#390 – How Jim Whatmore chose patience over speed to dominate UK field service

A story about building market leadership by saying no to obvious growth—on purpose.

This episode is for SaaS founders chasing international expansion—and questioning if dominating locally first makes more sense.

Most SaaS companies chase international markets early. Get traction locally, then expand globally fast.

Jim Whatmore, CEO of Joblogic, walked away from that playbook. He spent three years attending HVAC shows in the US, picked up customers, then stopped. He saved his marketing budget for UK and Ireland only. He turned down international revenue to dominate his home market first.

From 11 people and £500K revenue in 2013 to 500 people today. Ten-year grind to £9M, then quadrupled in two years through four strategic acquisitions. Vista Equity Partners betting £100M+ on the execution.

And this inspired me to invite Jim to my podcast. We explore how geographic restraint and strategic patience create market dominance. Jim shares his thinking about why he walked away from US customers, how staying trade-agnostic opened entire markets, and why he spent four years completely rebuilding his cloud platform while competitors kept betting on their old stack. And you'll discover why he bought competitors instead of trying to outbuild them.

We also zoom in on three of the 10 traits that define remarkable software companies:

1. Acknowledge you cannot please everyone – UK and Ireland only, walking away from US revenue
2. Focus on the essence – Field engineer workflows are similar regardless of trade
3. Master creating momentum – Quadrupled revenue in two years after a decade of patient building

Jim's story is proof that dominating your home market beats chasing global reach too early.

Here's one of Jim's quotes that captures why geographic focus matters:

"Our tagline for job logic is growing job logic, for us, it's personal, and it's personal because of the tenure of a lot of my team have been with us for a long time, and a lot of our customers have been with us for a long time. And there's a lot of value in that, that we're present and that we're on the ground, and that we know our customers, and that's more difficult to achieve in a different geo without a bulletproof strategy."

By listening to this episode, you'll learn:

• Why walking away from international revenue accelerates home market dominance
• When staying trade-agnostic beats vertical specialization in field service
• Why acquiring competitors with legacy tech accelerates customer base growth
• What patience actually looks like when rebuilding platforms under competitive pressure

Guest Info

For more information about the guest from this week:

Guest: Jim Whatmore, CEO at Joblogic Website: joblogic.com