Don't Start a Software Company

Business situation & goals (case)

• Hector Quiroga runs a US immigration law firm.
• Reported financials:
  • $24M revenue last year
  • ~$60M revenue run rate currently (post–January “something happened”)
  • Goal: reach ~$100M revenue
• Expansion strategies under consideration:
  • Open more locations (new offices)
  • Monetize internal technology/process tooling by selling it externally (the “software company” angle)

Core advice: don’t spin out/sell “true software” — use tech to multiply the service business

The speaker argues that converting internally built operational systems into a standalone software/SaaS business is usually the wrong move because:

• If you already have ~$100M/year with high margins from tech-enabled service delivery, then selling “true SaaS” is a different animal with very different economics and execution risk.
• Tech-enabled service can create enterprise value lift without having to “burn the business down” to build SaaS.

Valuation/multiple framing (high level)

• Service revenue / service EBITDA multiples
• Tech-enabled service can sometimes reach ~13–18x bottom-line multiples
• True SaaS multiples are said to be “not going to happen” if you keep the software as an enablement layer for your service business rather than as a standalone SaaS product.

Actionable takeaway

• Keep the tooling internal to maintain competitive advantage:
  • Use technology to drive more production per capacity (e.g., one operator doing 10x the work).
  • Compete on market leadership, since others can only copy your methods if they can copy the underlying software/tools (creating a barrier).

Pivot inside the business: scale new locations faster (capacity constraint)

Hector’s new-location economics and constraints:

• Cost to open a new office: ~$150K (onboarding + training)
• Speed constraint: onboarding is too slow
• Current viable onboarding pace: only ~2–3 firms per year to reach profitability

The speaker frames the root issue as a friction/constraint problem—not a capital problem:

• Fix the scaling constraint, rather than starting a new business line.

Concrete “amplification” idea: an affiliate / “machine” model for other attorneys

Hector’s idea:

• Lease a “factory” approach to other attorneys (e.g., family lawyers, bankruptcy lawyers, etc.) instead of only owning offices.
• Provide:
  • How to sell the offering
  • Training salespeople
  • Feed cases through Hector’s “machine” (tech + process + workflow)

The speaker’s response:

• This is essentially an affiliate model—enabling others to deliver the service using his system.

How the speaker tests this vs. the $100M target

• Speaker’s implied math:
  • If Hector needs ~$100M, and each office does ~$15M/year,
  • then he’d need ~4–5 more offices to reach the goal.
• Timeline challenge:
  • Going from $24M to $100M in ~24 months implies expansion is the straightforward lever.

Primary strategy: “ruthless focus” on opening more offices

The speaker argues that chasing a “shiny object” (like starting a software business) is less effective than doubling down on the known path to the goal:

• If the growth lever is already understood (e.g., open 5 offices), don’t overcomplicate it.

Practical focus principle

• At every level: say no to distracting opportunities.
• Growth comes from doing more of what already works.

Recommended execution direction (implied plan)

• Take the simplest path to the goal:
  • Open ~5 additional offices
  • Accelerate onboarding speed (training, systems, replication playbooks)
  • Keep the internal tech as the competitive moat
• Treat the affiliate/“factory leasing” concept as a longer-term amplification mechanism, not the immediate way to hit the $100M revenue target.

Framework / playbook mentioned

A personal scaling resource: “$100 million scaling road map”

• Designed as 10 stages of scaling
• Includes a quiz to identify where the business is stuck across:
  • Product, marketing, sales, customer success, recruiting, IT, HR, finance
• Built from review of “portfolio companies” and where they got stuck/how they overcame it.

Call to action:

• Visit acquisition.com/roadmap
• Option to book a call and possibly attend an in-person event in Vegas (after the thank-you page).

KPIs / metrics explicitly stated

• Revenue:
  • $24M last year
  • ~$60M run rate
  • Goal: $100M
• Expansion economics:
  • ~$150K to open and train a new location
  • Viable pace: 2–3 firms per year
• Throughput/efficiency concept:
  • Tech-enabled service can increase operator productivity roughly 10x (example framing)

Concrete recommendations (actionable)

• Don’t pursue selling/turning internal tools into external SaaS as the main strategy to reach the goal.
• Use tech to improve margins and throughput in the core service business.
• Scale via offices:
  • Target ~4–5 additional offices to reach the $100M objective.
  • Improve onboarding/training replication to increase speed.
• Consider an affiliate/partner model (leasing the system + training + case feeding) as an optional amplification path—but not as a distraction from the primary revenue math.

Presenters / sources

• Hector Quiroga — owner of a US immigration law firm
• The video’s other speaker/host (not named in the subtitles) — scaling strategy advisor offering acquisition.com/roadmap