Think Like an Owner

Lessons from a Decade of Growth and Acquisitions - Janelle Heuton - Co-Founder @ Heiton Partners - Ep.270

Aug 12, 2025
Janelle Heuton, co-founder of Heiton Partners and former COO at GIS Workshop, shares her remarkable journey transforming a small GIS company into a thriving SaaS business. She discusses pivotal moments like shifting from custom development to cloud-based solutions and completing nine acquisitions. Janelle highlights the intricacies of the COO-CEO relationship and the importance of nurturing future leaders. Her insights reveal how successful transformations are built on vision, strategic integration, and a strong company culture.
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ANECDOTE

From Happy Accident To COO

  • Janelle joined GIS Workshop by accident as part-time sales/help and quickly became enamored with the mission and product.
  • She progressed to COO at a small ~12-person company and handled sales, marketing, scoping, and client-facing custom development.
INSIGHT

Visionary + Integrator Multiplies Impact

  • Joe brought formalized focus, vision, and discipline after acquiring the company in 2015.
  • Janelle found a complementary integrator role that let her operationalize his vision and scale the business.
ADVICE

Replace Custom Work With Product Focus

  • Ramp down custom development to focus engineering on scalable SaaS products.
  • Reallocate sales and engineering time toward productized offerings to replace bespoke revenue.
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