Corporate refugees can make great entrepreneurs, especially when they were the frustrated doers who didn’t fit the corporate mold.

They are the ones who ask too many questions, break the rules, tell harsh truths, and frustrate their bosses and peers.

Like Kelly Mann, CPA, an accountant and auditing firm for 15 years before she quit her job to run her own small CPA firm in Omaha, Nebraska.

Within a year, she created a new software product to solve a common problem for CPAs who audit 401K benefits programs in larger companies.

Now, just over two years after its launch, AuditMiner is a fast-growing and profitable software company with hundreds of CPA clients and 15 remote employees.

AuditMiner is growing more than 100% every year. They are avoiding the typical challenges that slow SaaS companies down as they grow up.

Kelly is a savvy entrepreneur, but she was a frustrated corporate employee for a long time. As she describes it:

“I was an entrepreneur at heart, but I didn’t know it. That’s why I wanted to change everything inside the CPA firm. That’s why I always saw problems and wanted to fix them—because I was an entrepreneur.

“I never knew that those were traits of an entrepreneur. I was depressed because I wasn’t in the spot I was meant to be in. They always told me I was a bull in a china shop, and I thought I was a bad employee. I love what I do now SO MUCH I could never go back to being an employee!“

There’s more to Kelly’s story than a successful bootstrapped SaaS company.

Kelly was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer just one month before she was going to launch AuditMiner. She fought through hard treatments and surgeries and launched the company a year later.

She openly talks about her startup journey and how surviving cancer makes her think differently about success and the future of her company.

It’s a great story from a great entrepreneur. Listen to this great interview on the Practical Founders Podcast.

Thanks for sharing your amazing story, Kelly!

#practicalfounders