From Retailer to SaaS Founder: Lessons from Building FormPiper Without Coding Skills

I failed my first computer science class at Georgia Tech.

It wasn't just a marginal failure – it was complete and total. My brain simply didn't process programming logic the way it needed to. Fast forward nearly two decades, and I'm the founder and CEO of FormPiper, a SaaS company that's processed applications for over 20,000 consumers monthly across all 50 states, with integrations to 25+ lending institutions, including publicly traded banks.

And here's the kicker: I still can't write a single line of code.

My journey from retail store owner to tech company founder contains valuable lessons for any entrepreneur considering a leap into an unfamiliar industry – especially one that seems to require specialized technical skills you don't possess. Let me share what I've learned along the way.

Start With a Problem You Deeply Understand

My path to SaaS didn't begin with a brilliant tech idea. It began with an everyday problem I faced in my retail business.

For nearly 20 years, I operated pet retail stores. Like many retailers, I discovered that offering financing dramatically increased sales. But the financing process was painful – customers had to complete multiple applications when they were declined by our primary lender, creating an awkward experience that discouraged both customers and staff.

I tried using existing "waterfall" solution providers, but they were clearly built by finance people for finance people – not by retailers for retailers. Despite constant feedback about what would improve the merchant experience, promised changes never materialized.

This is where my entrepreneurial journey intersected with technology. I didn't start with "I want to build a SaaS company." I started with "This problem is costing me sales, and no one else is solving it properly."

Lesson #1: Your industry expertise is far more valuable than technical skills when identifying problems worth solving.

Assemble the Right Team

If you're not technical but want to build a tech company, your first and most crucial task is assembling the right team.

I got incredibly lucky with my business partner. While I was the personality – the sales guy, the problem solver, the visionary – he was the systems guy, the tech architect, the compliance expert. Without him, I joke that I would have been sending customer financial data to Google Docs with zero security.

When you lack certain critical skills, you must be honest about your limitations and find partners who complement your weaknesses. This is different from simply hiring employees. You need someone with skin in the game who cares as much about the vision as you do.

Lesson #2: Know your strengths and weaknesses with brutal honesty, then find partners whose strengths align perfectly with your weaknesses.

Use Your Business as the Testing Ground

One of the greatest advantages I had was building FormPiper while still running my retail business. This gave us a controlled environment to test, fail, and iterate without disappointing external customers.

We developed the entire first version of FormPiper exclusively for my stores. We messed up plenty – but only my own team experienced those failures. By the time we took our solution to market, we had already developed version 2.0, with all the major kinks worked out.

This "built by retailers for retailers" approach became our greatest selling point. We weren't tech people imagining what retailers needed – we were retailers solving our own problem, then sharing that solution with others.

Lesson #3: If possible, build your solution in an environment you control before taking it to market. The freedom to fail internally is invaluable.

Navigate Complexity Through Partnerships

When we decided to turn FormPiper into a business serving other retailers, we faced a daunting reality: the financial industry is heavily regulated, with complex compliance requirements far beyond what I understood.

The solution wasn't for me to become a compliance expert. Instead, we:

• Partnered with experts who understood the regulatory landscape
• Invested in proper infrastructure from the beginning
• Built relationships with the right legal and advisory teams
• Created systematic processes for compliance reviews

Even now, when we onboard new lenders (which typically takes 6-8 weeks), much of that time is devoted to compliance processes. Rather than cutting corners, we embrace the complexity and build systems to manage it.

Lesson #4: Don't try to become an expert in everything. Build partnerships and systems to handle specialized aspects of your business.

Scale Through Strategic Partnerships

When we first launched, I imagined endless cold calls and one-by-one customer acquisition. But we quickly discovered a better path: strategic partnerships.

By integrating with systems that already serve thousands of retailers, we created a multiplicative growth model. Rather than selling to individual stores, we present our solution to platform partners who can introduce us to their entire customer base.

The result? Instead of "dialing for dollars," we conduct educational webinars for partner groups and watch the signups roll in. We're approaching 1,000 retailers and project 3,000-4,000 by next year – largely through these strategic relationships.

Lesson #5: Find partners whose existing customer base matches your ideal customer profile. One partnership can replace thousands of cold calls.

Focus on Solving Real Problems, Not Technology

Throughout our growth, I've maintained a laser focus on solving merchant problems rather than becoming enamored with technology for its own sake.

For instance:

• We noticed merchants struggling with paper contracts, so we built digital contract functionality
• We saw the compliance burden on merchants, so we created a consumer-facing flow that maximizes compliance
• We recognized merchants lacked visibility into performance, so we built robust analytics

This problem-first approach means we're never building features that sound impressive but don't address real pain points. Our technology stack has evolved to become quite sophisticated, but only in response to genuine needs.

Lesson #6: Let real problems drive your technology decisions, not the other way around.

Embrace Your Non-Technical Perspective as an Asset

Initially, I viewed my lack of technical expertise as a liability. Now I recognize it as one of my greatest assets.

Because I don't think like a developer, I think like a user. I ask questions like:

• Is this intuitive?
• Will this solve the merchant's problem?
• How will this feel to someone who isn't tech-savvy?

My technical team focuses on what's possible; I focus on what's valuable. This creative tension has produced a solution that's both technically sound and exceptionally user-friendly.

Lesson #7: Your "outsider" perspective is a feature, not a bug. Use it to ensure your solution remains accessible and focused on real-world needs.

The Path Forward

Five years into this journey, FormPiper has expanded far beyond our original pet retail focus. We now serve automotive repair, jewelry, furniture, medical, and tutor markets – any business that relies heavily on consumer financing.

We've built integration with 25 lenders in the past 12 months alone. We've created a platform robust enough to pass security audits from publicly traded banks. And we're processing approximately 20,000 consumer applications monthly across all 50 states.

None of this would have been possible if I'd limited myself to what I personally knew how to build. By focusing on the problem, assembling the right team, and leveraging strategic partnerships, we've created something far beyond my individual capabilities.

So if you're an entrepreneur with a vision that requires technical skills you don't possess – take heart. Your industry expertise, problem-solving ability, and willingness to partner with the right people are far more important than knowing how to code.

The best founders aren't necessarily those who can build the product themselves. They're the ones who understand the problem deeply enough to guide others in building the right solution.

And sometimes, failing that computer science class might be the best thing that ever happened to you.