Josh James

Josh James is a serial technology entrepreneur best known for founding two billion-dollar companies: Omniture and Domo. He attended Brigham Young University from 1991 to 1996, studying business management and entrepreneurship, but left one semester short of graduating to focus on his ventures. While still a student at BYU, James co-founded Omniture in 1996, a SaaS-based web analytics platform. He also co-founded an interactive agency and two other businesses that were subsequently sold to WebMediaBrands (formerly Jupitermedia) and Verisign. Under his leadership, Omniture became the number-one returning venture investment out of 1,008 venture capital investments in 2004 and the number-two performing technology IPO of 2006. For the three years Omniture was public, James was the youngest CEO of a NASDAQ or NYSE-traded company. In 2009, he facilitated Omniture's sale to Adobe for $1.8 billion.

After his exit from Adobe, James founded Domo in 2010 by purchasing Lindon, Utah-based Corda Technologies and merging it with his new venture, Shacho. Domo -- named after the Japanese word for "thank you" -- is a cloud-based business intelligence and data platform designed to provide real-time data insights to business executives. James led Domo through its IPO on NASDAQ in 2018. He has navigated multiple leadership transitions at Domo: stepping down as CEO in March 2022, returning as CEO in March 2023 after John Mellor's departure, and most recently reducing his duties in December 2025 due to health reasons, with CTO Daren Thayne appointed as Interim Principal Executive Officer. In February 2026, Domo's board initiated a formal process to explore strategic alternatives -- including a potential sale or strategic business combination -- engaging Jefferies LLC as financial advisor, while reaffirming FY2026 revenue guidance of $317.5-$318.5 million.

Beyond his companies, James is a foundational figure in Utah's technology ecosystem. He coined the term "Silicon Slopes" and founded the nonprofit organization of the same name to promote Utah's high-tech industry. He co-created the Silicon Slopes Venture Fund alongside Qualtrics co-founder Ryan Smith and Pelion Venture Partners' Jeff Kearl. James has served as a technology advisor to Utah Governors Jon Huntsman and Gary Herbert, led the Utah Silicon Valley Alliance, and actively supports BYU's eBusiness Center, the Utah Technology Council, and Utah's Women Tech Council. His accolades include the 2006 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, BYU's Technology Entrepreneur of the Decade, induction into the Utah Technology Hall of Fame (2012), Fortune 40 Under 40 (#26 in 2009), and Fortune 40 Under 40 "Ones to Watch" (#1 in 2011).

Josh James invests as an angel investor primarily in enterprise applications, consumer technology, and data-driven businesses, with a strong tilt toward the Utah/Silicon Slopes ecosystem. His investment philosophy is shaped by his experience building Omniture and Domo from the ground up. Key principles from his well-known "Josh James Startup Rules" (published at joshjames.com) include:

• Customer obsession: "Customers first! In every way" -- citing 100% customer retention at Omniture for five consecutive years.
• Sales-driven clarity: "When it isn't blatantly clear where you should focus, the answer is immerse yourself in sales. It has all the answers."
• Capital discipline: "Don't spend startup money on anything until you have to, but when the time comes, don't be chintzy."
• Recruiting as a competitive advantage: Treat hiring like a major sales deal; the best employees are always happily employed elsewhere and must be actively recruited.
• Sectors: Enterprise SaaS, business intelligence, data analytics, consumer brands, fintech, proptech.

| Company | Sector | Outcome | |---------|--------|---------| | Entrata | Proptech / Property Management SaaS | Unicorn (valued at $3.7B+; Silver Lake-led round) | | Divvy | Fintech / Expense Management | Acquired by Bill.com (exit) | | Stance | Consumer / Premium Apparel | Board member | | Workfront | Enterprise Work Management SaaS | Acquired by Adobe | | Simplus | Salesforce Consulting / CPQ | Acquired by Infosys | | Eptura | Workplace Management Software | Exit | | Supernova | Technology | Exit | | EnticeLabs | Technology | Exit | | XANT (InsideSales.com) | AI-powered Sales Platform | Exit (August 2021) | | Silicon Slopes Ventures | Venture Fund (co-founder) | Portfolio includes Lucid, MX, Weave, Galileo, Cloudflare, Uber |