The seeds for Goran Gmitrovic’s (BUS ’12) career as an entrepreneur in accounting were sewn at DePaul — though he didn’t know it yet.  

“One of the biggest turning points for me was realizing I didn’t have to follow a traditional path,” he said. “I had some amazing professors at DePaul who showed me there are so many different types of outcomes for accounting — that it doesn’t have to look like sitting in a cubicle working on spreadsheets. That planted a mustard seed for me.”

Today, Gmitrovic is the founder of Outlook Tax & Advisory. The advisory and financial services firm, which began as Gmitrovic's side hustle after college, has burgeoned into an international operation with more than fifty employees across offices in the U.S., India, and Croatia. This fall, Gmitrovic was named by Crain’s Chicago Business to its list of notable leaders in accounting, consulting, and law.

Growing his business has challenged Gmitrovic in ways he didn’t expect.

“This is the greatest position I’ve ever had in my life,” he said. “And it’s also been the most challenging. Growing Outlook has required me to grow personally at every single stage of the process.”

Insight 1: Commit to the vision

Outlook began in 2014, as a way for Gmitrovic to earn extra income while he worked his way up the ranks — first at Accenture, and then at Ernst & Young and Deloitte. His work in consulting took him around the world, where he helped a wide variety of clients build out the accounting and financial infrastructure they needed to achieve their goals.  

His clients at Outlook, he realized, could benefit from a similar, full-service approach.  

“Outlook as it exists today was born with the recognition that a lot of growing businesses need more than just a tax return or a set of financial statements,” he said. “They need someone to advise them on how to utilize [those assets] appropriately. They need someone to help them understand their own situation as they grow."

In 2023, he decided to take Outlook full time.  

“I realized that if I truly believed in that vision,” he said, “then I needed to commit to it fully.”  

Insight 2: Keep growing as a leader

As Outlook grew, Gmitrovic realized that his approach to leadership would have to grow with it.  

“One day, I looked up and realized I was becoming a bottleneck,” he said. “I realized I couldn’t solve every problem personally anymore. I needed to build people, systems, and cultures that would solve problems for us. And that takes a lot of effort.”  

Gmitrovic learned from watching longtime clients grow. Back at Deloitte, his clients could afford to gamble on new verticals or offices abroad. With his clients at Outlook, these kinds of pivots could mean risking everything. That meant thorough research beforehand. It also meant being willing to be flexible with an organization’s structure and processes.

As Gmitrovic puts it: “It’s much easier to scale a company 10x than 2x. When you get to about the $1-2 million gross revenue range, you realize that the processes you built for success while you were still involved in day-to-day operations are going to make your company fail. You need to adjust — and you need to adjust quickly.”  

Insight 3: Keep relationships at the center 

As Gmitrovic looks back on his leadership journey thus far, the relationships are what stand out the most.  

“I didn’t realize the impact I’d have on people until I really got into this role,” he said. “I work with the greatest team I’ve ever had in my life. I have relationships with all of them — lifelong relationships. These are people who I invite to my house and break bread with.”  

“The people that I bring on,” he added, “I bring on with the intention that you’re going to be here until you retire.”  

As Outlook has gone international, it’s also given Gmitrovic a new way to connect with his heritage. He was born in Croatia; he and his parents were forced to flee from the wars that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, but he’s retained a strong connection to his culture and country, recently serving as president of the Chicago chapter of the Association of Croatian-American Professionals.  

Outlook’s new office in Croatia gives Gmitrovic another point of connection: another way in which his life can expand along with his business. As Outlook’s presence in Europe grows, Gmitrovic and his wife are building their “forever home” in the Croatian countryside.

For Gmitrovic, it’s all of a piece: heritage and leadership, entrepreneurship and relationships.

“I’m not here to get a winning lottery ticket,” he said. “I’m here to support my people to make sure that everybody has a steady place to grow. That’s the most exciting piece for me.”