Practical Founders Podcast

Perry Rosenbloom moved to Boulder, Colorado in 2011 and started a small business offering digital marketing and custom website services. After building a website for his mother-in-law, an independent therapist, Perry created a scrappy subscription-based website builder platform to make websites for other behavioral health professionals.

The Brighter Vision company grew steadily and efficiently without big outside funding and eventually provided custom mobile-ready websites and marketing tools to over 4,000 therapists.

The company grew to 35 employees with an all-new website-building platform before being acquired by EverCommerce in 2020 for $17.5 million.

Gopal Krishnamurthy was an early BI and data analytics expert working for a large company when he left to start a BI consulting company called Visual BI in 2010. Visual BI grew to over 300 employees serving enterprise customers as an evangelist to push emerging Data & Analytics trends with SAP HANA, SAP Lumira, SAP Analytics Cloud, Snowflake, DBT, and Microsoft Power BI. They also created several add-on products, which Gopal and his partner Jay retained when he sold the Visual BI consulting company in 2021 to Atos.

Gopal and Jay now lead the growing team in Lumel, the leading provider of add-on products for the massive Microsoft Power BI ecosystem which was carved out from Visual BI. Lumel gets continuous growth funding with the proceeds of the sale of the services business, but the company is on track to be profitable by end of 2023 with almost 200 employees in the US and India. Lumel products (Inforiver, ValQ, and xViz) gaining momentum and adoption from numerous large enterprises worldwide, and their paying subscribers have crossed 2,000+ organizations already.

Gopal shares his transformational story of growing from technical employee to successful consulting company CEO to now product CEO. Gopal has been a pioneer in establishing the new software category of add-on solutions to existing BI platforms. He believes that in the coming years, customers will continue to gravitate towards consolidating and maximizing their cloud and BI investments vs. buying best-of-the-breed stand-alone software.

this episode, Gopal shares:

• How he grew a fast-growing consulting services business called Visual BI by serving large companies in the US using SAP software
• Why they started to build add-on products for the SAP Business Objects ecosystem, then invested in cloud-based add-on products for Microsoft PowerBI
• How they sold their consulting business to Atos in 2021 and kept their products to start Lumel
• How they are transitioning from a portfolio of point solution products to a family of integrated solutions for large enterprises
• Why Gopal doesn't think VC investment makes sense for Lumel even as they grow faster with marketing efforts, despite his big and bold vision that wouldn't be a good fit for "get big fast" VCs

Find out more at practicalfounders.com.

Matt Watson was a two-time software company with two successful exits before he was 40 years old. He started his first company, VinSolutions, in his basement in Kansas City in 2006. VinSolutions started by helping auto dealers upload photos of their cars to sell in the popular Autotrader catalog and website. Matt was the first developer and product visionary who lead a team that build their popular CRM and lead management system to help those dealers manage internet leads and sell cars faster.

Their revenue doubled every year as they grew to eventually serve thousands of auto dealers with their pioneering web-based software.VinSolutions didn't raise any venture capital or private equity investment as they grew to over 300 employees. In 2011, VinSolutions was acquired by Autotrader.com itself for a reported $150 million.

Matt started Stackify in 2012 as the CEO funding the startup with his own money. Stackify is a tool for software developers using cloud platforms to manage and optimize application performance, a problem Matt had experienced at VinSolutions. Stackify grew slowly and struggled at first before it grew steadily. Stackify was acquired by Netreo in 2021.

In this episode, Matt explains:

• How they started by taking photos of cars for auto dealers to sell those cars online, then bootstrapped a CRM software product to help dealers manage internet leads
• What it was like to be the CTO of a pioneer in web-based software with a recurring revenue business model back in 2008 when the auto industry was in a massive recession
• The benefits and drawbacks of growing a large vertical software company in Kansas City
• Why they tried to raise capital but started the process to sell the company instead
• Why Matt started a new company called Stackify as the CEO with a different customer focus, technology stack, and different sales model than his previous company
• Why did he self-funded Stackify and then raised venture debt as they grew, but didn't raise big VC funding
• What it is like to be a two-time founder of software companies with successful exits before he was 40 years old

Find out more at practicalfounders.com.

Deb Muller was an experienced HR executive at a large global company who left her job to start a consultancy specializing in managing important employee incident investigations. Surprisingly, her customers asked her for a software solution that included her best practices, so she mocked up some screens and had someone build the first version in 2009. She started selling it to fellow HR leaders and her software company HR Acuity was born.

Professional management of employee incident investigations was new when HR Acuity started, but there was no shortage of employee incidents to track, especially in larger companies with more than 1000 employees.

She and her team built a community of HR leaders and led the global discussion about proactive employee relations and transparent HR incident management. Big changes like #MeToo, DE&I awareness, and remote employment during COVID increased the awareness of these HR issues and the tools to manage them.

HR Acuity is now a fast-growing company with over 100 employees. Deb took a small angel investment from a friend a few years after starting the company. They grew mostly from revenues with no interest in any major funding until 2019, when HR Acuity took a growth equity investment from Growth Street Partners. In 2021, they took additional funding from K1 Investment Management. The company is still independent and growing steadily.

In this episode, Deb explains:

• How she started her company as a law firm providing employee incident investigation consulting for large companies, then slowly transitioned to being a software-only company.
• Why she grew their community of HR leaders at large companies with roundtable discussions to share ideas, processes, and approaches with each other.
• How she bootstrapped the company with customer sales revenue, but slowly learned that some appropriate funding could help the company grow faster without being crazy about it.
• What has changed in the employee-employer relationship in the last 15 years that has helped them grow
• What women founders should be thinking about when they are serious about creating change in the world with a software company

Find out more at practicalfounders.com.

Vivek Bhaskaran was a computer science student in college who worked on an online survey tool for a professor in the marketing department. After school, he built a new survey tool with a fellow software developer while they still held their day jobs. QuestionPro grew slowly and profitably with efficient search engine optimization and viral marketing, avoiding the need to raise any money from outside investors.

QuestionPro grew steadily by expanding the product with more powerful features for larger companies to sell larger deals that required regional enterprise salespeople. They also expanded regionally with offices in US, UK, Germany, Australia, and Latin America. Recently, they have acquired several companies with survey products used by large global companies that added to their customer base.

Vivek talks openly about their key inflection points in their journeys of revenue growth, global expansion, recruiting leadership talent, developing systems and processes, and expanding their product portfolio. QuestionPro has 300 employees with $35 million in revenue. Vivek is enjoying the learning and professional challenges of being the CEO of a software company that is growing to over $100 million in revenues.

In this episode, Vivek explains:

• How they grew fast and profitably in the early years with successful search marketing with a freemium survey tool product and chat sales support
• How his role changed at important revenue inflection points at $1 million revenue with scrappy founders, then stalling at $4 million, growing to $10 million with an organized team, and now to over $30 million with a global organization with systems and processes
• How they have grown with regional expansion with autonomous sales offices and multiple products including several acquired products
• Why he doesn't say they are a "US company" as they have fully remote employees around the world with no headquarters
• Why they charge an additional fee to big customers to develop new features that eventually enhance their core products

Find out more at practicalfounders.com.

Scott McCausland was an experienced software sales leader who decided to go out on his own in 2008 to build a new software business. His technical cofounder built the first version of their new software and Scott started selling it. MVP Systems Software was underway without any outside funding.

They kept adding name-brand customers who used their JAMS workload automation and scheduling software in their IT departments for a variety of scheduling and automation tasks that saved time and money. It was an unsexy but mission-critical software for their users. Their software grew more powerful and useful and they steadily added sales, development, and support staff.

The company grew to over $10 million in annual revenues with 70 employees in 4 global offices before being acquired in 2018 by Fortra (formerly Help Systems. Scott left Fortra in early 2020 and is now working on his next software company.

In this episode, Scott explains:

• Why they sold their product aggressively, but grew the business steadily and managed cash conservatively
• How they generously compensated salespeople and employees rather than give incentive stock options
• Why they decided to sell the company rather than raise funding or keep growing organically
• What it was like to join their acquiring company and be part of a much bigger team
• How he helps tech founders understand the basics of selling and what is needed to create an initial sales machine

Check out the details for this episode and find more Practical Founders Podcast episodes at practicalfounders.com.

Oliver Palmer helped start a mobile app development agency in Sydney, Australia that built simple apps for early mobile phones. When the iPhone launched, Tigerspike grew very fast by creating branded mobile apps for large companies with its high-end design and development services.

Tigerspike also created its own software product—a mobile application development platform with subscription fees—to try to transition into a product-based company to grow faster with VC funding. This was difficult as they prioritized their urgent custom software projects for big clients and chronically underfunded their software product development

Tigerspike eventually raised $11M of outside funding from strategic partners and kept growing. The software platform also grew, but Tigerspike never made the full transition to a product-first software company. They sold the company in 2017 for $85 million. Oliver is open about their vision and their challenges as they grew Tigerspike into a large and successful global company.

In this episode, Oliver explains:

• How their mobile app design and development agency grew into a large global provider serving large companies
• Why they created a SaaS software platform product to grow faster and make their company more valuable
• How they struggled to invest in and grow their software app with their "addiction" to services revenue and custom development
• How potential VC investors viewed their services and product revenue streams
• How they sold the company and what it felt like for founders to make that transition
• What he's working on now to help practically-funded software startup founders in Australia and Southeast Asia

Find more episodes of the Practical Founders Podcast at practicalfounders.com.

Sandeep Kumar quit his job working for an Indian consulting company to start a software company in 2005 when product-focused startups were not common in India. For the next 10 years, they experimented with product features and customer profiles until they finally found an important buyer with budget power who needed their must-have software.

ProductDossier is now a comprehensive platform for enterprise consulting and IT services companies in India to manage project financials, project resources, and new opportunities in one system. Over 50 large consulting companies in India use ProductDossier to manage their global project portfolios to ensure high-quality and profitable project delivery.

The company has 100 employees and is growing steadily without any outside funding. Sandeep shares the important lessons he learned in his 15-year journey about product-market fit, building trust with big Indian customers, developing a great organization, and thinking big.

In this episode, Sandeep explains:

• What it was like to create a startup software company in India 15 years ago when it wasn't common to create product-focused software companies there
• The critical product-market fit lessons learned to eventually build a must-have software for buyers with decision-making power in a specific industry
• How their vertical focus and product feature depth enabled them to sell to their first large enterprise companies as a small startup
• What's happening in the SaaS startup scene in India right now and how startups are perceived there
• The advantages of not having big outside funding too early, include strategic flexibility, attracting the right talent, and patient growth
• How he defines work-life balance and how he manages time with his family

Read the full interview transcript and check out other interviews at practicalfounders.com.

Sarah Hum studied graphic design at university before she discovered she loved to help software startups create new products. She moved to Silicon Valley to work at Facebook as a product designer, but a side project helped her find a problem she wanted to solve. So she quit her job and built an initial software product called Canny with her technical cofounder while traveling the world together as nomading entrepreneurs. Within a year, Canny created enough revenue for them to live and travel frugally.

Canny is a customer feedback management software for product managers at SaaS companies to collect useful product feedback inside their products, then prioritize requests and communicate with customers about their requested features. The Canny product has evolved quickly using its own product to engage with customers and make decisions about the next product features and improvements.

Canny is growing steadily with over $3 million in annual recurring revenue and 13 remote employees. They continue to experiment with substantial pricing experiments for different customer segments. Sarah openly blogs about the ups and downs of their startup journey and their unique approaches to hiring, designing, and testing new tactics.

Mark Abbott was an active investor and board member for 20 years when he realized that most of the 100+ companies he helped were not good a their "business fundamentals." The fundamentals of setting long-term goals, making short-term plans, and then aligning teams and individuals to make efficient progress. He thought of writing a book but discovered the book "Traction" by Gino Wickman and his branded EOS® (Entrepreneurial Operating System) system.

Mark worked with his cofounders in 2016 to create a software platform that aligned with the principles and processes of EOS and other "Business Operating Systems." Soon Ninety.io (now just Ninety) was a popular software used by EOS coaches and business consultants. They licensed the branded terminology from EOS Worldwide, which presented both opportunities and challenges.

The company grew steadily, funded by revenues until Ninety had over a thousand customers and more than 50 employees. In 2021, Mark talked to just one tier 1 venture capital firm, Insight Partners, and then raised $20 million in growth capital from them. Mark and the Ninety team have a big vision to change the way businesses grow and thrive.

In this episode, Mark explains:

• How he discovered the need to manage business fundamentals better as an investor in 100+ companies
• Why he decided to license the EOS-branded terminology and name to get the company started
• The pluses and minuses of partnering with a branded methodology provider
• How they used Ninety software to grow faster and be ready for a major venture investment round
• Why Mark still participates in CEO peer groups and coaches other leaders in his "spare time"
• Why he decided to raise $20M in capital from a Tier 1 venture fund in 2021
• What are the "business fundamentals" that Ninety leverages to accelerate growth

Read the full interview transcript and find more episodes at practicalfounders.com.