How Josh James built Omniture into a powerhouse & sold it to Adobe for $1.8b | Hacker News Reader

How Josh James built Omniture into a powerhouse & sold it to Adobe for $1.8b

inc.com

62 pointsadamhowell21 comments

So we bought a 10-minute spot for $15,000 at a trade show. We had this sales guy say, "Everyone stand up, because we are going to play rock, paper, scissors. And the winner gets a Hummer. But instead of saying 'rock, paper, scissors,' we're going to say 'Om-ni-ture.' " So you got 1,500 people chanting "Om-ni-ture." Ever since that day, there really haven't been any RFPs that we didn't get an invite to.

Simply brilliant.

Looks like Josh James and Omniture does not forget its roots.

"World’s Largest Rock, Paper, Scissors Contest Promotes Entrepreneurship"

"In an effort to promote entrepreneurship and raise money for charity, the BYU Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization hosted its 2nd annual Omniture Throwdown - the world’s largest rock, paper, scissors tournament...

So when the club's director of membership services, Derek Pando, came up with the idea for a giant Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament, as crazy as it sounded, they decided to go for it...

As an additional way of promoting entrepreneurship, the competition was sponsored by Omniture, a leading provider of online business optimization software, which was co-founded by a former BYU CEO president, Josh James."

http://marriottschool.byu.edu/news/release.cfm?article=383

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,660209736,00.html

He comes out to speak to us students on campus at BYU all the time. He brings a big-crowd because he's very authentic. Even though he's worth like $300 Million, he's very down to earth and real, which I think draws people to him. Here's one of his talks: http://byuebusiness.blogspot.com/2009/12/josh-james-december...

They also host an iPhone application contest, and the highways around BYU are plastered with billboards for Omniture. They do a great job of promoting the company to potential talent. Example billboard - "The Internet - Al Gore invented, Omniture improved."

Or this one: http://twitpic.com/2xamg

Thanks for posting that video. That was 50 minutes of my time well spent.

I just watched the video. Excellent! Thanks for the thumbs up review. Here's a few nuggets (it's worth the entire 50 minutes and rewatching):

For three years, Omniture was the fastest growing software company in the world. And the 22nd to ever reach a billion total in sales.

"I think one of the problems that you see with..I've invested in a bunch of companies - it's really quite... appalling's not really the right word - that's being overly judgmental - it's interesting to me the number of people who don't understand and focus in on... Revenue Revenue Revenue. Like who cares if the desk isn't put together. Who cares if you don't have time to call that person back. Who cares if that persons mad about that and they want talk about it and they want to sit down and talk about when they get health care. Who cares if that guy wants to go to a Chamber of Commerce of Meeting. All that really matters is that you sell some stuff.

In 2002 we had a bunch of people we fired and they were saying really untrue stuff about us in the valley. It's a small valley. We were just a $4M business - who cares about a $4M business - investors don't. We were saying 'you know we would never do it - you guys know us but you know it was he says, she says. But you know what, the day of reckoning must come. You just build the business. The credibility comes with the quality of business. Then they realize that the stuff you were saying was true.

A lot of people when they start a business are worrying about way too many things other than sales. And that's really all that matters in the business is a sale. And if you can't get a sale, then you go back and fix the product. And as soon as it's minimally good enough to sell, then you sell it."

Another one: He would have a single meeting in SF and he would go and buy 15 books on marketing, branding, guerilla marketing - and find 5 after 10 min. sucked, 5 had a good chapter and 5 he read cover to cover. That is how he learned to build his confidence when going into big meetings "That idea is stupid.. well, Coca Cola didn't think so (snap!)"

Glad you liked it. It inspired me too!

Thank you! That's one of the best talks I've seen. Josh James is my new hero.

Love this quote:

  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."

That woman is gold.

"Adobe wasn't the obvious match, but it was the one that was willing to spend the most money, and that's really all that matters.

In the last 13 years, I never had to go to a meeting internally that I didn't want to. Now there are meetings I have to go to. It's part of working for somebody else."

Those last few paragraphs sound a little, I don't know, apologetic? Resentful?

Trust me, once you get bought out, the transition to "someone else runs the show now" is super painful. Even if you are just an employee. Especially if you were the founder.

Getting a buyout like Omnitures is the goal, but it really does feel like selling your soul when it happens. What once made sense and was fun, suddenly is run by clowns and is drudgery.

If this was on Mixergy, the title would have been: "How a college dropout built Omniture into a powerhouse & sold it to Adobe for $1.8b"

Doesn't that read better?

All kidding aside, I've got to interview this guy.

I can put you in touch with his assistant. Email me.

Another Mixergy interview about how you have to slog through the hard times to get to the pay off! They're the best, they're the ones that make me feel better about the stuff I have to deal with. The ones where they breezed through (though generally it is their second or third startup) don't do much for me.

"My customers don't want to give all of their data to Google. So you say "Google Analytics," and I say "cost of free." "

This is a really important point to understand.

A great interview but not only that.. a great format too. The way Inc presented this is awesome for those of us with focus issues :-) I'd love to see more articles distilled into such a form.

You know, that is a great format. I had to think for a few minutes what's going on. They just print his answers, and leave the questions out. It works amazingly well.

Thanks, Peter. I'm the reporter who worked on the piece and I wanted to let you know that we run this exact type of feature (same format) in every issue. We call it How I Did It. (If you're interested, you can read more of them here: www.inc.com/hidi.)

-Jason

Awesome - I had a very quick browse at the time and couldn't find that. Now that I'm looking through the archive, I see I've already read a few of these :-)

This format has inspired me to try a similar approach on my own news related blog. Pithy short paragraphs, no uncertainty, no fuss. Thanks for the inspiration.

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