On The ‘Edge’ Of Profitability

Zadara, which develops end-to-end infrastructure to automate the provisioning of compute, storage, and network resources as part of its focus on what it calls the “edge cloud,” this month hired Yoram Novick as its new CEO. Novick is taking the reins of Irvine, Calif.-based Zadara from Nelson Nahum, the company’s co-founder. Nahum, in turn, is taking over as chief technology officer.

Novick, in a wide-ranging question-and-answer session with CRN, said Zadara, which was founded in 2011, is slated to be profitable in 2023 for the first time. The change in CEO, he said, will allow Novick to focus on ensuring the company will continue to grow even as it achieves profitability.

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Investing for both growth and profitability is one of Novick’s primary focuses as he puts his stamp on Zadara.

“The company is profitable from an EBITDA point of view,” he said. “And my goal is to reach profitability in 2023. I think it’s very important in these times when the time of growth at all cost, and it doesn’t matter if you lose money, is over. People are looking at businesses as things that need to be sustainable. It’s a very important milestone.”

Growth is important, and has been important at all costs for a long time because in part interest rates were so low that it made sense for investors to make growth the primary goal in IT startups, Novick said. However, he said, that is changing.

“Now everybody has realized those times are over,” he said. “Growth is important. Definitely it’s important for technology companies. But at the same time, you also need to either be profitable or at least have a credible timeline to get profitable.”

For more of CRN’s conversation with Novick about Zadara, click through the slideshow.