A $200M Exit, Recruiting Software Engineers & the Future of Digital Marketing with Joe Colopy

Joe Colopy is the founder and former CEO of Bronto software, a cloud-based provider of commerce marketing automation headquartered in Durham, North Carolina. Bronto grew its revenue from zero to $50 million dollars over fifteen years with a $200M exit in 2015, selling to NetSuite which was then acquired by Oracle. I’ve known Joe since 2006 when I started using the platform and have watched it grow and become an industry leader in omni-channel marketing. 

Recently, Joe launched Jurassic Capital which invests in B2B software companies throughout the Southeast, leveraging his experience to help growth-stage software companies scale. Two years ago, he also launched GrepBeat which covers tech news and views for Raleigh-Durham and the surrounding area. It’s like TechCrunch for the Research Triangle Park with a bit of Buzzfeed. It is a great resource for entrepreneurs in the area to help their voices be heard and put RTP on the map as an emerging and world-class business hub. 

Joe completed his undergraduate degree in Computer Science and Economics from Harvard University and has an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. With an MBA and Computer Science degree, Joe and I get pretty technical and talk about what it takes to scale a software business, hire and recruit developers, and we discuss future trends in digital marketing. Joe also provides his insight into how best to leverage an MBA education and the relationships you build while at school.

Discussion Topics:

(2:43) The skills needed to start a business and then scale it.

(5:44) Keeping motivated when faced with failures and setbacks.

(8:40) Bootstrapping a business from the ground up with the right partner.

(12:45) Launching GrepBeat and helping entrepreneurs share their stories.

(18:04) Building company culture and recruiting and retaining software engineers.

(23:56) Community involvement and Joe’s experiences in the Peace Corps.

(29:35) Future trends in omni-channel digital marketing.

(38:11) Advice for putting an MBA education to best use in one’s career.