Jim Eberlin has been at the forefront of St. Louis’ tech startup scene since its earliest days. Inspired in his youth by the likes of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Larry Ellison, Jim became interested in launching companies of his own. Jim’s first entrepreneurial venture was a consulting firm, which exposed him to real-world problems regularly confronting businesses. He did well enough in that sector to start a cloud-based financial reporting and analytics company, Host Analytics in 2000. There, Jim built a strong reputation with big customers like Proctor & Gamble and Pitney Bowes, and investors Next World, StarVest and Trident Capital. Host Analytics (now called Planful) became one of the top 3 products in its market category. This successful run gave him the experience and confidence to launch two subsequent tech startup ventures.

Next, Jim launched another B2B SaaS company called Gainsight (formerly JBara) in 2009. Gainsight became the number one product in its market category, called Customer Success. Cultivation Capital, now a major venture capital firm in St. Louis, and Capital Innovators were initial investors. Jim then started TopOPPS in 2014 (now Xactly Forecasting), which uses artificial intelligence to improve sales pipeline management and revenue forecasting.

Jim’s companies have raised close to $300M in venture capital and created close to 2,000 jobs (hundreds here in St. Louis). In 2018, Host Analytics (now called Planful) was acquired by private equity firm, Vector Capital. In 2020, Gainsight was acquired for $1.1B by Vista Equity Partners, making it the first St. Louis-founded “unicorn” tech startup. Finally, in 2021 another Vista Equity Partners company, San Jose, CA-based Xactly corporation acquired Jim’s third company, TopOPPS, completing an incredible “hat trick” of startup exits.

Throughout his impressive entrepreneurial journey, Jim prioritized his hometown of St. Louis by ensuring that the bulk of his companies’ operations stayed in the region even as he opened offices for Gainsight and Host Analytics in the Bay Area to level the playing field with Silicon Valley-based competitors. He was presented the Governor’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award by then-Missouri Governor Jay Nixon in 2015, received the Spirit of Maryville Dean’s Award from his alma mater, Maryville University in 2016, and was most recently honored by St. Louis Business Journal with a Lifetime Achievement Award earlier this year, among many other recognitions.

Jim credits Missouri Technology Corporation, Capital Innovators, and Arch Grants with sparking the early tech startup community in St. Louis. He is excited to champion the local startup economy in the future by continuing to mentor young founders, investing in early-stage companies, and volunteering for entrepreneurial support organizations like OPO Startups and Arch Grants.