Mark Galloway co-founded OppSource in 2008 with Dan Metzger and Damon Lawson. OppSource is a company built on a cloud-based, market-leading sales development platform. However, the early stages of the company involved outsourcing marketing and sales leads. “We started OppSource to outsource sales and marketing leads for customers and give them more opportunity to grow… and now we do that through an online platform,” explained Galloway.

In the DNA

Mark Galloway was born into an entrepreneurial family in Northern Iowa. His father was a metal fabricator that brought innovation to the agriculture business. His father was most known for his dry brake valve that was created to stop chemicals from being used on the wrong crop, which found later use in the fueling process of airplanes. “I grew up in my father’s entrepreneurial shadow, literally and physically… in some ways being an entrepreneur is in my blood and DNA,” said Galloway.

After graduating high school, Galloway attended the University of Northern Iowa and earned a degree in accounting.  Mark worked as a certified public accountant for about 6 weeks before quitting to look for a more creative line of employment. “I remember looking in the Star Tribune in 1985 for potential job opportunities and found a software company looking for accountants to work on a software project,” explained Galloway. This search led to a job with Lawson Software and a connection with his current co-founders of OppSource.

Mark Galloway moved up the executive ladder with Lawson Software until it went public in 2001 when he left to pursue other endeavors. After stepping away from Lawson, Galloway utilized his knowledge gained in product marketing for other companies, started and sold two companies (one in healthcare and the other in market research), and is now the CEO of OppSource. In fact, the beginning of OppSource was sparked by a phone call from his former boss, Dan Metzger. “Around the beginning of 2008, I received a phone call from Dan Metzger and he asked if we should get the Lawson band back together again to start an outsourcing company,” said Galloway.

Pivoting into the Future

OppSource officially opened its doors in July of 2008. However, the economy was struggling and forcing businesses to adjust to survive. In the beginning stages, OppSource focused on the service of
outsourcing sales leads and marketing for companies. “We found that CRM’s on the market fell short of meeting our demands for our customers, so out of necessity, we built a platform that could handle the quantity of data and made our process efficient for our customers,” explained Galloway.

In 2015, OppSource made another pivot in their journey as a sales and marketing company. “A customer approached us about licensing our platform for their personal use instead of outsourcing with our company… and the rest is history,” said Galloway. The decision was made to begin selling licenses to a cloud-based platform of OppSource.

With momentum from this pivot, Mark Galloway and OppSource finished raising over $1.2 million in capital funds in May of 2017. “We made the move from a services company to a cloud-based platform…. and now we are growing as fast as we can,” explained Galloway. As OppSource continues to expand, Mark sees opportunities with the buyer-driven market, artificial intelligence, and new efficiencies with their platform.

Learn more from Mark Galloway and OppSource as he speaks at 1 Million Cups Fargo on Wednesday, October 11th, 2017 at 9:15 a.m. at The Stage at Island Park.