In early 2016, Kevin Rice walked into his own office and laid off part of his team. Every project had wrapped at the same time, 40% of revenue was about to vanish in six weeks, and the company was bootstrapped with no reserves to ride it out.

Five years later, Hathway was 250 people and $42 million in revenue, and it sold. What happened in between is one of the most specific go-to-market turnarounds we've had on this show: narrow the entire firm to one industry, refuse every dollar of revenue that can't stack, pull two developers off billable work to build IP, and stop selling the agency altogether in favor of selling speed.

Kevin and LeanScale co-founder Anthony Enrico get into all four bets — plus the partner motion with Olo and Salesforce that put them in every room that mattered, how to know when a niche is narrow enough, why utilization is the only number that matters in a services business, and the acquisition that collapsed the night before signing and came back a year later at three to four times the price. Then the half Kevin talks about now: what the climb cost him at home, the stretch he calls robot mode, and why he still wouldn't work a single hour less.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

Why project revenue kills agencies — and the test for which engagements are worth taking

The acquisition that died the night before signing — and the banker-run process that sold for 3–4x more

CHAPTERS

00:00 — Cold open + intro

01:50 — 2016: the layoff nobody saw coming

04:13 — Why $8M of revenue was the problem, not the win

11:36 — Bet #1 — narrow the whole firm to one industry

15:10 — Bet #2 — only take revenue that can be a going concern

16:18 — Bet #3 — two developers, a code library, and Nom Nom

20:15 — Bet #4 — stop selling the agency, start selling speed

26:00 — The Olo partnership, Ferraris, and yacht cruises

40:33 — Utilization, fungible teams, and five years of forecast data

46:12 — The run-up to the exit and the fundless sponsor

47:53 — COVID shuts the restaurants — and becomes a tailwind

52:05 — Canaccord, 50 companies, and 3–4x the price

53:14 — Robot mode

57:35 — Would you have worked less? No.

01:03:13 — Wrap

ABOUT THE GUEST

Kevin Rice co-founded Hathway out of a garage with his college best friend Jesse Dundon straight after graduating from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and spent thirteen years as its President and CMO. After a 2016 layoff nearly stalled the company, he narrowed the firm to a single industry, rebuilt its go-to-market around partners and proprietary IP, and grew it from roughly 30 people to 250 and $42 million in revenue before it was acquired by Bounteous in 2021. Today he hosts CEOs & ABCs, a podcast for leaders who want to advance their careers without disappearing from their kids' lives, invests in AI-native startups through Theorem One Capital, and advises consumer and restaurant brands. He's a single father of three boys.

ABOUT THE LEANSCALE PODCAST

The LeanScale Podcast — real conversations with the operators and founders building modern go-to-market.

Hosted by Anthony Enrico, co-founder of LeanScale.

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Learn more about LeanScale → https://www.leanscale.team

KEYWORDS / TAGS

RevOps, GTM, GTM Strategy, agency growth, digital agency, professional services, services business, bootstrapped business, niche down, vertical specialization, partner-led growth, channel conflict, partner tiering, productized services, agency IP, speed to market, sales narrative, pipeline forecasting, utilization rate, capacity planning, turnaround, M&A, exit strategy, Canaccord Genuity, founder equity, Hathway, Bounteous, Olo, Salesforce, restaurant technology, QSR, CRM, B2B SaaS, leadership, working parents, CEOs and ABCs, Kevin Rice, Anthony Enrico, LeanScale

HASHTAGS

#RevOps #GTM #LeanScale #LeanScalePodcast #AgencyGrowth #ProfessionalServices #Bootstrapped #Partnerships #Forecasting #Utilization #MergersAndAcquisitions #ExitStrategy #Leadership #RestaurantTech #B2BSaaS

He Fired a $500K Client Right After a Layoff — Then Went $8M to $42M | Kevin Rice, Hathway

The LeanScale Podcast with Anthony Enrico

He Fired a $500K Client Right After a Layoff — Then Went $8M to $42M | Kevin Rice, Hathway