Shop Talk: Q&A with Jim Welch, Marathon Technologies
Photo/Christina H. Davis
Jim Welch, President and CEO, Marathon Technologies.
In today’s 24-hour economy, almost every industry is losing patience with IT failures. An e-mail outage, even for a just a few hours, can send employees screaming for the exits in frustration. And that’s where Littleton-based Marathon Technologies comes in, with its software that ensures IT infrastructure never fails. Founded in 1993, the company went through bankruptcy reorganization in 2003 and since then has raised more than $27 million in venture funding. Jim Welch recently stepped into the president and CEO role, taking the place of Gary Phillips, who left in July. Here, Welch talks about his previous experience as well as his outlook for Marathon’s future.
>> How did you get to where you are today?
When I was at WPI studying to be an electrical engineer, I found myself drawn to software. I interned at New England Power Service Co. in Westborough and then transitioned from there to my first job at a start-up called Intellution as a software developer. I helped grow that business up to about $35 million until it was acquired. From there, I joined Ascential Software, leading their development organization. That business grew to almost $350 million. We were acquired by IBM in 2005 and I stayed on for four years.
>> Why was software such a draw for you?
I think software is a very interesting thing. It’s very quick gratification. You can think it, you can design it, you can build a test and have it running in sometimes hours. So, for me, somebody who has a little bit of ADD, it’s really nice to try something, see what happens, make it work, tweak it, enhance it, improve it, and always continually get that feedback on what you’re building.
>> How did you get recruited to come over to Marathon Technologies?
Well, the thing that interested me about Marathon was actually a trend I had seen previously in my career — and that was a technology designed for a very complex part of the marketplace that over time became mainstream. Here, you have prevention and management of infrastructure that’s so critical in manufacturing operations is now becoming part of the norm for infrastructure inside of all IT. And I think we are in the beginning of that transformation curve.
>> So, that’s what interested you. But did you get recruited by the board?
A recruiter that I knew from a previous life actually contacted me.
>> Who are your customers?
Typically, our best customers are ones that need their systems to never go down. But if you look at how things are changing over the last couple of years, we see a drive by IT shops to reduce costs by consolidating infrastructure. The way they consolidate is by putting more applications on fewer servers which stacks up their application risk, if you will, so if that one physical hardware fails, not one application fails but now three, five or eight could fail. So, in those environments we’re becoming more important as part of that infrastructure so they can rely on fewer servers.
>> How has this crazy economy impacted Marathon Technologies?
I think, prior to me joining, sales cycles were getting longer and people were being more careful about what they were buying. However, the nice part of our core business is, if you need it, you need it. If you’re putting in an application that has to run and be reliable, you don’t have a choice. It’s part of the infrastructure that keeps your business running. So, from that perspective, we’ve weathered the storm fairly well and I think as you look forward, now that that general IT spending is starting to ease up a little bit, we’re going to see a lift.
>> What’s been the toughest management lesson you’ve had to learn?
I think, there’s two that I can think of. One is the importance of very clear communications. At Ascential, the CEO Peter Gyenes educated me on the importance of every word and how it is spoken. The other one is really about making sure you’re close to your customers and your markets because they are changing very quickly.
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