eFolder has named Matt Nachtrab CEO, succeeding Kevin Hoffman -- who becomes chief technology officer (CTO) of the MSP-focused backup & disaster recovery (BDR) company. The move seeks to give eFolder a strategic one-two punch in terms of business and technology leadership, especially as the company ramps up its MSP engagements.
Hoffman, a technologist and eFolder co-founder, had been running the company since former CEO John Williams died of a rare neurological disease around 2007. Over the past decade, Hoffman has scaled the business through organic R&D along with acquisitions.
Indeed, eFolder now has roughly 200 employees, 3,000 channel partners and four proprietary platforms that MSPs can monetize while protecting and automating customer businesses. The key offerings include Replibit for backup and disaster recovery; Anchor for file sync and sharing; and Cloudfinder for backup, search, and eDiscovery for Office 365 and other SaaS services.
Do What You Love
Still, Hoffman noticed that running and expanding eFolder became an all-consuming chore, leaving him less and less time to focus on his passion -- technology R&D. That realization set the stage for Matt Nachtrab to join the company as chief strategy officer (CSO) in February 2017. More recently, Nachtrab took on a CRO (chief revenue officer) role before today's shift to CEO.
Nachtrab previously was president of ConnectWise. Earlier, he founded and served as CEO of LabTech Software, which attracted ConnectWise investment dollars in 2010 and ultimately combined with ConnectWise in 2015. LabTech's RMM (remote monitoring and management) software is now known as ConnectWise Automate.
Nachtrab exited ConnectWise in 2016 and studied the market for smaller, growth-minded technology companies focused on the MSP sector. The search led him to eFolder. Initial discussions with the company did not involve the CEO position, Nachtrab tells ChannelE2E. But as Nachtrab and Hoffman worked together in recent months, the duo realized that their respective skills aligned well for a coordinated CEO-CTO relationship.
eFolder MSP Growth Strategy
Nachtrab and Hoffman certainly intend to grow eFolder. The business continuity specialist will bet heavily on Replibit, which the company acquired in 2016. Also, keep an eye on eFolder’s new BDR offering (“Nano”). The company is balancing its own APIs for third-party integrations while also making sure its core products and services (Anchor, Replibit, etc.) integrate with ConnectWise and other platforms, Nachtrab told ChannelE2E in June.
Still, eFolder faces plenty of competition. Although market share numbers are hard to come by, Datto is considered a market leader in terms of data protection services for MSPs. Also, Veeam has achieved 36 straight quarters of double digit growth, and the company expects to grow revenues to $1.5 billion in 2020, up from a target of $1 billion goal in 2018. Admittedly, much of Veeam's revenue involves enterprise customers and non-MSP engagements. But the company has a massive base of CSPs (cloud services providers) and growing relationships with MSPs.
For eFolder, the secret to success could involve hands-on experience working for and with MSPs. Nachtrab launched his own MSP more than a decade ago, and eFolder's own roots stretch back to the VAR market. That partner-centric experience could come in handy as eFolder strives to differentiate and grow more rapidly in the very crowded data protection market.
