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#143: From Professional Services to a $30M SaaS Business with a PE Acquisition - Sean Hoban
Sean Hoban was co-founder and former CEO of Kimble Applications, a leading professional services automation (PSA) software for organizations to manage their professional services business's entire operational and financial lifecycle. Sean and his co-founders had already started, grown, and sold a pro services organization before creating a PSA product and building a SaaS business.
With a little funding from the founders and a few angel investors, Kimble started efficiently and grew steadily, eventually raising a practical minority funding round from private equity investors Accel-KKR in 2018. The company grew to $30M ARR before selling most of the company to Accel-KKR in 2021, which merged two PSA companies to create Kontata.
In this episode, Sean discusses some of their deepest strategic opportunities:
- Learning to grow a SaaS business versus a professional services organization
- Building on the Salesforce platform and working in that ecosystem
- Starting in the UK and expanding to Germany and the US
Quote from Sean Hoban, former CEO and co-founder of Kimble Applications
“One of the most powerful ways I learned as a CEO is to find and talk to other founders in London who were in a similar situation. We would meet for beers, share ideas, and chat on WhatsApp.
“If you have a specific problem, it was valuable to talk to other founders in the same growth stage. And these were founders, not hired CEOs.
“It's a lonely job as a CEO. And being able to talk to somebody else who is in a similar position can be cathartic and very helpful.”
Links
- Sean Hoban on LinkedIn
- Kantata on LinkedIn
- Kantata SX (formerly Kimble Applications) website
- Accel-KKR website
The Practical Founders Podcast
Tune into the Practical Founders Podcast for weekly in-depth interviews with founders who have built valuable software companies without big funding. Subscribe to the Practical Founders Podcast using your favorite podcast app or view on our YouTube channel.
Get the weekly Practical Founders newsletter and podcast updates at practicalfounders.com.
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By Greg Head
5
2626 ratings
Sean Hoban was co-founder and former CEO of Kimble Applications, a leading professional services automation (PSA) software for organizations to manage their professional services business's entire operational and financial lifecycle. Sean and his co-founders had already started, grown, and sold a pro services organization before creating a PSA product and building a SaaS business.
With a little funding from the founders and a few angel investors, Kimble started efficiently and grew steadily, eventually raising a practical minority funding round from private equity investors Accel-KKR in 2018. The company grew to $30M ARR before selling most of the company to Accel-KKR in 2021, which merged two PSA companies to create Kontata.
In this episode, Sean discusses some of their deepest strategic opportunities:
- Learning to grow a SaaS business versus a professional services organization
- Building on the Salesforce platform and working in that ecosystem
- Starting in the UK and expanding to Germany and the US
Quote from Sean Hoban, former CEO and co-founder of Kimble Applications
“One of the most powerful ways I learned as a CEO is to find and talk to other founders in London who were in a similar situation. We would meet for beers, share ideas, and chat on WhatsApp.
“If you have a specific problem, it was valuable to talk to other founders in the same growth stage. And these were founders, not hired CEOs.
“It's a lonely job as a CEO. And being able to talk to somebody else who is in a similar position can be cathartic and very helpful.”
Links
- Sean Hoban on LinkedIn
- Kantata on LinkedIn
- Kantata SX (formerly Kimble Applications) website
- Accel-KKR website
The Practical Founders Podcast
Tune into the Practical Founders Podcast for weekly in-depth interviews with founders who have built valuable software companies without big funding. Subscribe to the Practical Founders Podcast using your favorite podcast app or view on our YouTube channel.
Get the weekly Practical Founders newsletter and podcast updates at practicalfounders.com.
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