Most entrepreneurs approach building a tech startup by starting from scratch, but there is another path…acquisition.  Our guest, Wayne Lopez, saw an exciting opportunity to acquire a services company and leverage his product expertise to build a scalable tech platform that solves pain points for existing customers.   In this podcast, Wayne shares how he stumbled upon this opportunity to become an entrepreneur through acquisition.  We also discuss why software, and data-driven platforms are creating extraordinary value and amplifying business outcomes.   Founder Bio: Wayne Lopez is a technology and product executive with 20 years’ experience in leveraging technology to solve real business problems in the CRM, BI and analytics space. This includes startup, Big 5 consulting and mid-market experience. Wayne is currently Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Vertify, where he is responsible for the product roadmap, strategy and delivery of the Vertify Revenue Operations Intelligence platform.   Outside of his startup and tech life, Wayne spends a considerable amount of time providing mentorship to underrepresented tech entrepreneurs. Although Wayne is a native New Orleanian through and through, he now calls Austin, TX home with his wife and 2 kids.   2:35  New Orleans born and bred + early career 5:30  Deciding on building a career in tech 7:21  Why tech valuations are more aggressive than other industries 11:17  Getting a taste of startup journey at TrendKite 12:21  How Vertifi got started – building a product out of a services business 13:58  The value in having a co-founder with a complimentary skillset 15:15 Tech entrepreneurship through acquisition 20:00 What is Vertifi? 24:30  The emergence of RevOps (revenue operations) 27:57  Driving business value/ROI by leveraging data to align sales and marketing 30:35  Establishing the business case for developing AI-driven capabilities 32:20  Is the AI hype real? 37:45  New Product: Predictive Opportunity Analytics 40:00  Vertifi’s funding journey and perspectives on fundraising 48:20  What Wayne wishes he knew in his early days as a Founder