BetterCloud Turns
10 Years Old

This November marks our tenth anniversary! Since our inception in New York City and Atlanta in 2011, a lot has changed. The software industry has grown and evolved, and so have we. In honor of this milestone, we're taking a look back at the moments that helped us get here. Here's what we learned, celebrated, and cherished in the past 10 years—plus what we're excited to achieve in the next decade and beyond.

10 Lessons Learned

Obsess over your customers.
Improve the machine every day.
Invest in community.
Your team is everything.
Every interaction matters.
Transparency is critical but tough to achieve.
Company values are more than just words.
Stick with it.
IT professionals are amazing customers.
Enjoy the journey, not just the destination.

1

Obsess over your customers.

Understand their challenges. Seek feedback and really listen to them. Become one with them. Delight them.
2

Improve the machine every day.

Strive for progress, not perfection. As a company grows, you need to keep evolving.
3

Invest in community.

Give people a way to share ideas and learn from each other. Help them create meaningful relationships and feel connected. People need each other and community more than ever.
Watch here >>
4

Your team is everything.

Be honest about your weaknesses and shortcomings, and find people who can fill those gaps. Learn how to delegate. Give people ownership over the work that they're doing. There is nothing more important to your success than the people around you.
5

Every interaction matters.

Whether it's with customers, potential customers, partners, job candidates, investors, or potential investors, make every interaction count. Those people will eventually come back in some way or they may just cheer you on from the sidelines. You never know who's going to have an impact on your company.
6

Transparency is critical but tough to achieve.

If you have these three elements—trust, time, and buy-in—then you can make transparency happen. Our exec AMAs with employees and customers have shown that transparency is extremely powerful.
7

Company values are more than just words.

As a north star, they have to actually mean something to everyone at the company. Identify who embodies your company values. Define them. Bring them alive. Celebrate them.
8

Stick with it.

In the early days of BetterCloud, SaaS adoption wasn't as widespread as it is today. We could see where SaaS was going, but people thought we were crazy for building our product. Keep persevering and have conviction in your vision.
9

IT professionals are amazing customers.

IT, you've driven and inspired us to solve bigger and more complex problems. You've held us accountable over the years and pushed us to be better. You've supported us but also given us the tough love that we needed to improve. You have led us to where we are today.
10

Enjoy the journey, not just the destination.

You don't know what the future holds. If all you're doing is driving to some specific outcome, you will most likely be disappointed. Along the way, you'll grow and make friends for life. You'll have the most rewarding wins at the most unexpected times.

10 Lessons Learned

1

Obsess over your customers.

Understand their challenges. Seek feedback and really listen to them. Become one with them. Delight them.
2

Improve the machine every day.

Strive for progress, not perfection. As a company grows, you need to keep evolving.
3

Invest in community.

Give people a way to share ideas and learn from each other. Help them create meaningful relationships and feel connected. People need each other and community more than ever.
Watch here >>
4

Your team is everything.

Be honest about your weaknesses and shortcomings, and find people who can fill those gaps. Learn how to delegate. Give people ownership over the work that they're doing. There is nothing more important to your success than the people around you.
5

Every interaction matters.

Whether it's with customers, potential customers, partners, job candidates, investors, or potential investors, make every interaction count. Those people will eventually come back in some way or they may just cheer you on from the sidelines. You never know who's going to have an impact on your company.
6

Transparency is critical but tough to achieve.

If you have these three elements—trust, time, and buy-in—then you can make transparency happen. Our exec AMAs with employees and customers have shown that transparency is extremely powerful.
7

Company values are more than just words.

As a north star, they have to actually mean something to everyone at the company. Identify who embodies your company values. Define them. Bring them alive. Celebrate them.
8

Stick with it.

In the early days of BetterCloud, SaaS adoption wasn't as widespread as it is today. We could see where SaaS was going, but people thought we were crazy for building our product. Keep persevering and have conviction in your vision.
9

IT professionals are amazing customers.

IT, you've driven and inspired us to solve bigger and more complex problems. You've held us accountable over the years and pushed us to be better. You've supported us but also given us the tough love that we needed to improve. You have led us to where we are today.
10

Enjoy the journey, not just the destination.

You don't know what the future holds. If all you're doing is driving to some specific outcome, you will most likely be disappointed. Along the way, you'll grow and make friends for life. You'll have the most rewarding wins at the most unexpected times.

10 Milestones

1/10

1

First funding round

2012
2/10

2

First customer who purchased BetterCloud

2013
Watch the moment it happened
3/10

3

First customer summit (Altitude)

2014
4/10

4

Launching the BetterIT community

2016
Join us
5/10

5

Launching our new multi-SaaS platform

2016
6/10

6

Publishing our two books

2017 and 2019
Get your copies
7/10

7

Launching Integration Center

2019
8/10

8

Creating our Diversity Council

2020
9/10

9

Launching our podcast

2021
Have a listen
10/10

10

Our partnership with VMware

2021
Learn More

10 Favorite Photos

The Very Early Days

In the early days of BetterCloud, we were a team of 10 working in an 80-sq. foot office.

The First Four Years

OK, technically not a photo. But this video captures the history of BetterCloud and all the grit, growth, and thrills of those early years.

A Game-changing Pivot

Based on customer feedback at Altitude 2015, we decided to completely re-architect our product to support any SaaS app. It took us two years, and it was an audacious bet, but it completely transformed our company and what we could do for our customers.

Celebrating Ekato

In 2017 we celebrated the unforgettable achievement of a single, company-wide goal: Have 100 customers adopt our new platform. (Ekato is Greek for 100.) With this, we achieved critical mass—and we knew all our work rebuilding the product in the past two years had been worth it.

Growing Up BetterCloud

Our CEO's two sons have grown up alongside the company.

Company Kickoff 2019

Our company kickoff in 2019 was one of the last times we were all together in person, made even more memorable because it was at Denver's famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre.

Ready to Rumble

Boxing classes have become a favorite way to spend time with each other outside of work.

Outgrowing Our Space

As we scaled as a company, we outgrew our office spaces in New York City and Atlanta and expanded them multiple times.

BetterCloud Values

Again, not a photo. But this video is a true representation of our company values, and we're very proud of the team and culture we've built.

Apart, But Still Together

Ten years in, we've come a long way. Today we've grown to a 300+ person company distributed across the country.

10 Traditions

Some of these have come and gone, and Covid has put some

of these on hold, but you know what we mean.

Karaoke
Field Day
Dip offs and chili cookoffs
Korean barbecue
Salmon King/Queen

Karaoke
Field Day
Dip offs and chili cookoffs
Korean barbecue
Salmon King/Queen

Ping pong tournaments
Crushing It Awards
BetterClouder Awards
Signing the BetterCloud hoodie
Fall Treat Friday

Ping pong tournaments
Crushing It Awards
BetterClouder Awards
Signing the BetterCloud hoodie
Fall Treat Friday

Some of these have come and gone, and Covid has put some of these on hold, but you know what we mean.

10 Goals for the Future

See every company adopt SaaSOps

Enable IT teams around the world to achieve zero-touch SaaS management and security

Be able to integrate with any SaaS application in the world

Become a mainstay in the Century of SaaS, as organizations continue to use SaaS for the next 100 years

Maintain our position as the SMP category leader

See For Yourself ▸

Write a third book about SaaSOps

Pave the way for other SaaSOps tools. We know we can't solve all of these challenges by ourselves

Continue delivering world-class customer support as we scale

Become everyone's favorite place to work

Learn as much—and have as much fun—in the next 10 years as we did in the first 10

10 Goals for the Future

See every company adopt SaaSOps

Enable IT teams around the world to achieve zero-touch SaaS management and security

Be able to integrate with any SaaS application in the world

Become a mainstay in the Century of SaaS, as organizations continue to use SaaS for the next 100 years

Maintain our position as the SMP category leader

See For Yourself ▸

Write a third book about SaaSOps

Pave the way for other SaaSOps tools-we know we can't solve all of these challenges by ourselves

Continue delivering world-class customer support as we scale

Become everyone's favorite place to work

Learn as much-and have as much fun-in the next 10 years as we did in the first 10

10 Best Pieces of Swag

We're slightly obsessed with swag here at BetterCloud. Here's a look at our favorites throughout the years:

Our first hoodie

This hoodie from 2013 featured an early BetterCloud logo: a bright pink mountain surrounded by clouds.

Backpacks

Our hoodies are beloved, but these BetterCloud backpacks from 2016 are a classic too.

BetterIT T-shirt

In 2017 we made our first community T-shirt, complete with a :party_cloud: emoji reference.

Ekato T-shirt

Of course, we had to have Ekato swag to honor our incredible accomplishment of this company-wide goal in 2017.

The pink hoodie

Our goal was to stand out from the crowd at conferences in 2018... and with our bright pink hoodies, we certainly did!

Monitor T-shirts

In 2018, Monitor subscribers voted for their favorite T-shirt design. The winning design became our official Monitor swag, but we produced all of these as limited editions.

SaaSOps T-shirts & fanny packs

Our first-ever SaaSOps swag, introduced at Altitude 2019, was a big hit with attendees. (Who doesn't love a good fanny pack?)

The Mother's Day hoodie

Behind every amazing BetterClouder is someone special. For Mother's Day 2020, we sent a limited edition tie-dyed hoodie to every BetterClouder's mother to honor them and say thank you.

Beanies

New beanies in 2020 kept people warm.

2021 T-shirt

Our newest T-shirt this year came in seven colors and featured a simple embroidered logo.

10 Favorite Memories from Past & Present BetterClouders

The grind of the early days created an unforgettable, close-knit culture, in which I ultimately met my husband (and now father to my children).

Emily Connery Former VP of People & Culture

Around BetterCloud's one-year anniversary, Hurricane Sandy hit. None of us had power at home, so David told us all to come to his dad's home office (which was our original office). It was about six BetterClouders, and some of our girlfriends and dogs came too. Looking back, it was really special. We spent the whole day helping our customers deploy email signatures and out-of-office messages that explained their employees lost power and couldn't reply to emails.

Eli Winderbaum Former Director of Customer Success

David sprinting to answer the phone to process credit cards when the first customers called the office to upgrade on FlashPanel's launch day.

Peter Bilali Former Director of Product Strategy

Hitting ambitious company goals like being the #1 installed Google app in the Google Apps Marketplace. Painting our first office as a team event. The many lifelong relationships I've made will always be something I look back on and cherish about the special place that is BetterCloud.

Kevin Harris Director, User Experience

When the entire company spontaneously took over a tiny karaoke bar in Austin after our company kickoff on a random weeknight.

Jenny Lee Creative Director

My favorite memory is hearing about the Ekato (100 customers on our "new product" in a year) project: I was a fairly new employee at the time and thought, "Oh boy, another unrealistic executive with dreams bigger than reality." Fast forward one year as we all stayed late to watch the final customers come through the #wins channel—it was unbelievable. That was when I knew I was all in on BetterCloud.

Austin Whipple Security Architecture Manager

I'll always remember when we first launched Workflows in June 2016. It represented such a turning point. To see the functionality grow from Google-only, to taking our first steps to becoming multi-SaaS, to today's 1,000+ actions across 70+ SaaS apps—plus all the creative ways organizations have adopted automation—has been such a rewarding journey to be a part of.

Caitlin McDevitt Senior Channel Manager

I loved our Support tradition of what felt like going to over 100 KBBQ dinners throughout the years.

Chris Fadell Senior Implementation Specialist

Early morning Rumble workouts! Nothing like starting the day with a jab cross to help set your mood for a great workday ahead.

Jillian Riley Director of Talent Acquisition

I've always felt recognizing and rewarding the great work of teams and individuals is at the core of BetterCloud's culture. Being a part of the team that delivered a highly requested feature, Dynamic Fields in Workflows, and having the CEO send an appreciation email to the entire company has been most inspiring to me.

Venkatesham Chintapandu Staff Software Engineer