Pilixo Corp., launched by former Kaseya CEO Gerald Blackie, is quietly navigating the MSP market -- previewing several technology developments to some of the world's top IT service providers. And so far, the feedback has been quite positive, according to those who were privy to the meetings.
First, a little background. Rewind to January 2015. That's when I first noticed numerous Kaseya veterans surfacing at Pilixo, a stealth cloud startup at the time. By April 2015, Pilixo emerged from stealth mode with a cloud-based Internet of Things management platform.
Moreover, the management platform is extendible -- able to run purpose-built management applications. Pilixo's first two management applications are called Bodi (for corporate compliance) and Curo:Mac (for Mac OS support).
Pilixo Previews Bodi to MSPs
Starting in about October 2015 or so, Pilixo CEO Gerald Blackie and Chief Revenue Officer Mike Sanders hit the road and started meeting with some influential MSPs. One recent stop involved a visit with TruMethods and some of its top MSP members. Another stop involved an influential Cisco-focused MSP that serves the government market.
"My members had a great response," recalls TruMethods CEO Gary Pica. "Seventy to 75 percent said they could see integrating the technology into there offering. Bodi combines the ability to record all users screens with a reporting engine looking for high risk items. Internal threat management and mitigation is the next frontier of security." Pica sees additional potential use cases for the platform.
What use cases? Let's put it this way. Pilixo is not pursuing the traditional RMM (remote monitoring and management) software market for MSPs. Plus, there are potential application scenarios that go far beyond the MSP market, I believe.
Pilixo Next Moves
Much like the original Kaseya launch more than a decade ago, Pilixo is bootstrapped and self-funded. I could be wrong, but I don't think Blackie, Sanders and the team will be seeking angel or venture dollars for the company build out.
Overall, I sense that some of Pilixo's business strategy is fluid -- a kind of give-and-take between R&D and potential customers/users. I also sense that the company will make its next move in early December 2015.
Hmmm...
