Erin Pohan Built WAVE-Seattle for Women in Accounting

A week after Erin Pohan hosted her second sold-out conference for women in accounting and finance, a photo from another industry event crossed her LinkedIn feed. It showed a panel on the fastest-growing accounting firms in the country, and every seat was filled by a man in a navy blazer and khaki pants. “It was that moment that it hit me, and I got really emotional,” she says. She knew that what she was building for women in the industry mattered.

Erin Pohan is the founder of Upkeeping, a Seattle-based bookkeeping firm supporting over 50 clients, and the creator of WAVE-Seattle, an in-person conference for women in accounting and finance. As a founding member of the Entreprenista League since 2021, Erin has spent the past five years growing a team, collaborating with other accountants, and speaking on conference stages. Then she decided to build a stage of her own.

“I’m actually making an impact in our industry to put women on the stage, women of all colors, and take up the space,” Erin says. “We’ve been fed a different idea of what success looks like.”

Here is what she has been building since first joining Entreprenista, and where WAVE-Seattle goes next.

Five years of building Upkeeping

“Five years ago, when I first joined the Entreprenista League, I was heads down building Upkeeping,” Erin says. The firm has grown into a team supporting around 50 clients each month, including several fellow Entreprenistas, with a mission to make accounting relevant and understandable.

Along the way, Erin began working with other accountants, creating spaces for collaborative conversations and speaking at accounting conferences. Then came the bigger swing. “This time last year, I decided to be very audacious and put on my own accounting conference.”

“What if we did something IRL in Seattle?”

WAVE-Seattle started on LinkedIn, where Erin had been posting consistently and building a following. She traces that habit to a single coffee date with fellow Entreprenista Natasha Walstra. “Just the 20 minutes of her time that she gave to me to help me with my LinkedIn presence changed everything for me,” she says.

Erin loved the in-real-life experience of accounting conferences, surrounded by people speaking her language, but attending meant expensive flights to Las Vegas or Florida. So she floated an idea to her feed. “I just threw it out there on LinkedIn: what if we did something in Seattle? And people were in. They were super supportive. They wanted to speak, attend, and sponsor.”

What carried her past all the reasons to wait? “A bit of naivety of what it actually takes to put on a conference,” she admits. “But I’m so glad that I went into it without stopping to think of all the reasons why I shouldn’t.”

The first WAVE-Seattle sold out all 65 tickets, with women flying in from 10 states and Canada. 10 of them were Entreprenistas, a mini Entreprenista league of accountants inside the room.

Over one hundred women accountants in the room

The second WAVE-Seattle landed on May 15, 2026 with more than 100 women in attendance. “I proved this year that it wasn’t just a fluke, it wasn’t just a one-off, that I can host really important, impactful conferences for women in accounting and finance,” Erin says.

The timing helped. The conference came right on the heels of Founders Weekend. “I feel so inspired, and it helped me feel really ready to host WAVE-Seattle.”

Even at a larger size, the event kept the intimacy that Erin considers the whole point. “There was a lot of chance for the conversations in between sessions that I argue are the most important parts of those in real life events,” she says. “Just getting to meet people maybe you’re following or maybe you didn’t even know existed and get just a little nugget of advice from them that you can take back, and it changes everything for you.”

The feedback poured in across LinkedIn and social media in the days that followed. Then came the panel photo, five matching blazers on one stage, and with it the confirmation of exactly what all of this work is for.

Who WAVE-Seattle is built for

WAVE-Seattle is designed for women who run accounting or bookkeeping firms or hold decision-making roles within them. But Erin’s ambition reaches well past the attendee list. The accounting industry is aging, retirements are outpacing the talent pipeline, and the dominant image of the profession, a tax accountant grinding through 60-hour weeks, does little to attract the next generation.

“If I can bring 100 or whatever number of women together and show the world that we’re accountants or we’re in finance and we can have fun and we can do our jobs really well and we can brainstorm and collaborate to help each other do our jobs better, the goal is that will attract more people and keep our industry really healthy and alive.”

Her message to the next generation

For young women entering the workforce or weighing a path into the field, Erin’s pitch is about ownership. “You get to define your own success in this industry. It is not cut and dry. It is not copy and paste of anyone else’s idea of success,” she says. “I recommend you continue to pursue education and find experience, but once you have both of those under your belt, you can make your life what you want it to be with the help of being an accountant. But it doesn’t have to be your entire life.”

And for anyone who has absorbed the old image of the industry, she offers a simple correction. “We are helping to erase that incorrect notion of what a successful accountant needs to look like.”

What’s next for WAVE-Seattle

Big congratulations are in order for Erin who has been accepted into a program that gives her dedicated space to build out her vision for WAVE-Seattle as a community: events in more cities, other women hosting them, and more in-real-life experiences for women in accounting and finance wherever they are.

“I know I have this potential, and how do I shape and mold it into the most far-reaching impact?” Erin says. “I just wanna do it right.”

Erin builds in public. Follow her on LinkedIn, find the next WAVE-Seattle event at waveseattle.com, and learn more about Upkeeping’s bookkeeping services at upkeeping.co.

If Erin’s approach to creating space for women in accounting and finance resonates, the Entreprenista League is a community of women founders who value connection, shared experience, and practical business insight as they grow. Learn more about the Entreprenista League right here.