Not many people get to run two fast-growth companies, but that has been the case with Code 42 CEO Joe Payne.
His company, best known for its security-backup solution, has raised an $85 million funding round, led by JMI Equity and NEA, but Payne had a storied career before joining Code 42 three months ago.
From 2007 to 2013, Payne was CEO of Eloqua. During his six years there, he saw the marketing-software company grow its revenue from $10 million to more than $125 million a year.
Oracle acquisition
The company grew so fast that by 2012 he was able to take it public, and a year later led the company through its $950 million acquisition by Oracle.
Shortly after the acquisition, Payne left the company. For a while, Eloqua seemed to be the biggest highlight of his 25-year career, as he spent the next two years in various board-member roles.
“I was on four different boards, all different sizes, and it helped me home in on what I really loved to do — which is I love running the growth phase,” Payne told us.
That made Payne look for an opportunity to return to business, and in July 2015 he decided to come back as CEO of Code 42. Best known for its backup-software CrashPlan, Code 42 makes it easy to remotely back up and restore company files in the cloud, serving as a security solution that can wipe out data on lost devices or restore data when needed.
Marquee customers
The company has been growing quickly, nearly doubling its annual recurring revenue in each of the last three years, making it a perfect fit for Payne. Payne says Code 42 is on pace to hit “well over” $100 million, in accounting rate of return, by next year.
“I love where we are today, when you’re going from less than $100 million to $200 [million] to $300 million in revenue. That’s the phase when it’s a lot of fun,’ he said.
Payne claims more than 37,000 companies use Code 42’s solution, including company-wide deployments at seven of the world’s 10 largest tech companies. Some of its biggest customers include Salesforce, Lockheed Martin, and HBO.
Its fast growth and high-profile customer base is where he finds the similarities between Eloqua and Code 42, and why Payne believes he can help the company reach bigger goals.
“The operations are remarkably similar,” Payne noted. “And then it’s just the growth. When you look at the customers, these are the best companies in the world, and they’re using our product. When you have good customers, there’s plenty you can build on.”
As reported by Business Insider