D
Distro
👤 Chad Ingram (Second-time founder: his first VC-backed exit (Jump) taught him to bootstrap, watch cash daily, and hold out for a better offer.)🌐 siteLinkedIn
Chad Ingram bootstrapped an engineer-hiring marketplace into an AI recruiter at $3.5M ARR, then sold to Vensure.
Will it work? · our read
Clean books sell. Distro sold clean because Chad ran it to be sold: no investors, 14 people, daily cash forecasts. The discipline, not the AI, is what made a strategic buyer move fast.
01How the money moves
Companies need vetted hires, fast
→
AI screens resumes, shortlist in 1-3 days
→
SaaS subscriptions + usage contracts
02The numbers
$3.5M ARRStatedARR at sale to Vensure
2026
Figures stated by Chad on the podcast. The 161,000 'customers' likely blends the old marketplace's companies and candidate pool [our read] - about $3.5M ARR implies far fewer paying seats. Practical Founders
About $3.5M ARR at sale, bootstrapped with no outside investors.
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Practical Founders #191 (Apr 2026) — Chad Ingram states about $3.5M ARR, 14 employees, 161,000 customers, and the sale to Vensure.distro.io — live product: AI resume screening, async interviews, global hiring across 200+ countries.Chad Ingram on LinkedIn — founder profile.
Revenue is STATED, not filed: about $3.5M ARR at sale comes from founder Chad Ingram on the Practical Founders podcast (episode #191, Apr 2026) - first-party but unaudited. The sale PRICE to Vensure was not disclosed. The 161,000 'customers' is the show notes' wording; given about $3.5M ARR we read it as the marketplace's blended companies-plus-candidates network, not 161K paying SaaS seats [our read]. Founding year and HQ were not stated; region 'US' is our read (US buyer Vensure, US podcast, English product). Product details from the live distro.io site. We never score you.