For years, CNX turned down acquisition offers from firms that only wanted to "milk the existing customer base of maintenance" and halt development. They ultimately sold to Izzy Software because it presented an exciting vision for growing the product, not just harvesting it.
The founders were building a new UI for their own internal software. It was their external marketing firm, not them, who recognized the tool could be packaged and sold as a standalone modernization product, which became their flagship offering.
Instead of treating consulting and product as separate, CNX uses feedback from services projects to inform new features. A requested customization is often built directly into the core Valence product, benefiting all customers and creating a tight feedback loop.
The origin of CNX wasn't a meticulously planned venture. The two co-founders were colleagues who, frustrated with their boss, impulsively quit their jobs together. The company was born out of that moment with no plan and no money, forcing them to be resourceful from day one.
While modern UIs are essential, the backend IBM i (AS/400) platform remains entrenched in many businesses. The reason is its extreme reliability and stability, which would require massive, difficult, and expensive custom software development to achieve on open systems like Linux.
CNX discovered that its target users—backend RPG programmers—struggled with or were uninterested in modern UI/UX design. This realization led them to build a low-code tool to provide guardrails and ensure consistent, modern front-ends without requiring front-end expertise.
In 2006, while evaluating UI technologies, the founder discovered the ext.js framework. Within five minutes, he had a "eureka moment," becoming convinced it was the future of all web applications. He made a high-conviction bet to go all-in on the nascent technology, which became the foundation of their flagship product.
Despite offering modern browser interfaces, the company found that expert data entry clerks were significantly faster on old text-based "green screen" terminals. They could type without looking at the screen, using muscle memory for tabs and function keys, making the modern UI a downgrade in efficiency.