Founder
Laura Henderson
Career Technology Executive. SaaS operator. Rooted in St. Petersburg.
"The next wave of technological change should strengthen the businesses we already have - not just create stress and distractions."
About Laura
Laura is a technology executive director and lifelong entrepreneur and operator who has spent two decades inside high-growth software companies - as CEO, COO, CTO and President. She has led successful product and GTM launches, exits, navigated SOX, SOC2, PCI and ERP implementations, and rebuilt leadership teams that turned culture-first growth into accountable, profitable enterprises.
Her work spans startups, S&M and public companies - ranging from $5M ARR start-ups to $100M+ MRR scaled operations. Across all of them, the common thread has been the same: helping established teams execute change without losing the operational discipline that made them valuable in the first place.
Gulf Works Lab is the natural extension of that work. After watching too many CEOs lose sleep over AI and other technolgical disruption - and watching too many consulting engagements produce waste that is hard for their teams would integrate and adopt — Laura founded Gulf Works Lab to give established companies a safer, faster, and more honest way to experiment and innovate.
Additioanlly, Laura is has always been mission drive and serves as the Nonprofit Board Chair for MyFriendLinkin.org, is a published Scrum.org case study author, and is a CODiE Award winner. She is also the founder of Win.Win.Architect, the consulting practice from which Gulf Works Lab grew.
Operator track record
Two decades of running the rooms most founders only consult to.
2024–2026
Chief Operating Officer
EdTech & Youth Activities SaaS - midmarket
Led 130-person SaaS through performance recalibration. 120% net new client growth, 5% YoY EBITDA improvement.
2017–2024
President / COO / VP CX
Construction - Heavy Civil SaaS - midmarket
Orchestrated successful exit to strategic buyers. EOS, Lean, and Agile transformation across the business.
2015–2017
Chief Executive Officer & Founder
EdTech - Startup
Led K-12 EdTech startup. Secured $2M+ seed funding. Launched #1 iTunes podcast and award-winning #iamME campaign.
2005–2016
CEO — Americas
Barcoding and AIDC Software
Grew EBITDA from 17% to 34%. Increased recurring revenue from 7% to 82%. Executed $30M divestiture in four months.
Selected accomplishments
280%
Increase in business valuation prior to executed exit (5 years).
8% → 82%
Shift from one-time to recurring revenue while maintaining profitability.
47% → 75%
Employee engagement, lifting Glassdoor from 2.3 to 4.7.
59 → 34 days
AR improvement post ERP/Sage Intacct implementation, under budget.
What we believe
Four principles that shape every engagement.
01
Strengthen what already works.
The next wave of technology should reinforce established businesses, not destabilize them. We protect what makes you valuable while you experiment with what's next.
02
Operate, don't just advise.
Real change comes from people who have run the rooms, signed the payroll, and shipped the software — not from slide decks handed off at the end of an engagement.
03
Small experiments, honest results.
We design contained, measurable experiments so leaders can decide with evidence — and walk away from what doesn't work without burning the operation.
04
Adoption is the deliverable.
If your team won't use it, it doesn't count. Every engagement ends with capability inside your business, not dependency on ours.