In this episode, I was lucky enough to interview Joel Montvelisky, co-founder and Chief Product Officer of PractiTest.
Joel shares his unlikely journey from Costa Rica to the world of software testing. He talks about becoming a Cowboys fan in the 1970s, stumbling into QA because it paid slightly better than bartending, and eventually discovering that testing was far more than bug hunting—it was about improving products, reducing risk, and helping teams release with confidence. He reflects on the evolution of QA from the dot-com era to modern Agile and DevOps practices, the absence of formal QA education, and how conferences and early industry leaders helped him realize that testing is, in fact, a real profession with deep methodology and purpose.
Joel also shares the origin story of PractiTest, born from a gap he saw between enterprise tools like Quality Center and teams struggling to manage testing with spreadsheets. He explains how the company’s very first customer found them before they even had a way to accept payments, how founder-led sales carried them for years, and why meaningful testing requires both intention and mindfulness—something he practices personally to stay focused as someone diagnosed with ADHD later in life.
Hear how Joel Montvelisky turned unexpected beginnings into a career shaping the future of QA in this episode of The First Customer!
Guest Info:
PractiTest
https://www.practitest.com/
Joel Montvelisky's LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelm3/
Connect with Jay on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayaigner/
The First Customer Youtube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/@thefirstcustomerpodcast
The First Customer podcast website
https://www.firstcustomerpodcast.com
Follow The First Customer on LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/company/the-first-customer-podcast/
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