#376 – How Dinakara Nagalla turned aircraft mechanics into his biggest fans and built a successful exit

A story about building a cult following in the unglamorous world of aviation maintenance

This episode is for SaaS founders exhausted from building "nice-to-have" solutions.

Most SaaS companies don't fail because of bad tech. They fail because they prefer to solve sexy problems instead of expensive ones.

Dinakara Nagalla, CEO of EmpowerMX (acquired by IFS), took a different path. He spent 14 years in aviation watching mechanics waste 50% of their day on paperwork. Instead of building another dashboard for executives, he built tools for the technicians themselves—and turned a cost center into a profit driver with 78% gross margins.

And this inspired me to invite Dinakara to my podcast. We explore how solving unglamorous problems creates fanatical customers. Dinakara shares hard truths about why productivity software beats regulatory software, how guaranteeing 10% efficiency shrinks sales cycles by 67%, and why hiring from the industry you serve changes everything. You'll discover why his customers became his sales force—without being asked.

We also zoom in on two of the 10 traits that define remarkable software companies:

• They create fans, not customers
• They sell the idea, not the product

Dinakara's 14-year journey proves that the most loyal customers come from solving their daily frustrations, not their strategic initiatives.

Here's one of Dinakara's quotes that captures his contrarian philosophy:

"Being remarkable shouldn't just be a slogan. You should make it as a responsibility. It's what you do when no one is watching. It's a system you build after the pitch is done, and it should be built with the highest level of accountability, with the most trust you can possibly put in. To me, the most remarkable companies don't scale high; they scale trust."

By listening to this episode, you'll learn:

• How his customers became his sales force
• What happens when you guarantee 10% productivity gains
• When hiring only from aviation changed everything
• Why reducing organizational stress beats adding features

For more information about the guest from this week:

Guest: Dinakara Nagalla, CEO & Founder of EmpowerMX (now part of IFS)

Website: https://dinakaranagalla.com/