This article is more than 1 year old

Backup upstart Code42 is in a world of Payne

CEO pro to grow the co to IPO

Backup and file sync'n'sharer Code42's cofounder CEO has stepped back to bring in a pro to grow the upstart into the big time.

Cofounder Matthew Dornquast is shifting to an undefined role as Joe Payne seats himself behind the chief exec's desk. Payne gets a presidential title as well. His CV must have made the Code42 board and execs, with their share options, salivate. Payne was CEO and chairman of Eloqua from 2007. Revenue grew from $11 million that year to $125 million in 2012 when it went public raising $92 million, and Oracle bought the business for $871 million net of cash. You can just imagine the Code42 board members thinking, "We’ll have some of that. Yessiree."

Code42's statement says Payne's priorities include "building on the strength of Code42's market-leading data protection products to capture part of the $75 billion market opportunity in IT security, forensics and security analytics." The company basically offers CrashPlan secured end-point data protection and SharePlan file sync 'n share products. Forensics and security analytics sound like new markets to this writer.

It says it has more than 37,000 business customers, and doubled its enterprise SaaS revenue in 2014, adding more than 150 enterprise customers to its roster, including Lockheed Martin, Grant Thornton, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), HBO, and Fossil. But that was a year ago. What did it do in 2015? Obviously it didn't double its enterprise SaaS revenue again or it would have said so. Perhaps its growth rate has slowed and that's why it's about to experience Payne.

Joe Payne

Code42 president and CEO Joe Payne

Dornquast's canned quote said, "We've successfully captured market leadership in enterprise endpoint data protection; as Joe joins, Code42 is in a strong position to expand its offering in data security. Joe is the right person to lead Code42 through its next big wave of growth."

The company was founded in 2001 and has had one funding round – $52.5 million in 2012. It has more than 900 channel partners world-wide. In May, Code42 appointed Andy Hardy (ex-Dell and Compellent) to run its UK operation and Carsten Graf to run a Germany/Austria/Switzerland (DACH) one. Payne has a good base to build on. ®

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