A Conversation with Mike Murphy

Rob: Tell me a little about your previous experience with cloud-technology and billing?

Mike: In a galaxy far, far away...just kidding. A former company I was working at was rolling out various Cloud and SaaS offerings to the marketplace. We first tried to build it ourselves, but the time to market was just too long. So we went the M&A route and acquired a series of Cloud/SaaS businesses in order to speed up our time to market.

We quickly realized that integrating these companies went well beyond rationalizing the offerings and getting them into the hands of our sales and services teams, but the back office plays a very large roll in how you are able to Go-to-Market with your offerings. To make these acquisitions successful, we needed a way to look proactively at our offerings, monetize what made sense, not only recognize, but also predict each revenue stream all while running as fast as we could.

Rob: So, how did you solve for that?

Mike: [Laughs] With lots of Excel Spreadsheets. We started looking at what was generally available in the market including a couple of Gotransverse’s main competitors but realized that there wasn’t anything out there that could solve the complexity, scale, and integration points we were facing at a price point that we were willing to pay. So like a lot of enterprises out there we decided on going the homegrown route.

Rob: How does Gotransverse fit into all of this?

Mike: I discovered Gotransverse through a posting on LinkedIn and I was surprised to find a company that was solving complex billing problems in my own back yard of Austin, TX – one of the leading technology hubs in the US.

But frankly, I’m a finance guy and a long time skeptic of the promises companies make about their software and platforms. So I started my due diligence.

Rob: And?

Mike: I was blown away. I realized that the problems I was experiencing were trivial compared to the types of complex billing and Go-To-Market problems that Gotransverse was solving for its customers. I felt like I just stumbled onto one of the best-kept secrets in my lifetime and realized I had to join the company, so I applied for a job in the mailroom!

Rob: But you joined as Chief Business Officer. Just what does that mean?

Mike: My role is to evangelize to the world and primarily to my brothers and sisters in the Finance and Operations roles everywhere that there are ways to solve these problems other than Excel®. Like I said, I’m a long time skeptic of the promises of systems and always very reluctant to give up on my Excel® spreadsheets.

But it’s clear that in today’s fast past digital age dealing with billions of transactions that manual process using Excel® can’t keep up.

And I still get to deliver the mail.

Rob: What are you enjoying most so far?

Mike: Learning every day how many ways companies are being creative with their offerings and going to market in really unique ways. For example, we have a customer who uses our product to manage services for monitoring generators, another for handling chassis logistics rentals, and yet another running the back office for cloud services offerings. It amazes me.

Rob: What do you think about the opportunity in front of the company?

Mike: My take on the market is Gotransverse is at the right place at the right time.

We have some competitors who have a done the job of blazing the trail, making it easier for us. Ultimately, we bridge the gap between the historical ERPs and open the door for companies looking for usage-based, event-based, subscription-based models and offerings at internet scale.

Equally as exciting is trailblazers like RedHat and Salesforce.com have proven to their customers that the SaaS model is here to stay because it fosters a more intimate relationship with the customer. In recent years, investors have rewarded companies that have adopted this approach as they are realizing that predictable, recurring revenue models with high value offerings is an effective way to drive sustainable growth. Now companies of all shapes and sizes are being asked what their cloud strategy is and we at Gotransverse are ready to help them answer that question.

Rob: Ok. I can tell you are excited about the company, and the potential. Can you leave us with a couple of quirky facts since you like to “keep Austin weird?”

Mike: Well, we work in a building built in 1859 that I’m told it’s haunted (although I have no confirmation that it is yet). And I will probably gain weight because of the company sponsored lunches and unlimited supply of Doritos®.