Practical Founders Podcast

Sharon Nouh built ProSpend, a spend management SaaS platform for mid-market companies, after seeing firsthand how broken expense processes were in corporate travel. Starting with an expense tool, focused on her home market in Australia, she bootstrapped the company and landed a global enterprise as her first customer with a simple but powerful product vision.
Over 10 years, she expanded ProSpend into a full spend management system covering expenses, accounts payable, purchase orders, and budgets. The company grew to about 1,000 customers and 50 employees, with annual contracts ranging from roughly $15K to $40K, driven by strong mid-market focus and channel partnerships.  
In 2025 Sharon sold ProSpend to ISH (Invincible Software Holdings), a strategic acquirer. She still runs ProSpend but can now accelerate expansion into the UK. After years of staying independent, she chose a acquisition partner over VC funding to maintain control and execute her long-term vision, showing how a sale can be a strategic move—not an endpoint.
Key Takeaways
Bootstrap Reality — It took five to six years before taking meaningful income, with constant cash flow pressure early on.
Product Expansion — Growth came from adding adjacent modules CFOs needed, not chasing unrelated features or markets.
Channel Leverage — Partnering with MYOB and resellers now drives about 50% of new customers efficiently.
Control Matters — Avoiding VC preserved full control over timing and terms of exit decisions.
Quote from Sharon Nouh, CEO and Founder of ProSpend
"A couple of years ago, one of the visions that I had for ProSpend was to expand from Australia into the UK. The UK was always going to be the market that we wanted to move into, rather than the US, because it's a very aligned, very similar market. 
"And also because one of our competitors, WebExpenses, had been bought and sold about four times, and they were the incumbent in the UK. They were suffering. They hadn't been developing their product. There was a real gap for us to go into the UK and start picking up the mid-market there. 
"So the question was, do I get VC funding, even though we've always been bootstrapped. Or do I look for an acquiring partner, somebody from the UK who could take us in there with boots on the ground and market intelligence? And I chose the latter and sold the business that I still run."
Links
Sharon Nouh on LinkedIn
ProSpend on LinkedIn
ProSpend website
ISH website

Podcast Sponsor – Full Scale
This podcast is sponsored by Full Scale, one of the fastest-growing software development companies in any region. Full Scale vets, employs, and supports over 300 professional developers, designers, and testers in the Philippines who can augment and extend your core dev team. Learn more at fullscale.io.
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.
Practical Founders CEO Peer Groups
Be part of a committed and confidential group of practical founders creating valuable software companies without big VC funding.  A Practical Founders Peer Group is a committed and confidential group of founders/CEOs who want to help you succeed on your terms. Each Practical Founders Peer Group is personally curated and moderated by Greg Head.

Perry Rosenbloom, founder of LaunchBay, previously built and sold Brighter Vision before starting his second SaaS company focused on onboarding. After running hundreds of onboarding processes per month, he saw a consistent problem: what happens after the sale is messy, manual, and often ignored.
LaunchBay helps SaaS and professional services teams manage customer onboarding with structured workflows, shared client portals, and automation. The company has grown past $1M in ARR, doubling in 2025, with a focused approach on helping teams reduce onboarding time from 60–90 days to significantly faster activation.
Perry shares practical lessons on onboarding as a core growth lever—not just an operational task. He explains why onboarding debt compounds, why charging for implementation improves outcomes, and how better onboarding drives retention, expansion, and long-term revenue quality.
Key Takeaways
Onboarding Debt Compounds - Most SaaS companies duct-tape onboarding early, but delays, inefficiencies, and churn risks compound quickly as sales scale.
Activation Matters More - The real bottom of funnel isn't closed-won deals—it's when customers actually reach value and start using the product.
Stop The Chase - Much of onboarding is manual follow-ups and coordination; removing this admin work unlocks higher-leverage customer success teams.
Charge For Setup - Charging for onboarding improves completion rates, sets expectations, and ensures customers have real skin in the game.
Segment The Process - Treating all customers the same breaks onboarding—different tiers and workflows are required for different customer types.
Visibility Is Critical - Without clear visibility into onboarding progress and bottlenecks, problems are only discovered after deals are already at risk.
Quote from Perry Rosenbloom, Founder of LaunchBay
"There's only so long that you can duct tape a process like onboarding new customers, with just hustle to make it work. A lot of companies are using Google Docs, shared Slack spaces, shared spreadsheets, and it almost works, until it doesn't. And the biggest mistake is continuing to let it not work.
"When you're founder-led and you are doing one to three implementations a month, you can get by without a dedicated tool for that. It's not going to be the best customer experience, but you can get by without a tool for that.
"But when you want to start scaling, you need to build out repeatable processes that can enable every single customer to have a phenomenal experience that is consistent, that is unified and that delivers value. 

"That's when you start looking for a specialized solution to solve those problems and don't build up more onboarding debt. Onboarding debt is real and early-stage SaaS companies in their processes and customer experiences."
Links
Perry Rosenbloom on LinkedIn
LaunchBay on LinkedIn
LaunchBay website
Free ebook: The Paid Implementation PlaybookROI calculator: Implementation margins

Podcast Sponsor – LaunchBay
LaunchBay helps B2B software companies automate client onboarding and implementation so customers activate faster and everyone stays aligned.
If your onboarding includes data collection, setup steps, approvals, training, or any level of customization, LaunchBay replaces the messy mix of emails, spreadsheets, and meetings with a clear, all-in-one onboarding system.
Teams use LaunchBay to onboard clients faster, stay on top of follow-ups automatically, and deliver a smoother experience, without hiring more people or adding more tools.
Visit launchbay.com/practical and get 25% off your first 3 months on any LaunchBay plan.
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.
Practical Founders CEO Peer Groups
Be part of a committed and confidential group of practical founders creating valuable software companies without big VC funding.  A Practical Founders Peer Group is a committed and confidential group of founders/CEOs who want to help you succeed on your terms. Each Practical Founders Peer Group is personally curated and moderated by Greg Head.

Dina Nagalla built EmpowerMX over more than a decade to digitize aircraft maintenance for major airlines like American, Southwest, and United. Starting from deep domain experience inside aviation IT, he tackled a complex, high-stakes problem—replacing paper-based processes with a full execution system that improves efficiency and compliance. 
The company grew into a mid–double digit SaaS business serving global airlines with contracts ranging from hundreds of thousands to several million dollars annually. With a lean early team and offshore development, EmpowerMX delivered measurable ROI—often saving customers 10% or more on maintenance operations—while expanding globally with growth equity support. 
After surviving COVID (when revenue briefly dropped near zero) and accelerating post-pandemic digitization, Dina sold the company to IFS. He chose to exit not out of necessity, but to pursue a new purpose—now building multiple AI-driven products focused on improving human outcomes like mental health and education. 
Key Takeaways
Vertical Expertise Wins: Deep domain knowledge created credibility and trust—critical for selling into conservative, high-risk enterprise environments.
Start Small, Scale Smart: Initial product built with ~12 people, proving capital efficiency can solve very large industry problems.
ROI Sells Enterprise: Clear financial impact (10%+ cost savings) overcame skepticism and justified multi-million dollar contracts.
Trust Over Features: Adoption depended more on frontline trust than functionality—especially replacing paper and manual workflows.
Purpose Drives Exit: Founder sold from a position of strength, driven by personal direction—not investor pressure or company distress.
Quote from Dinakara Nagalla, President and CEO of EmpowerMX
"Why did I sell the company when it was doing well? Life happens, you know. Primarily it was a desire driven by me that I want to do something different. So do I look back and think about it? Yes, I do. 
"It's just that my purpose in life kind of switched. I wanted to do more meaningful things. I wanted to do more things. We were extremely profitable the year we sold and my equity partners were really happy with how things were going.

"When I exited I moved right into building new products with new teams. So I didn't like take a step back and said I need a week of break. I think I had better vacations with my family when I was still running the company. Right now I'm doing, I get up at three o'clock in the morning. I work till four in the evening.
"You know, there is always this thing I hear from people all the time in my last 27 years of being in US: If you like what you do, you're not working another day. I think that is true in my case. I truly love what I do. Even when it's hard."
Links
Dinakara Nagalla on LinkedIn
EmpowerMX on LinkedIn
EmpowerMX Website
IFS website

Podcast Sponsor – Lighter Capital
This podcast is sponsored by Lighter Capital.
In the last 15 years, Lighter Capital has helped over 600 software and SaaS founders secure simple, non-dilutive financing to grow a little faster—without giving up any precious equity or board seats to investors. 
Simple debt funding from Lighter Capital can range from $50K to $10 million, with straightforward terms, no personal guarantees or covenants, and up to a 4-year payback period.
Go to LighterCapital.com to apply and get a quick pre-qualification. Then talk with their experienced team to create a practical funding plan to achieve your goals. 
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.
Practical Founders CEO Peer Groups
Be part of a committed and confidential group of practical founders creating valuable software companies without big VC funding.  A Practical Founders Peer Group is a committed and confidential group of founders/CEOs who want to help you succeed on your terms. Each Practical Founders Peer Group is personally curated and moderated by Greg Head.

Chad Ingram is the founder of Distro, an AI recruiting software company that helps mid-market and enterprise companies automate candidate screening, vetting, ranking, and scheduling. He previously built Jump, a venture-backed customer engagement software company, through a stressful growth and sale process that taught him painful lessons about fundraising, control, and acquisition pressure.   
Distro started as a marketplace to help companies hire software engineers globally, then evolved into an AI-first recruiting platform that integrates with applicant tracking systems and helps recruiters handle far more open roles. When Chad sold the company, 
Distro had 14 employees and about $3.5M ARR, with revenue shifting from marketplace margins toward SaaS subscription and consumption-based contracts.  Distro was acquired by Vensure Employer Solutions, a large private HR platform company that wanted Distro both for its own recruiting needs and for its 161,000 customers. 
Chad explains why strategic buyers cared more about healthy financials than SaaS vanity metrics, why he said no to the first offer, what he learned from selling Jump too early, and why a daily cash flow forecast gave him the freedom to choose instead of react.
Key Takeaways
First Offers are not always the right offers, and founders with real options can politely say no and keep building.
Manual First is often the smartest way to start, proving demand with spreadsheets, email, and humans before writing software.
Product Evolution happened by following customer demand, turning a hiring marketplace into an AI recruiting SaaS platform.
Cash Visibility gave Chad optionality, because daily cash flow tracking removed surprises and helped him make harder decisions earlier. 
Quote from Chad Ingram, founder of Distro
"You gotta know your numbers in detail. There are so many founders who don't know their freaking numbers. How do you not know your numbers? You just hope it all works itself out in six months? That's not how it works. You will go out of business. 
"I learned how to do a daily cash flow forecast when we started my 2nd company, Distro. And I've been running one every day. That might seem a little too microscopic for many, but guess what? There's no freaking surprises. 
"I could tell you nine months from now, the day that we would go out of business if we didn't have enough cash, unless there was some change. It's a lot less stressful knowing the facts. When you know the facts, you can make things happen. You don't have to sit and wonder and hope it works out.
"I don't care if you have zero mathematical aptitude or your background is sales or something else. You have to know the basics of accounting. If you don't, you are at a huge, huge disadvantage, especially when you go to sell."
Links
Chad Ingram on LinkedIn
Distro on LinkedIn
Distro website
Vensure Employer Solutions website

Podcast Sponsor – Full Scale
This podcast is sponsored by Full Scale, one of the fastest-growing software development companies in any region. Full Scale vets, employs, and supports over 300 professional developers, designers, and testers in the Philippines who can augment and extend your core dev team. Learn more at fullscale.io.
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.
Practical Founders CEO Peer Groups
Be part of a committed and confidential group of practical founders creating valuable software companies without big VC funding.  A Practical Founders Peer Group is a committed and confidential group of founders/CEOs who want to help you succeed on your terms. Each Practical Founders Peer Group is personally curated and moderated by Greg Head.

Joseph Lee is the co-founder and CEO of Supademo, a fast-growing SaaS company solving a common pain: quickly creating new product demos. In just two and a half years, they built a modern, AI-powered solution that dramatically simplifies how teams showcase software.
Supademo has reached $3M ARR in 2.5 years and is growing more than 100% annually with a freemium model. The product enables teams to create interactive, annotated, and even translated demos in minutes instead of days or weeks. The freemium model, reverse trial onboarding, and viral product loops have driven strong PLG growth, while enterprise demand is now emerging as a second growth engine.
Joseph is a second-time founder with global experience from Korea to Vancouver to New York. He's raised a small amount of capital but is focused on practical execution. His approach reflects tghe broader shift of using AI to solve real workflow bottlenecks and grow efficiently without heavy funding.
Key Takeaways
Speed Wins - Reducing demo creation from weeks to minutes unlocks more usage, faster iteration, and better customer understanding
Do The Work - Early traction came from building demos for prospects manually, removing friction and proving value instantly
Reverse Trials - With free plans drive high conversion by letting users experience full value before choosing a plan
PLG + Enterprise - Bottom-up growth creates stability, while enterprise deals add larger revenue but less predictability
Constant Reinvention - Product-market fit is temporary in AI—founders must ship fast, iterate weekly, and stay paranoid
Quote from Joseph Lee, Co-founder and CEO of Supademo
"There's no bread and butter GTM channel that is going to work permanently into the future. And the biggest learning that I took away was product market fit nowadays has a finite stamp when it comes to a period of time that it's valid for. 
"You have to constantly reinvent yourself and be paranoid, because the market is changing, new competition is coming, and the dynamics are changing. You can't rest on your laurels, you got to be constantly innovating, like at a faster pace than ever before.
"Our team competitive advantage is the ability to move quickly and ship quickly. It's combining gut based on our intel and context of the industry and tribal knowledge with some data to act faster than anyone else. Not analysis paralysis or having everything planned out. Just shipping something that may be imperfect, but using that as leverage to learn quickly and iterate quickly."
Links
Joseph Lee on LinkedIn
Supademo on LinkedIn
Supademo website

Podcast Sponsor – LaunchBay
LaunchBay helps B2B software companies automate client onboarding and implementation so customers activate faster and everyone stays aligned.
If your onboarding includes data collection, setup steps, approvals, training, or any level of customization, LaunchBay replaces the messy mix of emails, spreadsheets, and meetings with a clear, all-in-one onboarding system.
Teams use LaunchBay to onboard clients faster, stay on top of follow-ups automatically, and deliver a smoother experience, without hiring more people or adding more tools.
Visit launchbay.com/practical and get 25% off your first 3 months on any LaunchBay plan.
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.
Practical Founders CEO Peer Groups
Be part of a committed and confidential group of practical founders creating valuable software companies without big VC funding.  A Practical Founders Peer Group is a committed and confidential group of founders/CEOs who want to help you succeed on your terms. Each Practical Founders Peer Group is personally curated and moderated by Greg Head.