How Hesom Parhizkar Turned a Google Sheet Into a Scalable Tech Startup

No flashy pitch deck. No funding. No problem.

Author

Reade Milner
March 25, 2025

This 3-minute read brought to you by the team at Rogue Pine

In this issue, you'll learn:

Most tech startups begin with a flashy idea, a pitch deck, and a desperate scramble for funding. Not Hesom Parhizkar.

His business, AdvizorPro, started as a Google Sheet.

That’s right. A simple internal tool—meant to support another business—ended up being more valuable than the original idea. And today, that Google Sheet has evolved into a SaaS company with a growing client base in financial services.

In this episode of the Grow Rogue Podcast, Hesom breaks down how he accidentally built a business, scaled it without a massive sales team, and overcame the biggest challenges of early SaaS growth.

Here’s how it happened.

How a Google Sheet Became a Business

AdvizorPro wasn’t supposed to be a company.

Hesom and his team were building another financial services software product when they created a Google Sheet to help manage and track their prospecting data.

Then, something unexpected happened.

They showed their product at industry events, but instead of being interested in the main platform, people kept asking about the Google Sheet.

That’s when it hit them: they were selling the wrong thing.

Customers weren’t impressed with the flashy software—they wanted the simple, functional system they were already using.

👉 Lesson: Sometimes, the market tells you what your business should be. If people keep asking about one specific thing, pay attention—it might be your real product.

The Smart Way to Transition From Side Hustle to Full-Time Founder

Instead of quitting his job immediately to chase the new opportunity, Hesom did something smarter:

🔹 He ran AdvizorPro as a side business while keeping his main job.
🔹 He waited until revenue justified going full-time.

That patience paid off.

By the time he made the leap, AdvizorPro had a steady base of paying customers, making the transition far less risky.

👉 Lesson: Don’t make the jump too soon.

A growing side hustle with real revenue is the safest path to full-time entrepreneurship.

Getting Early Customers Without a Sales Team

Startups love to talk about hockey stick growth and hyper-scaling, but Hesom took a different approach:

Direct outreach: He and his team manually called and followed up with financial advisors who had shown interest at events.

Solving an obvious pain point: The existing tools in the industry were outdated, clunky, and hard to use.

A better experience: AdvizorPro wasn’t just another option—it was easier, more intuitive, and solved the exact problem advisors had.

That’s how they landed their first paying users without hiring a single salesperson.

👉 Lesson: People buy solutions, not features. If your product is easier and better, customers will find you—even without a sales team.

Scaling Pains: When Growth Forces Tough Decisions

Once AdvizorPro gained traction, the real challenge began:

What to build next?

Every startup faces this moment. Customers want new features. The roadmap gets crowded. Resources are tight.

Hesom knew that saying "yes" to everything would lead to feature bloat and a messy product.

So, he focused on:

1) Hiring a second sales rep to handle growing inbound demand.
2) Bringing on a customer success manager to reduce churn.

The result? Growth without chaos.

👉 Lesson: Retention and customer experience are just as critical as getting new customers.

Why the Best Product Doesn’t Always Win

One of Hesom’s biggest surprises?

AdvizorPro lost deals to inferior competitors—companies with worse data but better marketing.

This was a wake-up call.

Even though their platform was objectively better, some prospects still chose competitors based on:

  • A single flashy feature.

  • Better brand awareness.

  • More polished marketing.

That’s when Hesom made a key decision: investing in marketing and client education.

👉 Lesson: The best product doesn’t always win. The best-marketed product does.

The Best and Worst Days as an Entrepreneur

Every founder has highs and lows.

Worst day? Moving offices. Turns out, being the founder doesn’t exclude you from hauling furniture.

Best day? When a long-time client switched jobs and immediately brought AdvizorPro into their new company.

That moment validated everything.

👉 Lesson: If you do great work, customers will take you with them when they move.

What’s Next for AdvizorPro?

Hesom isn’t stopping anytime soon.

  • Expanding beyond financial advisors into banks and trust companies.

  • More automation to help firms streamline client acquisition.

  • Doubling down on education-based marketing to improve conversions.

The mission remains the same: Make prospecting easier for financial service professionals.

Trust Is the Ultimate Growth Hack

Hesom’s story proves that trust beats hype.

AdvizorPro didn’t scale because of a big ad budget or venture capital. It grew because:
✅ It solved a real problem.
✅ It built trust through consistent value and transparency.
✅ It didn’t rush unnecessary features—it refined what worked.

No matter what industry you’re in, the same principle applies:

If your customers believe in you, they’ll stay.

If they don’t, no amount of marketing will save you.