This is a paid press release. Contact the press release distributor directly with any inquiries.
Twenty Years After an Attic Startup, TydeCo Brings “HR & Finance Walk Into a Bar” Home
After becoming a hit in Cape Town and Johannesburg, the event makes its US debut in Maryland with Sage on September 24
FREDERICK, Md., Sept. 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — In 2006, two college students started a bookkeeping practice from the attic of a rented house in Maryland. They had $1,500 in the bank and no clients, so they placed an advertisement on Craigslist. One of them was Matt Lescault, now CEO of TydeCo.
That practice became Lescault & Walderman, moved to a fully virtual model in 2010 and expanded from outsourced accounting into software implementation, integration and data.
Twenty years later, the company is TydeCo, operating in four countries with teams across 10 time zones.
This September, TydeCo will bring an idea shaped through that global growth back to the state where the business began. “HR & Finance Walk Into a Bar” makes its US debut September 24 after successful events in Cape Town and Johannesburg, with Sage joining TydeCo for the afternoon.
The complimentary event takes place from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Charley’s Chesapeake Chophouse, Rio Lakefront in Gaithersburg. Designed for finance, HR and payroll leaders, owners and senior decision makers, it combines business conversations with four courses, paired drinks and live magic woven into one continuous story.
The concept was influenced in part by what happens when people leave the structure of the working day. Although TydeCo has operated virtually since 2010, Director of Marketing, Becky Clawson and Lescault occasionally meet at Charley’s when a conversation needs more room than a scheduled video call allows.
“When you sit down at your desk, you are automatically thinking about emails and everything that needs to be checked off,” Clawson said. “When you step outside that environment and talk face to face, your mindset opens. The best conversations and brainstorms happen when you are no longer in that preprogrammed thought process.”
The name “HR & Finance Walk Into a Bar” borrows from one of comedy’s most recognizable setups. And TydeCo put HR and finance at the center because the two functions make decisions about the same organization while often working with different information and separate systems.
“When the right people are part of the conversation, the outcome is better because everyone hears it firsthand and creates the answer together,” Clawson said.
That idea carries through the format. Speakers from finance, HR and payroll share real business experiences, while food, drinks and live magic develop alongside the conversation.
