Mark Abbott, Ninety
He Shared His SaaS Idea. A Competitor Beat Him to Market.
Mark Abbott had the idea for Ninety back in 2005, sitting on private equity boards watching the same leadership problems repeat across 100+ companies. He wanted to write a book and build software. Then he discovered Gino Wickman had already written the book - Traction - and trademarked the EOS framework around it. So Mark pitched Gino in 2012. Gino's answer: "We tried it, it's not in our DNA." Most founders would have raced into code. Mark did the opposite. He spent four years embedded in B2B community building - becoming EOS implementer #33, attending quarterly coaching gatherings, and slowly earning the trust of the people who would eventually become his distribution channel. While he played the long game, he openly shared his vision with the community. One of the implementers passed the idea to a software client, and Traction Tools launched first in 2016. Mark started laying code that same year as "EOS compatible," landed his first customer in 2017, and only signed the official license in late 2018. What followed was a masterclass in patient B2B community building. Mark spent $500 a month on Facebook ads targeting self-implementing EOS companies, leaned into relationships with the implementer community, and built a 24/7 support culture that outflanked the first mover. He bootstrapped past 1,000 customers and hit a $100M+ valuation before raising a dollar. Then in 2021 he raised a $20M Series A from Insight Partners. Insight later returned for a $35M Series B led by Blue Cloud Ventures with Catalyst Ventures coming in - $55M total across three institutional investors. The Series A is where things got harder, not easier. Mark hired fast, brought in seasoned executives who arrived with their own playbooks, and lost grip on culture. He explains why the lessons that worked in private equity didn't translate to scaling a SaaS company, what he wishes he had known about hiring for stage, and how AI is reshaping Ninety's product roadmap two years into a serious AI build. This is a candid conversation about taking the slow path, the cost of oversharing, and what B2B community building actually buys a founder.
