Datto confirms Weller as CEO

Datto has named Tim Weller as its new CEO, following the departure of the company’s founder and chief executive Austin McChord.

Weller, who has been acting as interim CEO since McChord’s departure in October, said he plans to maintain Datto’s channel-centric strategy.

Speaking to MicroScope, he said: “All of our efforts are completely channel focused…everything we do starts with a managed service provider [MSP] lens.”

Weller joined Datto in 2017 as chief financial officer (CFO) before stepping into the chief executive role. The company said Weller has been instrumental in leading its day-to-day operations, establishing global go-to-market strategies, and playing a pivotal role in the merger of Datto and Autotask.

Weller has also promised to continue with an open platform strategy, despite the trend of MSP software companies acquiring their independent software vendor (ISV) partners to bolster their portfolios – including the acquisition in December of document management firm IT Glue by competitor Kaseya.

“We pioneered the idea of an open ecosystem,” he said. “In my experience, companies will acquire a company and immediately force customers to try to use that product. That is not how Datto rolls.

“From the day of the merger with Autotask, we recognised we would have customers on other PSA [professional services automation] tools, on other RMMs [remote monitoring and management] and even customers on other BCDR [business continuity and disaster recovery] products. The concern for me, if I am a partner, is being forced to use a platform.”

In terms of its own merger and acquisition (M&A) plans, Weller said Datto “always has an eye on things”, but following the merger with Autotask, he wants to “spend the year getting that right. We’ll see what 2019 brings. We have a good balance sheet and an ability to acquire.”

Weller added that he wants to “maintain the culture that Austin built” and that Datto doesn’t “want to feel like a big company or like a vendor, we want to feel like a partner”.

Referring to its announcement last year that Datto is to accelerate updates across its portfolio, Weller said: “We are investing millions of dollars in platforms and systems that will hopefully give us the ability to more efficiently serve partners.”

Before joining Datto, Weller was CFO at Akamai, where he led its IPO (initial public offering), and CFO at clean energy technology company EnerNOC.

Weller said he remains “in very close touch” with McChord, who will remain a member of the board at Datto.

“Tim and I worked every day, side by side, for the past year-and-a-half as we grew Datto. I’m happy to see Tim lead the company moving forward,” said McChord in a statement. “Tim knows well the significance of Datto’s value in the industry today and its immense potential, and he shares in Datto’s values and unique culture. Most importantly, he is passionate about Datto’s MSP community. Datto is in good hands with Tim.”