Techradar Pro interviewed Lance Crosby, the CEO of StackPath, after the Server Density merger to find out more about the company's plans for 2018 and more.
Lance, Server Density is the sixth company that Stackpath has acquired or partnered with in less than two years. What's the common theme across all six deals?
We want to own the edge and are building an inherently secure platform of services at the edge. In every situation, we thought about if it made more sense to buy a product we needed, or to build it ourselves. And for all six of these companies, they had the right product and a solid customer base and we could jump right in without taking the time to develop something from scratch.
It's worth noting that this is a merger rather than an acquisition. Stackpath has 1000x more customers and raised 120x the capital till now. Why opt for such a lopsided deal? Why not simply absorb Server Density?
Typically, in an acquisition you buy the assets and the IP, and the executive team leaves and goes elsewhere. But in the case of Server Density, it is a merger because not just the executives, but the entire team is coming to StackPath. David Mytton, Server Density co-founder and CEO, is becoming a part of my executive team as VP of product engineering and will be responsible for monitoring and several other things.
We want to be the ‘Amazon of the edge’ and own the edge
Dr Lance Crosby, CEO, StackPath
Server Density started a movement called HumanOps which seems to been at the core of the acquisition. But rather than being a piece of tech, it is actually a community, can you tell us more about it?
HumanOps is a brilliant and long overdue resource for cloud workers and companies. This industry is evolving faster than any before it, requiring operations of unprecedented scale and solutions at unbelievable speed. I know first-hand how it really takes its toll on people because we have a 100% uptime SLA. We’re looking forward to doing even more with HumanOps as part of StackPath –- look for more details on that to come in the near future.
So you've got VPN, CDN, server management, DDoS mitigation, web monitoring services and even, for the nostalgics out there, the company that fathered the venerable Usenet via Omicron Media. So does that mean that Stackpath is both a B2B and a B2C company? Are there any missing pieces of the puzzle?
Anyone -– from an individual developer working out of his basement to some of the biggest Fortune 100 companies in the world –- use StackPath. So, yes. StackPath is a B2B, B2C and B2E company and is continuing to grow and add those “missing pieces of the puzzle”.
What's next for Stackpath? (Talk about the new company). You mentioned in a recent interview that Stackpath will offer 12 services by end 2018? Any chances you could shed more light on that?
July 1 will be a big day for us as we will roll out a new website, as well as new logo, colors, and messaging. Everything on the platform, including Server Density and all other services we’ve purchased, will die that day and we will introduce another half dozen services we’ve developed internally. By the end of 2018, we will have not 12 services but up to 18, so 18 in 2018. We want to be the ‘Amazon of the edge’ and own the edge. We already have the lead, but these new services will help us solidify that. By 2025, we want to say all internets transverse StackPath at some point.
