Kaseya CEO Gerald Blackie: We Won't Go Public

Kaseya CEO Gerald Blackie says the company has no debt, no venture capital and absolutely no plans to pursue an initial public offering (IPO). Why stay private in the rapidly expanding managed services market? Blackie provided some thoughts June 1 during a poolside chat with me at the Kaseya User Conference.

When Kaseya launched earlier this decade, the company co-founders made a conscious decision to control their own destiny, self-fund operations and create a “lifestyle business,” said Blackie. By maintaining internal control, Kaseya’s founders Mark Sutherland and Paul Wong reasoned, the company could focus on customers rather than venture capitalists’ demands.

So far, that strategy is proving Kaseya well. Although the company is privately held and does not need to fully disclose its financials, Blackie revealed some financial data points during his conference keynote June 2. The company generated more than $25 million in revenue in 2007, and Blackie expects the business to double in size again in 2008.

But with growth comes challenges. Blackie and Sutherland both conceded that Kaseya 2008 — the company’s major platform upgrade — hit a wall a few months ago because deployments occurred faster than expected and a few unanticipated bugs popped up in the system.

Kaseya has since rolled out hotfixes, and now plans to deliver a comprehensive service pack (containing all of the hotfixes) this summer.

On the business front, Kaseya’s future revenue pipeline (secured under recurring revenue contracts) is approaching $100 million, notes Blackie.

Everybody has a Price

Although Kaseya has no plans to pursue an initial public offering, and the company isn’t up for sale, Blackie says Kaseya has a stock option plan — just in case a potential buyer ever makes the company an offer that’s too good to pass up.

But in the meantime, selling Kaseya isn’t a priority. Concluded Blackie during our poolside chat, “This is a lifestyle business and ultimately we need to be having fun in business.”

So far, so good.