DM Blog

Homegrown Bronto Software has been named Software Company of the Year by the N.C. Technology Association.

It's just the latest addition to the trophy case of the American Tobacco-based firm, co-founded by Joe Colopy and Chaz Felix, having won two Stevie Awards for Best Customer Service Department, named Best Place to Work by Triangle Business Journal two years running and more.

They've achieved all this while enjoying the fruits of their in-house kegerator, regular company dinners and participating in the annual Assasin contest.

"Isn't it exciting? This little Durham company?" Joe said during a recent interview.

"It's great to be recognized."

Joe graduated from UNC business school in 1999 and went to work for Red Hat before leaving a year later to develop what would become Bronto out of his Trinity Park home.

"Ultimately I was an entrepreneur at heart," Joe says.

He founded the company in 2002 with Chaz and began with mostly local clients, helping them manage email marketing campaigns.

The business expanded into helping companies turn one-time customers into repeats through email, mobile and social media campaigns. Bronto now claims Party City, Etsy, Gander Mountain, Dean & Deluca, Samsonite and Trek Bikes among its more than 1,000 clients. It now employs 120 people in its 20,000-square-foot space above Tyler's (which gets a plug in part because of the business loss it suffered when the kegerator went in.)

In fact, Joe was one of the first people to see the pent-up potential of American Tobacco and downtown in general.

The company had moved to the RTP area when American Tobacco was being renovated. Bronto signed up to be one of the first tenants, and in fact was the first company to fully move in 2004. Of course, it needed smaller digs then, but has gradually built up to larger and larger spaces.

"Back then there were a lot more questions about downtown and Durham in general, much more than there are now," Joe says.

"I think I saw past the veneer of grit to this great potential. And that same vision we had for Durham is exactly what it's becoming now. It's got a great progressive feel.  It's got great character. All that together is why Durham is starting to be more and more successful."

The leap-of-faith move is just one sign of Bronto's Durham passion.

Every employee gets a day off a year (usually split into two half-days) to participate in community-building activites with local charities such as Habitat for Humanity, The Emily K Center, SEEDS and others.

"We know the people who enjoy doing these kinds of things have great values and are the kinds of people we want to work here," Joe says.

The company not only is poised for even more growth but is already planting the seeds for the entire city to fully come into its own as a high-tech hub.

Durham-based Web marketing firms Argyle Social and Windsor Circle both were created by former Bronto employees.

"I like to think, in our own small way, we're doing our part to incubate these companies and show people how it's done," Joe says. "That ultimately will help downtown Durham and all of Durham."