While most undergrads were juggling exams and group projects, Sarah Simionescu, Jason Huang, and Nikos Dritsakos were negotiating a company acquisition.
The trio – two computer science students from McMaster University and one from Brock University – launched SalesBop, an AI-powered sales coaching platform, while still in school. Less than two years later, their startup was acquired by SellWell and later rebranded as FliteHouse.
The spark behind SalesBop
The idea came to Dritsakos while running a small marketing company. He noticed how manual sales coaching—listening to hour-long calls and giving feedback—was both time-consuming and expensive.
“I saw how a little bit of structured sales coaching could dramatically improve performance,” he said. “But doing it manually wasn’t scalable. As a computer science student, I thought why not use AI to automate it?”
He pitched the idea to Simionescu, a high school friend with entrepreneurial experience from running a wedding videography business. “That gave me an unnecessary amount of confidence that I could pull this off,” she laughed. They soon brought in Huang, a technically gifted peer drawn to the challenge of building the platform.
Building with grit – and a little help
Despite their limited business experience, the team dove headfirst into startup life. A turning point was joining The Forge, McMaster University’s startup incubator that connected them with mentors, resources, and a community of fellow founders.
Dritsakos says joining The Forge was a pivotal moment for the company. “The Forge opened so many doors for us that we wouldn’t have had access to had we not been in the program.”
This included working with mentors who helped shape their product roadmap and get clients and put them in touch with connections.
“We had an impressive MVP (minimum viable product) but I remember feeling stuck because we didn’t know anyone else trying to create a startup,” Simionescu said. “The Forge community was really important. Suddenly, everyone around us was in the same boat, sharing ideas and experiences.”
One mentor, Ingrid Polini, helped them craft a LinkedIn-based customer acquisition strategy. That’s how they met Dan Liska, CEO of SellWell (now FliteHouse).
Liska was impressed by SalesBop’s standout feature: an AI-powered scorecard that automatically evaluates sales calls based on a company’s best practices. “You no longer need to listen to every call,” explained Dritsakos. “It shifts coaching from reactive to proactive—you can catch issues early and coach reps in real time.”
The Deal That Changed Everything
After collaborating on a few projects, Liska approached the team about an acquisition. The deal closed on February 26, and the product relaunched as FliteHouse on June 13.
Today, Dritsakos serves as VP of Technology at FliteHouse. Simionescu is a software engineer at MongoDB, where she previously interned. Huang is working on contract roles in machine learning and augmented reality.
Reflections on a Wild Ride
“The acquisition was life-changing,” said Simionescu. “It was incredibly stressful, and it didn’t feel real when it happened. But it was a beautiful moment.”
Huang echoed the sentiment: “I don’t really have words. It still feels surreal. It’s definitely our first time doing anything of this magnitude.”
Dritsakos summed it up best: “It was anything but easy. There were a lot of ups and downs. But we’re proud of what we built—and none of us are done yet.”