Back in early 2000’s, Joe Colopy left his job to build a software product – without funding and without even a firm idea of what to build. The first attempt was not going well and the clock was ticking. But then with his wife 3 months pregnant, and his back against the wall, he focused in on something that was providing something useful to one of his first users. That hint of something eventually became Bronto Software, which Joe grew along with his co-founder Chaz Felix from pre-revenue to an exit of $200M dollars – without taking on debt of venture funding.

In this episode we talk about Joe’s upbringing, how he founded his company, found his first customers, partnered up with his co-founder, as well as how and why he sold the company and what it like to be on the other side.