Owler is a community-based competitive intelligence platform that helps business professionals track competitors, monitor industry news, and access real-time company insights across over 14 million company profiles. Jim Fowler co-founded Owler in 2011 with Tim Harsch and served as its Chief Executive Officer until the company was acquired by Meltwater in June 2021 for $24.5 million. A serial entrepreneur, Fowler previously founded Jigsaw Data Corporation in 2003, which he sold to Salesforce for $175 million in 2010. He is a U.S. Navy veteran who turned a childhood habit of selling pumpkins into a career building multimillion-dollar data companies.

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Owler Competitors

Owler operates in the competitive intelligence and business information industry. The key competitors of Owler include:

• ZoomInfo – leading B2B contact and company intelligence platform
• Crunchbase – startup and venture capital data provider
• PitchBook – private market financial data and analysis
• CB Insights – technology market intelligence platform
• SimilarWeb – digital competitive intelligence and web analytics
• Dun & Bradstreet – global commercial data and analytics
• InsideView (Demandbase) – B2B data and intelligence
• Tracxn – startup tracking and analytics

Jim Fowler – Quick Facts

Jim Fowler Net Worth 2026 – Owler CEO Salary

As of 2026, Jim Fowler’s net worth is estimated at approximately $20–30 million USD. The bulk of his wealth stems from the $175 million sale of Jigsaw to Salesforce in 2010, where Fowler held a significant equity stake as founder and CEO. His additional earnings from founding and leading Owler, which was acquired by Meltwater for $24.5 million in 2021, further contributed to his net worth. As a private individual no longer leading a publicly traded company, exact figures are not publicly disclosed.

Owler was a privately held company throughout Fowler’s tenure as CEO. Since it was not required to file public compensation disclosures with the SEC, Jim Fowler’s exact salary at Owler is not available. However, based on industry benchmarks for venture-backed startup CEOs, his total compensation would typically have included a base salary and significant equity ownership.

Jim Fowler Estimated Compensation (Private Company)

Owler Net Worth – Company Financials

Owler was a privately held company and did not publicly disclose detailed financials. However, key data points are available from its funding rounds and eventual acquisition by Meltwater. In 2019, Owler reported approximately $10 million in annual revenue with around 100 enterprise customers. The company raised a total of $30.9 million in venture capital before being acquired.

Owler Financial Summary

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Owler CEO Email Address | Jim Fowler Contact

Below are the contact details and social media profiles for former Owler CEO Jim Fowler. Note that since the Meltwater acquisition in 2021, the [email protected] email may no longer be active.

Career & Education – Company, University, & College

Jim Fowler’s career is defined by serial entrepreneurship in the data and business intelligence space. After graduating from the University of Colorado Boulder on a Navy ROTC scholarship, he served as a U.S. Navy diving and salvage officer, conducting underwater salvage operations. His military service instilled discipline and leadership that he carried into the business world.

In the early 1990s, Fowler made his first entrepreneurial move by becoming co-owner of Lookout Pass Ski & Recreation Area in Wallace, Idaho, which he operated from 1992 to 1996. After selling his stake in 1999, he moved to Silicon Valley and entered the technology sector. He held VP of Sales roles at Digital Impact, Paramark, and Tightlink, where he built sales organizations from the ground up. Earlier in his tech career, he served as Director of Sales at Personify (1998–2000) and as Regional Sales Manager at NetGravity Inc (1997–1998).

In 2003, Fowler founded Jigsaw Data Corporation, a pioneering crowdsourced B2B contact database. After launching in beta in 2004, Jigsaw grew rapidly and was acquired by Salesforce in May 2010 for $175 million. The product was subsequently rebranded as Salesforce Data.com.

After the Jigsaw exit, Fowler invested $1 million to launch InfoArmy in 2012, a crowdsourced corporate research platform. When that business model proved unsustainable, he pivoted the company and relaunched it as Owler in February 2013. Co-founded with Tim Harsch, Owler grew to serve over 5 million business professionals with competitive intelligence tools. Fowler also served on the Board of Directors of CrowdFlower (now Figure Eight / Appen).

Jim Fowler Career Timeline

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Education

Jim Fowler Wiki – Age, Family, & More

Jim Fowler (age approximately 61 as of 2026) is based in Scottsdale, Arizona. He grew up with an entrepreneurial spirit from a very young age. His mother, who loved gardening, used to grow pumpkins in the backyard of their home. Young Jim would take those home-grown pumpkins to a nearby street corner and sell them. One day, a man asked him if he made any profit — that was the first time he understood what profit means. That childhood lesson shaped his lifelong approach to business.

Fowler attended the University of Colorado Boulder on a Navy ROTC scholarship, studying Central and East European Studies. After graduation, he served as a U.S. Navy diving and salvage officer, conducting underwater operations. His military background gave him the discipline and resilience that would later define his entrepreneurial career. He transitioned from the Navy to running a ski resort, and from there to the technology sector in Silicon Valley.

Notable Achievements

• Jigsaw Exit — $175 Million – Founded Jigsaw in 2003 and sold it to Salesforce in 2010 for $175M, one of the notable acquisitions in the B2B data space
• Owler Community Builder – Grew Owler to over 5 million active business professionals and 14 million company profiles
• U.S. Navy Veteran – Served as a diving and salvage officer after graduating on an ROTC scholarship
• Serial Entrepreneur – Founded or co-founded four companies: Lookout Pass Ski Area, Jigsaw, InfoArmy, and Owler
• Crowdsourcing Pioneer – Both Jigsaw and Owler leveraged community-contributed data to build business intelligence platforms, making Fowler one of the earliest advocates of crowdsourced B2B data
• Board Member – Served on the Board of Directors of CrowdFlower (now Figure Eight / Appen)

On a personal note, Jim Fowler has mentioned that Jeremiah Johnson is one of his favorite movies — a fitting choice for a Navy veteran and former ski resort operator who has always charted his own path.

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About Owler

Owler is an American internet company headquartered in San Mateo, California, that provides a community-based competitive intelligence platform for business professionals. Founded in 2011 by Jim Fowler and Tim Harsch (originally as InfoArmy, relaunched as Owler in February 2013), the platform crowdsources business data including company profiles, news alerts, funding updates, leadership changes, and competitive insights.

Owler’s flagship product, the Daily Snapshot, curates the most relevant news and blog posts from the past 24 hours for each user’s industry, competitors, and prospects. The platform also sends Instant Insight alerts for 15 trigger events including funding rounds, acquisitions, and leadership changes. At its peak, Owler served over 5 million active business professionals and maintained profiles on 14 million+ companies.

On June 18, 2021, Owler was acquired by Meltwater, a global media intelligence company, for $24.5 million ($18.9M in cash and $5.6M in Meltwater equity). Meltwater integrated Owler’s proprietary data with its own media monitoring platform to strengthen its competitive intelligence and sales intelligence capabilities across 27,000 global customers. Owler’s offices were located in San Mateo, CA; Spokane, WA; and Coimbatore, India.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Who is the founder and CEO of Owler?

Owler was co-founded by Jim Fowler and Tim Harsch in 2011. Jim Fowler served as CEO during the early years of the company. Tim Harsch later took over as CEO. Owler was acquired by Meltwater in June 2021 for $24.5 million, and neither Fowler nor Harsch currently leads the company as an independent entity.

What is Jim Fowler’s net worth in 2026?

Jim Fowler’s net worth in 2026 is estimated at $20–30 million USD. The primary source of his wealth was the $175 million sale of his first company, Jigsaw, to Salesforce in 2010. He also earned equity from the $24.5 million Meltwater acquisition of Owler in 2021.

What is Owler CEO’s email address?

Jim Fowler’s historical email at Owler was [email protected], though this may no longer be active after the Meltwater acquisition. He can be reached on Twitter/X at @fowlinator or via LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/jifowler.

What happened to Jigsaw, Jim Fowler’s first company?

Jim Fowler founded Jigsaw Data Corporation in 2003 as a crowdsourced B2B contact database. The company was acquired by Salesforce in May 2010 for $175 million. After the acquisition, the product was rebranded as Salesforce Data.com and integrated into Salesforce’s CRM ecosystem.

Was Owler acquired? By whom?

Yes, Owler was acquired by Meltwater on June 18, 2021, for $24.5 million ($18.9 million in cash and $5.6 million in Meltwater equity). Meltwater is a global software-as-a-service company specializing in media intelligence and social analytics, serving over 27,000 customers worldwide.

What is Jim Fowler doing now?

As of 2026, Jim Fowler is based in Scottsdale, Arizona. After the Meltwater acquisition of Owler in 2021, he stepped away from active leadership at the company. Throughout his career, Fowler has demonstrated a pattern of building data-driven companies, and he may pursue new ventures in the future. He previously served on the Board of Directors of CrowdFlower and has been an active contributor to entrepreneurship publications including SCORE and Entrepreneur magazine.

Article last updated:January 2026March 2, 2026