Joe Alsop spent nearly three decades building Progress Software from a startup into a public company with about $515M in sales by 2008/2009, growing it to 100,000 customers in 140 countries and support from over 70% of Fortune 100 companies. That operator background shapes how he evaluates opportunities today, from his Real, Win, Worth framework to his focus on sequencing growth—product and pre-sales storytelling before scaling sales and support—and his belief that software should work as simply as an appliance for the people using it.