February 16, 2015
Business Leader of the Year: Large Business
2015 Business Leaders of the Year: Doron Kempel, SimpliVity Inc.
PHOTO/MATT VOLPINI
Doron Kempel, CEO, SimpliVity Inc. Westborough
By Sam Bonacci
Talking business with Doron Kempel is an ex¬ercise in formulas. Whether it's a matter of choosing his next venture, or optimizing the way his company, SimpliVity, is run, Kempel is all about evaluating paths toward optimal outcomes.
“Everything is a plan. It is analysis, plan and intuition. It is that mix,” said the former major in the Israeli armed forces.
A thorough evaluation of the information technology field led the CEO of the Westborough-based technology company to create his latest venture, which has received continued financial backing from multiple investment firms and a buzz among those in the field. SimpliVity's niche is what is called converged infrastructure, which combined different information technology components — such as data servers, software and networking equipment — into one optimized package.
SimpliVity, a private company, said it grew sales and its customer base nearly 500 percent in 2014 over 2013. (The company came out of “stealth mode” in 2012 after its founding in 2009.) The company also expanded its global footprint, with a presence in Asia, resellers in almost 50 countries and employees in 18. The number of employees climbed to more than 400 worldwide, a 270-percent year-over-year growth. Last month, technology analyst firm IDC of Framingham named SimpliVity a global leader among vendors in its industry.
All of that came from careful planning and preparation. For Kempel, even long-term goals and decisions come down to near-term steps and goals with measurable results.
“All of that is very simple, but of course it requires a great deal of discipline — self-discipline and organizational discipline,” Kempel said.
Kempel's latest venture (he sold his last company, Diligent Technologies, to IBM in 2008) takes all the features that have been pulled out of the computer mainframe, from storage to security, and returns it to one package called the OmniCube. It was one of the first products to offer this “hyper-convergence” of all parts of a company's information technology infrastructure.
“We are offering a product (companies) can run everything on. We have 15 cities in the U.S. that run everything on our system,” Kempel said.
The Worcester County Sheriff's Office has been running its systems on three OmniCubes since 2013. This has simplified operations — down from 12 servers — and cut costs while making everything easier to manage, Maurice Myrie, IT director at the sheriff's office, said.
“The Omnicubes have allowed me to focus my efforts on improving the sheriff's office technology in other ways,” he said.
Within the last year, SimpliVity shipped 1,500 OmniCube licenses. The company has also found the support of a number of backers; in November 2013, for instance, it raised $58 million in Series C funding. Investors have cited the company's leadership in the hyper-convergence category through OmniCube as a key reason for backing SimpliVity.
A man with a 'lot of conviction'
Matt Murphy, a member of the SimpliVity board and general partner for investor firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which has invested in the company, has worked with Kempel for two-and-a-half years. During that time, he has seen both Kempel's ability to plan well into the future as well as how he focuses on specifics.
“He is one of the most detail-oriented person I have ever worked with in my life,” Murphy said. “He is the kind of leader who has a lot of conviction and the data to back it up and wants to get after it. A lot of times you hold on and let him run.”
Kempel has also built a strong team around him, Murphy said, and he has the foresight of updating the management structure ahead of the company's growth so that ongoing expansion can be accommodated smoothly.
'A culture of debate'
Kempel also explained that he was careful to create a “debate oriented” culture at SimpliVity to encourage execution excellence and continuous innovation.
To facilitate this culture, Kempel minimized SimpliVity's hierarchy.
“If you look to establish a culture of debate as a means for sharpening your understanding of what is going on and making better decisions, it cannot be a hierarchical culture,” he said. “In hierarchical cultures, no one disagrees with the captain even when she flies the plane into the mountain.”
As SimpliVity grows, Kempel must rely on his team to push the business forward.
“I think my number one responsibility is to help shape the goals, strategy and to make sure the environment is fair,” he said. “The number one responsibility of the leader, in my mind, is (to) have a fair environment.”
Kempel sees no limit for SimpliVity, which he said has spearheaded a new market and thus has a jump on its competitors.
“We have no excuses …. It's up to us. If we continue staying focused, I think the company can (continue to grow) very fast and be a big player in this market,” Kempel said.
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