Callidus – Datrium – Nutanix – Nominum

CFOs, CEOs and board members are invited to an FLG Partners hosted seminar examining business model pivots to SaaS across different types of technology businesses  from software to hardware and cybersecurity. Learn from an experienced panel of industry experts as they discuss the key decisionmaking, operational planning priorities and market reactions to both successful (and failed) transitions into SaaS models.  

  • SaaS Transitions: 3 Models (Lauren Kelley, OPEXEngine)
  • Perpetual Software to SaaS: Callidus (Ron Fior)
  • Transitioning a Hardware Business to SaaS: Datrium/VMWare (Mike Park, VP Operations)
  • Nominum Transition: Lessons Learned (Ken Chow)
  • An Equity Analyst’s Perspective on SaaS Transitions & Nutanix (Eric Suppiger, JMP Securities)
  • Q&A

Meet your Moderator and Panelists:

 

 

Eric Mersch – Moderator

 

 FLG Partner, Eric Mersch has 20 years of executive finance experience including twice serving in public company Chief Financial Officer roles. He has worked with SaaS companies in the Big Data, Cyber-Security, Business Process Automation, Advertising/Marketing Technology, Mobile App Subscription Services, Real-Estate Technology, Hospitality Technology & Payment Processing spaces. Prior to FLG, Eric served as Chief Financial Officer, Chief Accounting Officer and VP, HR for ZipRealty, a publicly-listed, real-estate technology company. In this role, he joined the management team in the dramatic turnaround and successful sale of the business to real-estate conglomerate, Realogy Holdings Corp (NYSE:RLGY) in 2014. While at ZipRealty, Eric played a key role in reorganizing corporate overhead, developing a new go-to-market strategy and launching a new SaaS product. Eric served as Chief Financial Officer for VitalStream (NASDAQ:VSTH), a Content Distribution Network (CDN) company, providing data storage and streaming services for digital media companies. Earlier in his career, he was VP Finance for the Harrah’s and Flamingo Resorts, an $800 Million revenue business at Caesars Entertainment.

Ron Fior

 Ron Fior joined FLG in 2020 with over 30 years as a CFO in both domestic and international public and private companies with deep experience in corporate finance and operations at start-ups to enterprise level. Ron helps companies by leveraging his experience and expertise in corporate and financial strategy and business model change, such as transitioning from a perpetual license model to a Software as a Service (SaaS) recurring revenue on-demand company. Ron has completed over 50 M&A transactions and raised over $400 Million in debt and equity. As CFO at Callidus Software (NASDAQ: CALD), Ron led the company from startup through its successful IPO. As CFO of Remedy Corporation (NASDAQ: RMDY), he led the sale of the company for over $1 Billion and as CFO of Good Technology, he led its sale to Blackberry Corporation (NYSE: BB) for $425 Million.

Mike Park

Mike Park is VP of Operations at Datium, now part of VMWare in Sunnyvale, CA. Mike was instrumental in helping to lead the SaaS pivot of Datium and their initiative to transform its product line from an appliance-based model to SaaS by leveraging a supplier partner to sell and support solution hardware. Prior to Datium, Mike held operations roles at Tintri, StorSimple, EMC and Data Domain.

Eric Suppiger

 Erik Suppiger is a Managing Director and equity research analyst covering cybersecurity and IT infrastructure at JMP Securities. Earlier, Erik was a Managing Director and research analyst at Signal Hill Capital, covering Internet infrastructure technology and services. He was previously a Managing Director and research analyst at Pacific Growth Equities and a senior analyst at J.P. Morgan and its predecessor, Hambrecht & Quist, following the networking and security sectors. In 2018, Erik ranked second among all stock pickers in the Communications Equipment category in the Thomson Reuters Analyst Awards, formerly the StarMine Analyst Awards.  He has also been recognized in the annual “Best on the Street” analyst survey conducted by The Wall Street Journal in the Telecommunications Equipment category.

Lauren Kelley

 Lauren Kelley is CEO and founder of OPEXEngine. She brings 25 years of tech company management experience to OPEXEngine, as well as six years as an international economist at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Computers. Lauren managed worldwide sales and strategic development for ecommerce pioneer, Art Technology Group, coordinated operations for 20 countries for Borland Software, and helped build Compaq Computer’s business in Eastern Europe in the early 1990s.

Ken Chow

 Ken joined FLG in 2015 with over 20 years of executive management experience as both a CFO and COO in private and public technology companies including RetailNext, Wine.com, Nominum, Aurora Networks, Azul Systems, Catena Networks, Cobalt Networks among others. His experience spans multiple technology industry sectors including software, big data analytics, IoT, e-commerce, security, retail, biometrics, networking, and computer systems.  Ken’s roles have included developing corporate and financial strategy, managing rapid growth and international operations, executing equity and debt financings, IPOs and mergers & acquisitions, and investing in IT systems infrastructure, sales ops, restructurings and strategic partnerships. Over his career, Ken has successfully raised over $500M in private and public financings and completed over $2.4B in M&A transactions, including leading the IPO of Cobalt Networks (NASDAQ: COBT), which was 30X oversubscribed, and managing its subsequent acquisition by Sun Microsystems for $2.0B.