farr

Richard Roppa-Roberts created Roundtable Labs by accident.

He had just started his consulting firm, Quasar Cowboy, “and I had one spot available for a new client, and I had nine prospects, and I didn't know what to do,” Roppa-Roberts explains. “I was new at this whole thing, and I'm like, Well, I'm gonna put them all in a room together and see what shakes out. And what shook out was the first cohort of Roundtable Labs.”

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That spontaneous decision evolved into a thriving community of more than 300 members that’s been running for more than 11 years. Roppa-Roberts positions himself not as the expert but as what he calls "the keeper of the circus."

Roundtable Labs is a place where accountants and bookkeepers can talk to others and find practical solutions to their problems, where they can discover they’re “not the only one” with a particular problem. “There's a lot of what I call talking heads that are out there espousing this is the way to do it,” Roppa-Roberts notes. Surrounded by often conflicting information and struggling to implement new ideas, Roundtable Labs members share what’s worked for them and collaborate to find workable solutions. Roppa-Roberts observes that “almost all discussions lead to pricing, contracts, and confidence.”