The one where the P&L was mine.

Bootstrapped means the numbers were never abstract. There was no runway to absorb a pricing mistake or a segment that quietly lost money. Every decision about what to charge, who to serve and what it cost landed on a P&L I owned.

I built the systems, not just the strategy. The matching and vetting engine the marketplace ran on was something I built. That's still how I work.

Marketplaces punish you for ignoring either side. Supply without demand is a cost; demand without supply is churn. You learn quickly that the whole path is one system.

Technical vetting and matching. The systems that decided who was good enough to be on the platform and who they were put in front of. These cut time-to-hire by 40%.

The P&L. Pricing, take rate, cost to serve, and which business was worth having.

A team of seven. Small enough that everyone's work was visible, large enough that the way it ran had to be deliberate.

The sale. Sold to IDX, a private equity firm, in 2023. I led the handover with 100% organisational continuity: no one lost, nothing dropped.

I've been in the founder's seat. Whether to fix pricing or the funnel, whether a segment is worth keeping: I've made those calls with my own money on the line.

I'll tell you when the problem isn't the funnel. Sometimes it's pricing, or cost to serve, or a segment you should stop selling to.

Handover is part of the job. The sale went through with full continuity because it was documented to survive the founder leaving. My work ends the same way.