How a new CEO navigated a fast-growing SaaS business to an 8-figure sale

When Québec-based entrepreneur Stéphane Guérin founded DashThis in 2011, it was one of the first available SaaS tools for streamlining marketing reporting. The business grew quickly and within three years was doing more than $1 million Canadian in revenue.

But while DashThis had clearly built a product people wanted, operational and leadership challenges remained. Guérin ended up buying out the existing CEO in 2021 and brought in a new one, which he said set DashThis on a path with efficient processes and a clear strategy.

The result was a sale to saas.group, a holding company that buys and operates SaaS businesses, in 2023 for low 8 figures.

A fast-growing SaaS business in need of operations leadership

The inspiration for DashThis came to Guérin when he was doing client reporting at a marketing agency and was dissatisfied with the tools available. “What a pain it was!,” he recalled in a blog post marking DashThis’ 10th birthday. “‘There must be a better way to do this!’ I told myself.”

Like many founders, he started a business to solve his own problem.

Laboring in his basement and bootstrapping the business, Guérin developed a solution that clearly solved others’ problems as well. Within three years of launching, he had over $1 million Canadian in revenue, with SEO as the main sales channel. But day-to-day business operations at the time were chaotic.

“Stéphane [Guérin] had tons of people in other countries sending him money in checks or subscribing on the new internal system he was building to get invoicing done. It was crazy,” Antoine Paré explained on the saas.group’s saas.unbound podcast.

At the time, Paré was working at the marketing agency Guérin had left to found DashThis. Through a manager at the agency, the pair were introduced and both spotted an opportunity for Paré to put his operations and marketing skills to use at DashThis.

“I can help make sure the business gets structured and then we can scale,” Paré said on the podcast, talking through his thinking at the time. He initially joined as a contractor, and then became COO in 2016. By then, Guérin had also hired a CEO to run the business.

How the founder bought out DashThis’ first CEO

The company continued to grow, expanding from a team of eight to 38. Revenue eventually reached $4.7 million ($6.3 million Canadian), and DashThis had 2,700 paying customers. But challenges remained.

“It was beginning to be a bit weird between the shareholders,” Paré explained. “The business was struggling to make decisions, to have a clear vision.”

In 2021, Paré and Guérin decided to buy out the CEO, who had been leading the company since 2015 (he wasn’t a co-founder) and had a 42% stake in the business.

Paré took over the CEO role. The decision was one of the biggest challenges he faced while growing the business, Paré told They Got Acquired, but it set DashThis on the path to a successful future sale.

As with many businesses, growth wobbled when the pandemic crisis hit, but it rebounded quickly. “We had insane growth from 2020 to 2022,” Paré told saas.unbound. The company was named one of the Fastest-Growing Companies in Canada by The Globe and Mail four times.

Meanwhile, Guérin was becoming less involved in the business. Together, he and Paré took a hard look at the company’s future. Both saw the potential to add new integrations and potentially AI features, but Guérin was unsure if he still had the appetite for such large changes.

They decided to look for a buyer, tapping Canadian M&A firm Firepower to help them through the process.

How DashThis sold to saas.group

It proved rocky; two potential deals fell through well into the acquisition process.

“Each time you think it’s finally done and it falls apart at the end of the due diligence. It’s soul breaking,” Paré told They Got Acquired. But things went better when they connected with saas.group.

Saas.group already owned a number of other complementary tools, including Seobility, and DashThis was a natural complement to their existing businesses.

“We were surprised how easy it was and how good the vibe was. It wasn’t an intimidating game. They were like, ‘What’s your intention guys? Do you want to stay or not?’ We felt like just saying the truth was the right thing to do with saas.group, which wasn’t the case with everyone. So we felt at ease,” Paré recalled on the podcast.

The deal closed in August 2023. Guérin opted to exit the business, which had slimmed down to 26 employees since its period of peak growth. Paré stayed on to continue to build the company as CEO after the acquisition.

The transaction brought some changes to the business — DashThis reduced its headcount to increase profitability and readjust after overhiring during the pandemic boom — but Paré was happy with saas.group’s generally handoff approach.

“SaaS.group told us that we would be independent. And it’s been true,” Paré said. “Of course, we are helped by a central team at different points, especially marketing. For example, we cut the marketing budget by 40% thanks to their advice.”

After the long journey to find the right buyer for DashThis, Paré has simple advice for other founders considering a sale: “Success is not a straight line.”