A common reason founders sell their companies that nobody talks about:
The founder wants to do something else.
Starting a company is a brutal adventure. Growing it is exciting and all-consuming.
When there are no investors or the founders have retained control, they can sell and move on when it’s the right time for them.
Sometimes they are just looking for a new adventure.
Dinakara Nagalla built EmpowerMX over more than a decade to digitize aircraft maintenance for major airlines like American, Southwest, and United.
Starting from deep domain experience inside aviation IT, he tackled a complex, high-stakes problem—replacing paper-based processes with a full execution system that improves efficiency and compliance.
The company grew into a mid–double-digit SaaS business serving global airlines, with contracts ranging from hundreds of thousands to several million dollars annually.
With a lean early team and development in India, EmpowerMX delivered measurable ROI—often saving customers 10% or more on maintenance operations—while expanding globally with growth equity support.
After surviving COVID (when revenue briefly dropped near zero) and accelerating post-pandemic digitization, Dina sold the company to IFS.
He chose to exit not out of necessity but to pursue a new purpose—now building multiple AI-driven products focused on improving human outcomes, such as mental health and education.
As Dinakara explains it,
“Why did I sell the company when it was doing well? Life happens, you know. Primarily, it was my desire to do something different. So do I look back and think about it? Yes, I do.
“It’s just that my purpose in life kind of switched. I wanted to do more meaningful things. I wanted to do more things. We were extremely profitable the year we sold, and my equity partners were really happy with how things were going.
“When I exited, I moved right into building new products with new teams. So I didn’t like to take a step back and said I need a week’s break. I think I had better vacations with my family when I was still running the company. Right now, I get up at three o’clock in the morning. I work till four in the evening.
“There is always this thing I hear from people all the time in my last 27 years of being in the US: If you like what you do, you’re not working another day. I think that is true in my case. I truly love what I do. Even when it’s hard.”
He also wrote a book, “Becoming Human: Embracing Imperfection and Finding Purpose.” You can find it on Amazon.
Check out this revealing episode with Dinakara Nagalla on the Practical Founders Podcast.
