How SaaS Founder Melissa Kwan Went From Burnout To Breakthrough

Selling your business isn’t always about chasing a massive payday. Sometimes, it’s about reclaiming your life. For many entrepreneurs, the dream is to build and sell a company for millions, but few talk about the emotional and personal toll that comes along with the journey.

For Melissa Kwan, founder of Spacio, selling her company was about stepping away from a business that no longer aligned with her personal and professional fulfillment, rather than reaching the highest sales price possible.

This is her story of going from burnout to breakthrough, and how selling Spacio changed the course of her life.

Why She Wanted to Sell A SaaS Business

Before Spacio, Melissa Kwan had another real estate startup for called Flat World Applications, building marketing apps for real estate developers to sell their pre-sale projects. Though she had other professional experiences in between, real estate remained the cornerstone of her career.

By the time she decided to sell Spacio, Kwan had spent 4 years building this real estate tech business. However, the industry she once found interesting had become a source of exhaustion. She confided that selling to real estate agents, who are notoriously slow to adopt technology, felt like an uphill battle. "The average age of a real estate agent is 54, and many have built successful careers without relying on tech," she explains. This reluctance to embrace innovation meant Kwan was constantly fighting resistance from clients who didn't fully appreciate what Spacio had to offer.

Kwan found herself increasingly frustrated. "I hated my job," she admitted.

"I hated servicing customers who didn’t appreciate the work we were doing.
But I couldn’t show that to my co-founder and team because this was my dream."

Building Spacio had been a personal mission, but over time, it became a source of constant stress and resentment. She realized she was chasing the wrong goal—continuing to build a company that no longer fulfilled her and realizing it was never going to reach the revenue potential she wanted.

This is a key takeaway for any entrepreneur:

When your business starts feeling like a burden, it’s important to reassess the cost of continuing to spend time on something that no longer aligns with your goals, priorities, and lifestyle. For Kwan, recognizing her growing disconnection from the business was the first step toward making a significant change.

The Realities of Building a SaaS Business

Spacio wasn’t Kwan’s first company, but it was her first Software as a Service (SaaS) venture. She had previously run an agency that built custom marketing apps for real estate developers. Transitioning to SaaS, however, proved to be a challenge that she had underestimated.

To fund Spacio, Kwan took a loan against her first business’s revenue, pouring all the capital into her new startup. Yet after nine months, the money was gone—spent mostly on salaries—and Spacio still didn’t have a product anyone was willing to pay for. "It took us 2.5 years to make our first sale—$10 a month from a real estate agent," she recalls.

"The early days were incredibly tough, and we were scraping by, trying to make ends meet.
We were taking on side projects simply to make payroll.”

Despite these early challenges, Spacio eventually broke even and became profitable, but the journey had taken a toll on Kwan. "By the time we reached profitability, I was completely exhausted," she says. A friend of hers put it best: "You’re unable to feel success because you associate Spacio with lack, not abundance."

For Kwan, the process of building Spacio had become synonymous with daily suffering. The excitement she initially felt as an entrepreneur had faded, replaced by a constant grind that wore her down.

Building a SaaS company is incredibly difficult, especially if you’re bootstrapping. Without a strong emotional connection to your mission, the road ahead can feel insurmountable. Kwan’s experience serves as a reminder that passion and perseverance are essential, but so is knowing when to pivot or exit.

The Decision to Sell and How Exit Valuation Happened

The idea of selling Spacio first came up during a casual conversation between Kwan and her mentor, Aaron Kardell, the CEO of HomeSpotter. Kwan mentioned her growing frustration with the business and wondered aloud if her cofounder would let her sell her share. Kardell responded with a proposition: “If you’re serious, we’re looking to make our first acquisition.”

The opportunity couldn’t have come at a better time. Kwan, recognizing her entrepreneur burnout symptoms and feeling disconnected from her role, was eager to move on. Spacio was profitable, and Kardell’s company, HomeSpotter, was looking to grow through acquisitions.

Extra blog for you: ‘My Business Is Draining Me,’ 6 Ways To Handle Burnout.

Together, they settled on a valuation based on industry multiples.

Kwan and her cofounder owned 95% of Spacio, as they had bootstrapped the company with minimal external funding. The deal was structured as a mix of cash, an earn-out, and stock options over a two-year period. Kwan didn’t feel the need to negotiate the price aggressively.

"I wasn’t interested in getting the highest price," she explains.

"What mattered to me was preserving the lifestyle I had built—working remotely and ensuring my team stayed intact and finally got market salaries, something they never had."

When selling your business, not every decision has to be about getting the highest valuation. For Kwan, maintaining her lifestyle and taking care of her team were more important than squeezing out the maximum financial return. Entrepreneurs should consider the non-financial aspects of a sale, such as team retention, who you will be working for -aka your new boss-, and work-life balance.

The Challenges After Selling

While selling Spacio brought financial relief, the transition wasn’t entirely smooth. After the acquisition, Kwan had to stay onboard at HomeSpotter and her role shifted from CEO to salesperson. "Suddenly, I was responsible only for sales, and I lost control over product decisions," she recalls. The shift was a stark contrast from her previous role, where she made all major decisions, including product development. In the past, product development had aided Melissa in making more sales. Removing that task actually made selling the product harder for her, which was why it was so frustrating.

"The hardest part was working with a product manager who didn’t fully understand our product or our customers," Kwan admits. "I had to justify every suggestion I made, and most of them were turned down." For her, product development was tied to sales, and sales was directly linked to the KPIs for her earn-out. This loss of decision making autonomy was one of the more difficult aspects during the earn-out period for Kwan.

Within 2 months, she knew she needed a new project to keep her motivated. She pitched the idea of eWebinar, a SaaS company focused on automating webinars, to her CEO. He gave her the green light to start building it, because he knew it was the only way to keep my spirit up while still fulfilling her obligations to HomeSpotter.

For entrepreneurs who stay on after selling their business, it’s an important lesson to be prepared for significant changes in your role. Kwan’s experience highlights how difficult it can be to transition from being the decision-maker to working under new management. Many business owners struggle with this loss of control, so it’s important to find new projects that keep you engaged.

Life After Spacio and Finding New Purpose

Selling Spacio opened the door for Kwan to pursue her next venture, eWebinar. But this time, she approached entrepreneurship differently. "I wanted to build a company from a place of love and abundance, not out of obligation," she says. eWebinar was designed as a lifestyle company, one that allowed Kwan and her team to work remotely, set their own schedules, and avoid the traditional hustle culture.

Extra blog for you: How To Avoid Depression After Selling A Business

Kwan reflects on the lessons she learned from her time with Spacio.

"I realized that success doesn’t have to mean growing a company to $100 million", she explains.

"It’s about creating a business that allows you to live the life you want." For her, that meant focusing on a company that could run without constant oversight, giving her the freedom to pursue other priorities like spending time with friends and family. How success looks like should be a personal thing. For Kwan, becoming the next tech unicorn is not her definition of success, but building a business that aligns with her values of freedom and flexibility is. Business owners should remember that the ultimate goal is to create a life they enjoy—not just a business they can sell.