His self-described Twitter bio (@joshjames) says it all: “Josh James: Domo Founder/CEO. Ominture CEO & Co-founder—inception to IPO. Sold for $1.8B. 6 daughters. ONE lovely wife. BYU.”
As noted, James’ first great success was Omniture, the Adobe web analytics and marketing software built to track website traffic much like Google Analytics. He dropped out of college a month before graduation because he realized that every hour he was sitting in class, he was losing $125 (the price he was charging people to build web pages).
Omniture grew and James took the company public in 2006 on his 33rd birthday, eventually agreeing to be purchased by Adobe for $1.8 billion.
James actually maintains his own site of rules for startups for entrepreneurs. Here are some of his rules and other quotes from the startup mogul, Josh James:
“There were times when I lay down on the floor at night, close to crying, and said, ‘I’m done. I can’t make payroll.’ Then my wife would come over and kick me and say, ‘Get up and figure it out.’”
“I make mistakes faster than anybody. I think, go, do.”
“Customers first! In every way. [We] had 100% retention of customers at Omniture for five years.“
“When it isn’t blatantly clear where you should focus, the answer is immerse yourself in sales. It has all the answers.”
“Don’t spend startup money on anything until you have to, but when the time comes, don’t be chintzy.”
“Competitors are trying to take food from your family and your team’s families. Treat accordingly.”
“If running a tech startup, don’t get old and rusty. Each year in age is a liability. Keep curiosity for new and different.”
“Don’t waste time on private to private acquisitions. Too much talk. Too hard to value. Build your own business and dominate later.”
“Sometimes your success was in spite of what you did, not because of it.”
“Nothing is more motivating and nothing pisses me off more than people who doubt me.”
“I don’t care what religion you are. I don’t care what color you are. I don’t care what sex you are. All I care about is that you close deals. And that you’re a good person.”
—Josh James, Founder of Omniture and Domo
