When it comes to being in the local entrepreneurial ecosystem, there isn’t much that Evan Knowles has not done.
The founder of numerous enterprises, Lexington, Kentucky-based Knowles has chronicled many of his experiences through the Middle Tech podcast that he co-hosts with Logan Jones.
And it was on a Middle Tech episode that recapped 2023 where he unveiled that he and his team at Symba — a fintech startup in the real estate space that created a mobile-first customer relationship management platform for real estate agents — had marked a first in his career: an exit to an undisclosed buyer. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
The sale was completed in the fall. The process took approximately three months from when the buyer expressed interest to when it was finalized. Before the sale, Symba had raised a bridge round of $250,000 — and had raised $850,000 in total capital.
Symba was one of KY Inno's Startups to Watch in 2023.
“It was that quick only because I had already lined up a few interested parties over the last year prior to that, cultivating relationships,” Knowles told me recently of the exit.
Under the non-disclosure agreement that Knowles and his fellow co-founders signed, they are not legally able to talk about Symba.
What he was able to share is everything that happened after that point.
“I had a lot of great investors, mentors and a good attorney, so between those three [entities], I leaned heavily. Several of my investors had had exits,” Knowles said, naming Drura Parrish, who had a large exit with MakeTime in 2018, as one of those investors.
After the exit, Knowles traveled. Some of his destinations included Montana, Europe (Portugal/Spain) and Southeast Asia (Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam). Every major close in his career has generally been followed by some form of travel.
“I like to frame it as, like, forced culture shock," he said. "It makes me disconnect from whatever I was doing last, or disconnect from whatever’s going on in life and just be very present because I don’t really have a choice because I’m somewhere I’m so unfamiliar with.”
He also looked back on his three-year experience, and wrote that down in a lengthy reflection that is now live on his personal site, Evan’s Substack. It’s worth a read for any founder, touching up on a variety of topics aside from just starting a business and raising capital. Among the topics covered include team-building struggles, and the journey's toll on relationships and faith.
“It’s pretty personal,” Knowles told me of the reflection. “It’s very transparent on the founder mental health, on what the journey is like from beginning to end.”
As he traveled, Knowles also began “tinkering with generative AI,” per the reflection, which led to his next chapter.
Called Devyze, Knowles is working on “a collaboration and productivity tool” that is in the AI space with an undisclosed co-founder who is also based in Lexington. According to the reflection, which was published on Jan. 4, a minimal viable product (MVP) is being tested internally. Knowles added that Devyze is actively looking for companies to test the software and build-use cases.
“This is a new platform that will change everything and businesses that do not adopt it quickly will be overtaken by competitors that do. … I have extremely high conviction that there is a MASSIVE opportunity to build a collaboration/productivity product that allows teams to make rapid, asynchronous decisions that are more informed and impactful than ever before,” Knowles wrote in his reflection.
