Hard-Won Lessons from a Long and Successful Tech Journey | Chris Caparon, Ep 10
Episode Summary
Chris Caparon, co-founder and former CEO of Sephoria Software, shares his 20-year journey building an accounts receivable automation company from a garage startup to a successful exit to private equity. He discusses navigating multiple economic crises, evolving technology platforms, and the relentless customer focus that enabled his bootstrapped company to serve Fortune 500 clients across 110 countries.
Pull Quotes
On understanding buyer motivation beyond business value
“The number one reason why people buy software is it's good for them. It gives them a max bonus. It gives them a bump in their journey as a software buy. They want to be successful in their own lives and get and be able to move that on in their career.”
“You jump off the high dive and you don't know if there's going to be water in the pool right when you land. August 15th sticks in my mind because that was a day that was the last paycheck that I received from industry and from that point on I was funding through the work that I did at Sephoria.”
On Dave fixing a customer issue from a McDonald's in Montgomery, Alabama during 9/11
“When you do things like that, it speaks for you as a company, as a person. You have a customer for life when you do things like that.”
“I never missed a payroll in the entire history of our company, and part of that was making really good, sometimes conservative decisions. But it was the right decision to give yourself enough margin to cover off those dangerous times.”
On post-acquisition reflection
“I've learned more in the last four years than I did in the previous 20 years, just in terms of seeing other people run the business, what that looks like, different perspectives, what's the best way to do it.”
Transcript
Hi welcome to Tales From The Sky Lounge. It's a podcast about business consulting and venture investing. We get out there in the world and we talk to people who are making it happen and get their stories. Today's guest in the Sky Lounge is Chris Kapron. Hi Chris, welcome to Sky Lounge.
Hey Todd, good to see you again. Thanks for having me.
Yeah Chris, why don't you give us a little background? Who are you and what's your history?
Well, it's a long question or kind of an origin story here. I actually grew up in Michigan, born and bred and raised, a lifelong fan. Went to the school, got two engineering degrees and the first thing I realized I didn't want to be an engineer in Michigan certainly. And so before the ink was dry on my diploma I had moved to California and started my career out here. California is just a great incubator where I say dreams come true but really where you could do anything you want to do and what you're interested in, and that defined my journey. I worked in multiple different industries but it was really an entrepreneur at heart. And there came a point at which I wanted to get into technology and leverage my background. I got into ERP and enterprise consulting and I spent about seven or eight years doing that on the run up to Y2K and learned a huge amount. Learned how enterprises work, learned how the technology enables the enterprise and vice versa, and where the gaps were in the software. At that point, I met my future and current and I guess past business partner and we decided to start a software company. And so out here in Southern California, we started Sephoria Software right after Y2K in 2001 and ran that organization for 20 plus years and ultimately sold it to a private equity company. And that's obviously Todd where you and I met.
Congrats, yeah that's a heck of a run. And then so your founder, I don't know if you want to name names but Dave?
Want to go deeper?
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