Top Founders

By Nathan Latka

What if you knew data behind the fastest growing SaaS companies today? Each morning join Nathan Latka as he spends 15 minutes interviewing SaaS founders. You'll learn how SaaS CEO's launched their st... more

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The podcast currently has 3,102 episodes available.

Best of Top Founders

The most played episodes among Podcast App listeners.

Number 1: How Does Laundry Software Make $60M a Year?
At 23, Alex Jekowsky started building Cents, an all-in-one software, hardware, and payments platform for laundromats, dry cleaners, and shared laundry rooms. In 2025, Cents generated $60 million in revenue, up 67%, with just 80 employees and EBITDA margins above 20%. The company now has 99% customer retention, powers laundry rooms in nearly 7,000 apartment buildings, and recently raised a $140 million Series C at an approximately $800 million valuation. In this episode, Alex reveals: • How Cents grew from $700,000 to $60 million in four years • Why its first customer was a 73-location laundry operator • How Cents combines software, payments, and custom-built hardware • Why the company generates roughly $750,000 in revenue per employee • How Cents maintains 99% customer retention • Why Alex acquired a hardware company instead of continuing to build everything internally • How the $140 million financing included a $30 million employee tender • Why founders should avoid raising at valuations that eliminate future options • How Alex plans to turn an overlooked industry into a multibillion-dollar company
September 17, 202618min
Number 2: Golf Genius: $53M ARR, $10M Self-Funded, Zero VC — Mike Zisman
How do you build a $53M ARR software company, stay profitable for eight straight years, and give 60% of the cap table to your employees — without ever taking a venture check? Mike Zisman is the founder and CEO of Golf Genius, the dominant tournament management and handicapping platform for golf clubs worldwide. He self-funded $10M of his own money as interest-free debt, did 10 acquisitions before hitting $60M in revenue, and today sits on $14M cash while printing 20% EBITDA margins with 300 employees across the US and Cluj, Romania. You'll learn: Why Mike structured his entire $10M founder investment as debt instead of equity — and how it created a tax shield that paid him back on the way out How the USGA handicapping contract in 2019 transformed Golf Genius from a niche club tool into the infrastructure layer of global golf How Golf Genius went from $0 to $1M ARR in 8 years, then from $1M to $53M in the next 8 — and what the USGA relationship had to do with the inflection point Why 50% of his 300-person team are engineers based in Cluj, Romania — and how that structural cost advantage funds 20% EBITDA while competitors burn cash The exact three-phase acquisition strategy: legacy desktop customer rollups, league expansion, then B2C mobile apps with 8M+ users How Mike negotiated the GolfShot acquisition — and why he forced their entire cap table behind a single LLC before closing Why employees own 60% of the cap table at $53M ARR and how that drives 6-7% annual attrition across the entire company including Romania What Mike would say if a PE firm offered $400M all cash today — and why he says he's more excited about what's next than he's been in years Why he thinks AI will make SaaS companies radically more productive, not obsolete — from a founder whose doctoral thesis in 1977 was already on artificial intelligence The rule of 40 reality at $53M ARR: why growth slows as companies scale and what Mike does to stay above the 10% industry average Connect: YouTube: youtube.com/@NathanLatkawatch Golf Genius: golfgenius.com Founderpath: founderpath.com
June 03, 202619min
Number 3: From $187M Ecommerce to $5M ARR SaaS: Spresso's Post-Bankruptcy Pivot to Enterprise Software | Jared Yaman
How do you turn a failed public ecommerce company into a $5M ARR enterprise SaaS platform serving ~$2M+ contracts — while rebuilding with capital efficiency after bankruptcy and avoiding the growth-at-all-costs playbook? In this episode, Nathan sits down with Jared Yaman, co-founder of Spresso and former founder of Boxed, the bulk ecommerce company that scaled to $187M in revenue before its IPO and eventual Chapter 11 restructuring. Today, Jared leads Spresso, the enterprise ecommerce software platform spun out of Boxed, now serving roughly 15 enterprise customers worldwide and growing ARR from $2.5M at spinout in 2023 to about $5M in 2025 through large ACV enterprise contracts. What makes this story interesting is the transition from low-margin ecommerce operations to high-margin enterprise SaaS. Boxed generated hundreds of millions in revenue but operated on ~4–5% contribution margins. Spresso keeps the infrastructure, data, and enterprise relationships — but monetizes them through implementation fees and modular SaaS subscriptions, fundamentally changing the economics. You'll learn: - Why scaling revenue without contribution margin destroys optionality, even at $100M+ revenue - How enterprise implementation fees subsidize onboarding costs and accelerate payback periods - The pricing structure behind $2M+ enterprise contracts in ecommerce infrastructure - Why founder-led sales and existing network relationships became the primary GTM channel post-spinout - How to reposition operational technology into a standalone SaaS category buyers understand - The debt strategy Spresso uses to keep leverage under 10% of ARR - Lessons from raising $380M in venture capital and ending with low single-digit founder ownership - How reducing deployment timelines from 4 months to 4 weeks unlocked enterprise expansion - Why enterprise SaaS growth favors fewer customers with large ACVs over broad SMB distribution - The strategic shift from retail unit economics to recurring software margins Jared previously co-founded Boxed, raising roughly $380M before taking the company public, where founder ownership diluted to about 2.6%. After Boxed filed for Chapter 11 in April 2023, he helped spin out the software platform into Spresso with debt financing support, rebuilding the business around sustainable SaaS economics instead of venture-funded retail growth. This episode is for founders navigating pivots, operators moving from services or commerce into SaaS, and investors studying capital efficiency in enterprise software. It's a masterclass in restructuring strategy, enterprise pricing, and rebuilding a company around durable margins instead of headline revenue. Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/vslJtgAtjuY Connect with Jared: https://www.spresso.ai/ Connect with Nathan: FounderPath.com
February 26, 202629min
Number 4: He Turned Pickleball Software into a $3M/yr SaaS
How do you turn a niche offline sports business into $3M in contracted ARR across 200 locations, while raising $8M and keeping pricing simple on a per-unit basis? Ben Borton is the Co-Founder of PodPlay Technologies, a vertical SaaS platform powering pickleball and racquet sport venues. What started as internal software for his own ping pong spaces is now a $3M contracted ARR business serving 200 locations and roughly 2,000 courts, with ACVs ranging from $10k–$15k and an $8M Series A completed in 2025. This business is interesting because it didn't start as software. Ben built PodPlay to solve utilization and operations inside his own physical venues, where courts generated $30 per hour at 70% utilization. The SaaS product is now growing faster than the brick-and-mortar business — proving that real-world operational pain can be the most durable GTM wedge in vertical software. You'll learn: — How Ben validated the SaaS by first using it inside a venue doing $100k–$400k in annual revenue — The exact per-court pricing model and why ACVs land between $10k–$15k for larger operators — How software-only contracts at $2k–$6k expand into $10k+ hardware-inclusive deals — Why 70% court utilization at $30/hour created the margin profile to fund early product development — How founder-led sales drove growth from first external customers in 2023 to $3M contracted ARR — The GTM motion behind signing 200 locations without a traditional enterprise sales team — How viral video sharing from players became an organic acquisition channel for physical venues — Why vertical SaaS embedded in real-world workflows wins over generic booking tools — How spinning out the software into a separate entity unlocked an $8M Series A — What operators should consider before raising capital versus compounding through cash flow Ben's background spans fintech, hedge funds managing $300M AUM, and early-stage investing before launching his own venues in 2020. He opened PingPod during COVID, optimized for utilization and unit economics, and then spun out the internal software into PodPlay once external demand became clear. The capital raise was deliberate: sell 13–18%, accelerate distribution, and double down on category leadership. This episode is for founders building vertical SaaS, operators sitting on proprietary workflow data, and investors looking for software businesses born out of real revenue. If you're thinking about pricing per unit, founder-led GTM, or when to separate software from services, this is a masterclass in capital-efficient category creation. • Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB8bmy8LylI • Connect with Ben: https://podplay.app/ • Connect with Nathan: FounderPath.com
February 18, 202626min
Number 5: Bootstrapping to $50M ARR in Vertical SaaS | Vantaca's HOA Software Playbook
How do you build a vertical SaaS company to ~$50M ARR serving 6M homes — after bootstrapping to $5–10M without outside capital — and then 10x with a minority PE round instead of giving up control? Ben Currin is the CEO of Vantaca, a vertical SaaS platform powering community association management companies. Since launching in 2018, Vantaca has grown to ~500 customers managing 50,000 communities and 6M homes, scaling from low six figures in 2018 to ~$1M in 2019, $5–10M by 2022, and roughly 10x revenue since taking minority investment. This is not a trendy market. HOA management is fragmented, operationally complex, and historically under-served by modern software. Vantaca didn't win with viral PLG or heavy paid acquisition. They went top-down enterprise, priced per door, embedded payments and treasury, and built the general ledger system of record for an entire industry. You'll learn: — How to identify "sneaky big" vertical SaaS markets hiding in unsexy industries. — Why per-door pricing became the north star metric and expansion lever. — How to sell top-down into large management companies instead of bottom-up homeowners. — How Vantaca expanded from pure SaaS into payments, treasury, and vendor monetization. — What capital efficiency looked like in practice during the first five years. — The signal that shifted them from capital efficient to capital constrained. — How to structure a minority PE deal with primary and secondary capital. — Why retaining majority ownership mattered before a potential 5–10x growth phase. — How acquiring a YC-backed AI company accelerated product roadmap and attach rates. — How embedding agentic AI into billing, support, and operations increases platform stickiness. Ben joined Vantaca in 2018 alongside founder Dave Sawyer, who originally built the software inside his own HOA management business. Neither came from venture-backed SaaS. They bootstrapped for five years, reinvested profits, crossed $1M ARR in year two, reached high single-digit millions by 2022, and only then brought in JMI Equity for a minority investment to accelerate growth. A second minority recap followed, preserving control while funding expansion. If you're a founder building in vertical SaaS, considering minority growth capital, or thinking about embedding fintech and AI into your core product, this episode is a masterclass in disciplined scaling inside a niche market. Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckRiL_bFK_w Connect with Ben: https://www.vantaca.com/ Connect with Nathan: FounderPath.com
February 12, 202623min