James Kappen

As the founder and CEO of Proposable, James Kappen has made it possible for the global sales force to streamline their approach to sales proposals through the use of a all-in-one software platform focused on creating, delivering and tracking any sales proposal. A resident of Santa Barbara with extensive entrepreneurial experience, Kappen has always favored a forward-thinking approach in which he focuses on recognizing opportunities to apply his innovative and creative mindset.

What do you do in your spare time?

I’m fortunate to live in such an amazing area in Santa Barbara, which has allowed me to pursue my passion for entrepreneurship as well as my passion for music and sailing. I have a recording studio in which I play and record often, and I like to sail out to the Channel Islands and beyond whenever I can.

What’s your favorite type of food?

Since the climate here is often described as quite similar to the Mediterranean, the restaurants are able to use locally sourced ingredients while preparing dishes. One of my favorite restaurants here is a Spanish/Mexican fusion place called Los Agaves that was actually listed in Yelp’s 3rd highest nationally rated restaurants of 2015 by volume.

What’s the best advice you ever received?

During a conversation with my stats professor, we were discussing the use of analytics in sports and its impact on the so-called “glue guys.” She thought a solid focus on culture in athletics and in business mattered, and she reminded me that when you are involved in a software startup — or any new entrepreneurial pursuit, for that matter — the culture you establish will have an incredible impact on what you are ultimately able to achieve.

What’s one thing you’ve learned since you started your career?

I’ve learned to look for the problems that represent longstanding sources of frustration and seem to lack an obvious solution as an opportunity to innovate. This is how I came up with the concept for Proposable, by recognizing that the traditional method for creating, delivering, tracking and evaluating sales proposals was a highly inefficient source of frustration for the global sales force.

What did you learn from your biggest failure?

I actually experienced some of the frustrating aspects regarding the sales proposal process in my first entrepreneurial ventures — a regional print publication and an online bidding platform — so instead of simply allowing myself to continue to be frustrated by the lack of efficiency associated with the proposal process, I chose to develop a solution through the platform that is now at the core of Proposable.