Q&A: Unitrends CEO Mike Coney Talks About Acquisition

Unitrends CEO Mike Coney sat down exclusively with MSPmentor this week to answer five questions regarding his company’s recent acquisition by Insight Venture Partners, the venture firm that has taken a major stake in IT monitoring and management vendor Kaseya.

Coney provides details on why Unitrends went looking for venture capital, what his role will be after the acquisition and how he views the overcrowded backup and disaster recovery (BDR) market.

CJ: What made Unitrends go looking for a venture firm?

MC: Founded in 1989, the company had gone through several rounds of funding with its original investors, who were early stage venture capitalists. Our rapid growth over the past several years took Unitrends well beyond the size company they typically invest in. Insight was able to provide the return they were looking for. Simultaneously, this acquisition enables Unitrends to continue doing what it’s known for, while providing the additional resources needed to accelerate our business with new data protection offerings.

Insight has raised more than $7.6 billion, invested in more than 190 growth-stage software, eCommerce, Internet and data-services companies, and managed 24 IPOs. Unitrends’ management team was looking for a partner with a clear vision for the future of our company, and Insight brought it. In short, the acquisition enables us to start a new chapter in our story.

CJ: Were there other venture firms showing interest in Unitrends? If so, why did the company decide to go with Insight Venture Partners?

MC: Two years ago we made a decision to formalize the acquisition process, as we were getting continuous interest in the company. We looked at and interviewed several firms, but Insight Venture Partners’ knowledge of our business and expertise in our space put them on top.

Insight has a stellar track record investing in software and data services companies, and they have a portfolio of clients in the data protection space. For that reason, in addition to the company’s unrivaled understanding of our business model, we knew Insight was the clear frontrunner.

CJ: How will your role as the CEO of Unitrends change as a result of this deal?

MC: Unitrends’ current executive team will continue to lead the company with a sustained commitment to the principles that have made it so successful over the past several years: deliver easy-to-use, enterprise-class technology, offer simple pricing and provide an unrivaled customer experience. In fact, our seasoned executive team was one of the main factors that drew Insight to us.

The only difference now is, with Insight’s expertise and resources, we can collectively work to scale our business through buy and build strategies. Our focus will largely be on expanding our portfolio of virtual and cloud-based data protection solutions.

CJ: How did the company’s expansion into Europe, which was announced this year, play a role in the deal?

MC: We announced a major company expansion in Europe back in January and have seen continued traction in the region since. Insight was interested in our plans for global expansion, our go-to-market strategy, as well as our channel strategy, which includes our new Service Provider Program and UniRewards, our loyalty program for channel partners and resellers — both of which have shown great traction in North America and throughout EMEA.

CJ: Do you believe the BDR market is overcrowded? How does it need to change?

MC: The backup and recovery industry is a very crowded market, but most vendors are focused on providing point products that introduce complexity into an already difficult process. In addition, the midmarket is severely underserved. A majority of the larger vendors in the space offer costly and complicated data protection solutions, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) just don’t have the budget or resources for them.

Unitrends’ sole mission is to provide resource-strapped SMEs with an easy-to-us, unified data protection offering that offers enterprise-class data protection across heterogeneous environments at the lowest total cost of ownership in the industry. Essentially, our unified data protection offering, which is custom tailored for the midmarket, is a one-stop shop for customers looking for effective, affordable and easy-to-use solutions that provide a rapid return on investment.

Our other key market differentiator is our focus on customer support. Everything we do revolves around making the customer experience the best it can possibly be. We’ve added 1,100 customers since Jan. 1 alone, yet our support team has maintained a customer satisfaction rating exceeding 98 percent. Feedback from our customers was another big factor in Insight’s decision to acquire us — they had never heard such glowing remarks from a company’s customers.