Managed services News
Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola On Kaseya-Datto’s ‘Growth’ Focus, Plans For Datto Products And The MSP Profitability Boost From The Blockbuster Deal
C.J. Fairfield
’Our goal is to give these MSPs the best software kit possible so they can make the most money. We want to give them a platform that’s integrated so the engineers are the most efficient and we want to provide it to them at 30 percent less so that they make more money. That’s our job,’ says Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola.
This deal makes Kaseya the leading vendor versus ConnectWise. How does it feel to be on top?
We were way ahead of ConnectWise before the deal. And the numbers speak for themselves.
I’ve known Jason Magee (ConnectWise CEO) for 20-plus years. My little brother and him worked together at a VAR in New York City in the late 90s called Interactive Futures. I’m saying that and you can publish it. If you talk to Jason you can let him know that I’m busting his chops in good fun.
Will Kaseya continue to invest in and develop Datto's business disaster recovery service offering on its own separately from the Kaseya unified backup BDR offering?
We will continue to invest in all products moving forward, just like we’ve always done in every acquisition we’ve done.
How are you feeling about the prospects for integrating and combining these two companies?
I feel great. This is super fun. Datto is awesome. As the CEO of a company, when you get the opportunity to pick up several thousand really good people with an awesome brand,
I’m excited. I think it’s going to be great, we’re going to learn a ton.
When you think about the investors in Datto, Vista [Equity Partners] bought Datto, and it believes in investment and growth. Insight [Partners] is the private equity firm behind Kaseya and it’s all about invest, invest, invest.
The DNA of both companies is growth. It’s a good culture fit. Let’s not cut costs and find ways of saving every penny. Let’s put on big MSP events, let’s invest in our customers, our people, our organization, etc.
Just to give an example, when Arnie [Bellini, ConnectWise founder] was running ConnectWise, it was all about the channel. They got bought by Thoma Bravo. Bravo is a very successful private equity firm, but they’re more on the ’cost reduction, let’s create value through cutting costs opposed to creating growth’ side. So culturally, from when Austin [McChord, Datto founder] started it to when Tim [Weller] took it to the next phase, it’s always been about investment and growth. That’s an exciting thing to get into.
When Thoma put ConnectWise and Continuum together it was about, ’Let’s get everything offshore.’ They cut costs massively, and as a CEO that sucks. It’s not fun. This is fun. This is growth, and let’s create, so I’m looking forward to it.
