Evan Teshima: Bootstrapping ForeUP to a Massive SaaS Exit and the $400k Chess Game

In this episode of the Startup Ignition Podcast, we sit down with Evan Teshima, founder and former CEO of ForeUP, a massive bootstrapped success story in the golf tech SaaS space. Evan shares his incredible journey from meeting John in a BYU classroom, enduring 5-7 rapid pivots during an accelerator program, navigating a near-death convertible note crisis resolved by a $400,000 chess game and desperate calls to family, scaling to over 2,300 golf courses with only $200k in outside capital, and ultimately achieving a huge acquisition with tax-free gains. Hear war stories, lessons on founder-led sales, customer-funded growth, and the true reward of the entrepreneurial grind (including retirement on a beach in Hawaii!).(00:00:44) Met John in school, he was my teacher(00:13:59) My first idea was a toilet seat controlled by a lever(00:16:25) I literally stood up... mark my words, this is gonna be the best company(00:19:39) Literally you pivoted somewhere between five and seven major times in about three months(00:24:43) My stinking point of sale is a POS... This thing sucks(00:25:22) Literally the software looked like Oregon Trail(00:28:46) Judy Flint... she was our first customer(00:31:31) Now we'll buy it(00:37:08) They raised $200,000 and no more equity investment after that? Yes, period.(00:38:13) The hotels that we went to were the most janky hotels(00:42:56) If there's anything that we did right it was founder led sales(00:47:00) This note's coming due... valuation will drop from 1.5 to 500,000(00:50:19) Per that paragraph, I'm notifying you of my intent to convert right now(00:53:14) Got some pretty nasty phone calls when they received those checks(00:55:03) I had to do the hardest thing of my life. I called my mom(00:58:29) Do you know what I thought? I go this guy's really good at golf...There's no way he's good at chess. So what happened?(00:59:55) Close to 400 grand(01:02:45) Was that an inflection point? Was that a tipping point for ForeUP, like getting Brendan in the CTO role? It was.(01:07:48) You built it to 10 million dollars in revenue basically off of... for a huge exit(01:08:03) The first 10 million for each of us tax was tax free(01:15:39) I'm on the beach with an umbrella drink in my hand right now(01:23:43) There was a company out there... raised $40 million... Had to fire. Sell.(01:24:13) Enjoy the journeyJoin our online academy for free:https://startupignition.com/academyApply to be a guest on the pod:https://startup-ignition-podcast.paperform.co/Follow John & Tyler:https://x.com/trich_https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnrichards/Subscribe on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@StartupIgnitionFollow on X:https://x.com/startupignitionFollow on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/startupignition/Follow on TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@startupignitionFollow on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/school/6458758/admin/dashboard/Follow on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/startupignition/#StartupIgnition #Entrepreneurship #Bootstrapped #SaaS #GolfTech #StartupLife #FounderStory #BusinessGrowth #Acquisition #VentureCapital #AngelInvesting #WarStories #ProductMarketFit #Pivot #ConvertibleNote #FounderLedSales #CustomerFunded #BYU #TechStartup #ExitStrategy