Owler

Jim Fowler's entrepreneurial journey began unconventionally. After serving in the U.S. Navy as a diving and salvage officer to pay off his ROTC scholarship at University of Colorado, he co-owned and operated a small ski area in Idaho from age 26 to 30. By 1995, at age 30, he decided it was time to "grow up and be an adult," moving to the Bay Area as the internet boom was just beginning. He worked his way up through several startups, eventually becoming a VP of Sales earning "three or four hundred grand a year"—significant money for someone from his background.

In 2003, despite the post-9/11 and dot-com bust climate, Jim decided to start Jigsaw. The spark came from frustration with his boss, and his wife's simple advice: "Honey, you are never going to be happy until you're running your own company." Rather than quit immediately, Jim implemented a disciplined approach—arriving at the office from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m., blocking out his calendar, closing his door, and spending one uninterrupted hour whiteboarding ideas without checking email or answering calls. This daily ritual, influenced by his Navy discipline, became the foundation for Jigsaw's development. Starting with what he knew (sales), he iterated through ideas and eventually landed on Jigsaw: "a gigantic business card exchange" that created a valuable dataset of business contact information.

Jigsaw grew steadily by solving a real problem in sales—accessing quality business data. The company attracted customers through its novel approach to crowdsourced business intelligence. By the late 2000s, Jigsaw had become so successful that Salesforce took notice, establishing a long-term partnership relationship. Jim's COO developed a strong relationship with Salesforce's leadership, positioning the company for acquisition conversations.

Almost two weeks away from closing a deal in late 2008, the acquisition fell through during the financial crisis. Jim notes this as a valuable lesson: "The deal is never done until it's done." However, this setback proved fortunate. A year and a half later, Salesforce returned with a much larger offer, ultimately acquiring Jigsaw for $175 million. The public announcement put the figure at $142 million, but with $8 million in cash returned to shareholders and a $25 million earnout (which Jim calls "a layup" because the performance targets were nearly guaranteed), the true price was $150 million upfront. At the time of sale, Jigsaw had reached $17-18 million in annual revenue the prior year with a $25 million run rate, and crucially, was already cash flow positive—a rarity for venture-backed companies pursuing growth at all costs.

After successfully completing the earnout and seeing Jigsaw become Data.com (now part of Salesforce's Data Cloud), Jim moved on to found Owler, a free competitive intelligence platform that tracks over 13 million companies using a crowdsourced model. Owler helps users monitor competitors, their own company, partners, and customers. Jim also shares his entrepreneurial philosophy in interviews and on LinkedIn, emphasizing the importance of early-morning focus, avoiding MBAs in favor of real-world experience, and taking action while young. He balances his work with family time, having made a deal with his wife early in Jigsaw's tenure to be home for dinner by 6:30 p.m. and spend time with his family until 8:30 p.m. before returning to work, ensuring he recharged on weekends.