Bootstrapped and Better: A Tech Startup Journey with Athena CRM

This week we’re introducing Karen Somal, founder of Athena CRM, to the Tech Startup Stories Podcast Community.

Listen to the Podcast: Available on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

Karen talks about moving from a career in HR and recruitment technology to building her own recruitment CRM and ATS platform.

Karen’s journey is shaped by experience, resilience and a willingness to learn from the moments that did not go to plan. From changing her university degree from law to computer science to taking on a technology product that ultimately pushed her towards building something of her own, her story is a reminder that becoming a founder does not always happen through a carefully planned route.

Turning experience into an idea

Karen’s career gave her a perspective from both sides of the recruitment technology industry. Having worked with recruitment CRM and ATS platforms, she had seen first-hand how businesses struggled with systems that were often built around a one-size-fits-all approach.

That experience became the foundation for Athena CRM, a platform designed to give recruitment agencies and talent acquisition teams technology that can be customised around the way their business actually works. Rather than simply creating another product in an established market, Karen wanted to address the problems she had experienced herself and make the system more flexible for individual clients.

Learning from the wrong decision

Karen’s route into entrepreneurship was not completely straightforward. She had previously run what she thought was a business, but later realised it was closer to consultancy, before being introduced to an opportunity to acquire a technology product.

Taking on the software initially felt like a major mistake. Instead of seeing the experience as a failure, however, Karen used it as a learning curve. It helped clarify what she actually wanted to build and gave her the confidence to create a technology platform based on her own experience, knowledge and vision.

Building Athena while resolving the issues with the existing product was challenging, but it also forced Karen to confront what becoming a founder really meant. Having created something she believed in, she then had to take it to market, find customers and learn how to run the business around it.

Building around the customer

Athena’s approach is deliberately different from the traditional one-size-fits-all model. Karen wanted each client to be able to shape the CRM and ATS around their own processes, even though she acknowledges that this level of customisation creates additional complexity when supporting the product.

Her answer has been to build a more personal customer experience. During implementation, Athena works directly with clients to understand their processes and configure the system accordingly, while larger customers can have trained subject matter experts who become advocates for the platform within their own organisation.

Building a business on her own terms

Karen has chosen to bootstrap Athena, despite having been approached by investors. For her, taking investment would have meant potentially compromising the vision she had for the product, so she has chosen to grow the company according to her own beliefs and priorities.

That does not mean the journey has been easy. Karen speaks openly about the reality of building a business from scratch, including the sacrifices involved, the pressure of being a solo founder and the challenge of balancing work with being a mother. She has also learned to gradually step back as the team has grown, allowing her to take proper time away from the business.

Growing with purpose

For Karen, the longer-term vision for Athena is closely connected to the reason she stayed in recruitment. She believes recruitment can change people’s lives, and she wants technology to help businesses identify people who may have the right experience and potential even if their CV or LinkedIn profile does not immediately show it.

Rather than focusing only on distant goals, Karen has broken the journey into smaller milestones, setting yearly objectives and then working backwards into monthly targets. For her, building Athena is about growing the product and customer base while continuing to create technology that solves real problems within recruitment.

Listen to the Podcast: Available on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

Listen to the full episode with Karen Somal from Athena CRM on Tech Startup Stories, and follow for more conversations that focus on the true realities of building a startup.