Top Line Up 50%. Bottom Line Up 600%. Same Year.
Advent will finish the year up 50% on the top line. The bottom line moved further: operating income at about 16% of revenue, and a 600% increase in EBITDA over last year.
August 31, 2026
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1 min read
John Roberson, founder of Advent, opened a session by walking his leadership team and the room through the year the firm is about to close. Top line up 50%. That is the figure founders lead with, and it is the one the room expected.
Then he gave the second one. Operating income came in at roughly 16% of revenue, which is a 600% increase in EBITDA over the prior year.
Plenty of firms add half again to their revenue. Most hold margin flat while they do it, and a fair number quietly lose margin, because the new revenue arrives with new cost already attached to it: a salary, a tool, a subcontractor. Roberson grew revenue by half and multiplied profit several times over inside the same twelve months.
Two very different achievements in one sentence, and only one of them is hard.
Why it matters to you.
Growth is the number founders quote. Margin is the number that decides whether the growth was worth having. You can add half again to your revenue and finish the year with the same money in your own hands, because every new dollar showed up with something attached to it. So the comparison worth running is not this year's revenue against last year's revenue. It is the percentage change in your revenue against the percentage change in your profit. When profit moves faster, growth is compounding into something you own. When profit lags, you bought revenue.
“That'll be about a 16% of top line, that'll be a 600% increase over EBITDA. - John Roberson, founder, Advent”
Your one thing.
Put last year's revenue and EBITDA next to this year's and work out the percentage change in each. If profit grew slower than revenue, name the single cost line that absorbed the difference.
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