Exit-Ed: Stories From Grind to Sale

Kelly Parker turned a side hustle in corporate gifting into a fully bootstrapped business that caught the attention of Urban Stems, a venture-backed floral and gifting company. In this episode, Kelly shares how a simple coffee meeting years before the deal planted the seed for her acquisition, why she chose equity over cash at exit, and what it really feels like to go from being your own boss to joining a corporate team. Now running Launch, Grow, Exit, Kelly advises female founders on how to build businesses that are set up to sell. She gets real about the personal...

In this episode of Exit-Ed: Stories from Grind to Sale, Gabriela Smith interviews Joseph Hanna, a seasoned technology executive, founder, and author whose career spans from software engineering in the 1990s to building and exiting an AI-driven HR analytics company. Born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt, Joseph began his career at Oracle before moving to the U.S. in his mid-20s. After years in leadership roles with Fortune 500 and private equity–backed companies, he launched Engage in 2014, an AI predictive analytics platform focused on talent acquisition. Engage grew rapidly, raised $12 million in venture funding, and was acquired by a...

In this episode of Exit-Ed: Stories from Grind to Sale, Gabriela Smith interviews Tom McKeown, founder and former CEO of Trend Data. Tom shares how, at age 56, he left a long corporate career to build and sell a successful HR analytics company—proving it’s never too late to become an entrepreneur.

Trend Data, founded in 2017, used AI-driven people analytics to help companies identify workforce trends such as turnover and recruiting success. Tom and his co-founder saw an opportunity to serve mid-market clients that lacked affordable analytics tools. The company grew steadily until the pandemic hit, forcing hard...

In this episode of Exit-Ed: Stories from Grind to Sale, Gabriela Smith interviews lifelong entrepreneur Maggie Lord about her journey from childhood ventures to selling Rustic Wedding Chic to David’s Bridal. Maggie shares how her entrepreneurial spirit started early, from selling seashells as a child to turning her love of creativity into a nationally recognized digital brand. Rustic Wedding Chic began in 2008 as a small blog showcasing rustic wedding ideas and grew into a major online media company with ten million monthly Pinterest impressions, book deals, and television appearances—all bootstrapped without outside funding.

Maggie explains how...

In this global edition of Exit-Ed, host Gabriela Smith sits down with Iago Rodríguez, a technical founder whose quiet persistence helped grow a boutique software development company into a 300-person multinational operation—and ultimately led to a strategic exit. Originally from Spain and based in Argentina, Iago shares the winding, 15-year journey that began with four freelancers and culminated in the sale of their company to a U.S.-based firm.

Iago opens up about everything from near-burnout years to their unconventional merger with another small team, which doubled their capabilities—and their risks. Together, they built...

In this energizing and honest episode of Exit-Ed, host Gabriela Smith speaks with Nicaraguan-born founder and Dallas-based entrepreneur Tatiana Chamorro. Tatiana opens up about her evolution from college student and young mom to serial founder, franchise builder, and now Chief Marketing Officer of an innovative cocktail startup. Her journey is packed with sharp business insight, heartfelt lessons, and deeply personal reflections.

Tatiana walks us through her early entrepreneurial roots—selling unbreakable cookies with a friend as a child—and how that creative, problem-solving spirit shaped her path. She shares how she bootstrapped her education in the U.S. a...

In this deeply candid episode of Exit-Ed, host Gabriela Smith sits down with entrepreneur Skip Johnson for a raw, reflective, and highly practical conversation about what it really takes to scale a business—and then let it go.

Skip, a former architect turned financial services founder, shares the winding path that led him from small-town Minnesota to co-founding a retirement planning firm that scaled from a team of two to over 70, earning accolades like the Inc. 5000 and Minnesota Fast 50. With clarity and humility, Skip walks us through the defining moments of his entrepreneurial journey: discovering a passion fo...

In this episode of Exited: Stories from Grind to Sale, host Gabriela Smith welcomes Atlanta-based entrepreneur Andy Smith to explore the candid highs and lows of building, scaling, and exiting businesses. Andy opens up about his transition from the corporate world to entrepreneurship, driven by a sense of frustration and confinement in traditional roles. In 2007, he co-founded his first company with a partner from the Netherlands, launching an innovative clean energy venture aimed at replacing their salaries—not chasing millions. Their complementary skills—Andy's strength in business development and his partner's technical prowess—fueled their early momentum. Despite early legal...

Episode 2:  Disrupting ‘I Do’: How This Exit-Ed Founder Revolutionized the Wedding Industry
Hosted by Gabriela Smith

In this episode of Exit-Ed, Gabriela Smith sits down with visionary founder Ashley Hawks to discuss her remarkable journey from helping out in her mother’s bridal shop to co-founding, scaling, and ultimately exiting Forever Bride, a company that revolutionized the wedding industry. Ashley shares how growing up surrounded by tulle and tradition gave her insight into the emotional core of bridal retail—and how she used that foundation to spot a major gap in the market.

Ashley...

In this debut episode of Exit-Ed, host Gabriela Smith lays the foundation for a bold new podcast that dives deep into the untold stories of everyday entrepreneurs who’ve built, scaled, and exited real businesses—without the flash and fame.

Gaby, an attorney-turned-founder, shares her perspective from almost two decades of experience working with entrepreneurs from inception to exit. From multi-million-dollar acquisitions to navigating lawsuits, family tensions, and burnout, she’s seen it all. And now, she’s handing the mic to the founders behind the scenes of the global economy.

This is a show about th...

In the trailer for Exit-ed, host Gabriela Smith introduces a podcast dedicated to shining a light on the untold, real stories of entrepreneurs who have built and sold their companies—without making the national headlines. Drawing on her dual identity as a lawyer and entrepreneur, Gabriela shares her perspective on how entrepreneurial journeys are rarely linear, often underrepresented, and vastly more diverse than the high-profile unicorn exits featured in the media.

The podcast will explore the gritty, authentic paths of founders—from ideation to scaling, connecting, and ultimately exiting their businesses. It promises insider conversations that dive into...