They Got Acquired - Laser-focused

January 24, 2023
​Read on web​

Some founders are set on exiting when they sell their business.

The founders in today's story wanted the opposite for themselves and their team: they insisted on staying with the new company when they sold.

That company was WorkTango, a SaaS in the human resources space that helps employers collect employee feedback and pull out actionable insights.

It was created in 2015 by three co-founders: Rob Catalano, Nadir Ebrahim and Bjarke Jungberg Grouleff, two of whom had worked together previously at another employee performance company.

Over seven years, Toronto-based WorkTango grew to 300 customers and 30 employees with no outside investment.

“Being completely bootstrapped in a competitive space was challenging,” Catalano said. “We overcame it by being scrappy and laser-focused on what we did well.”

By 2022, the founders were considering raising money to fuel growth. That’s when they heard from another employee experience platform called Kazoo about a potential acquisition.

They hadn’t planned to sell, but decided to consider it under one condition they all agreed on: the WorkTango team would remain at the new company.

Our story has all details 👇

​After this HR platform sold, the buyer rebranded to the seller’s company name, WorkTango​

Sponsored by

Why aren't you as productive as you want to be?

Does every day feel like an inner battle between procrastination, perfectionism and competing priorities?

Entrepreneurs face constant distractions — and we often lack structure and accountability.

Commit Action pairs you with a dedicated coach who gives you clarity on your most important work and the accountability to get it done, so you can enjoy:

• The revenue growth you want
• Frictionless delegation
• Optimized personal habits
• Deep work every day

The results speak for themselves:

"In the three months I've been with Commit Action, my revenue has increased by 50% and I've hired a team to help me execute, which has brought my total hours worked down to 25/week." - Skye, Trustpilot

Behind the Business

I'm pretty open about how we build this business. But here's something I feel on the fence about: revealing how much revenue we've generated in Year 1.

I'm finishing up our year-end review ahead of our first brand birthday on Feb. 7, and not feeling completely comfortable including that detail.

Sharing build-in-public numbers can be a strange experience. No matter what number you share, some people will look at it and think it's a lot, and some people will look at it and think it's tiny.

So when it comes to sharing vulnerable details, I ask myself: What negative consequences, if any, could arise from me sharing this detail?

Despite all our fears around talking honestly about money, the true potential negative consequences of sharing publicly, at least at this early stage, are usually minimal.

The scariest part is what others might think. So when I evaluate whether to share and realize that's my only hangup, I push myself to get past it.

I'm curious: Would you publicly share your revenue?

Tell us in this survey, and we'll share the results in next week's newsletter:

See you next time,

Lexi Grant
Founder & CEO
​They Got Acquired​
​
​

P.S. I got the idea to add polls to the newsletter while editing our story on Milk Road; they used this tactic to increase engagement amongst subscribers.

And I'm trying Tally Forms for the first time after noticing on Twitter that the startup has a female co-founder. A small percentage of the tools we use are built by women, so I'm always looking for opportunities to increase that number.

✉️ Want to subscribe?

If a friend forwarded this to you, you can subscribe here.

About us 👋

Our mission is to redefine startup success by showcasing companies that sell for $100K-$50M. Learn more about us or follow us on Twitter.

​