Turbonomic
Turbonomic is a real-time autonomic control system for hybrid cloud environments, backed early by Bain Capital, which led its investment and whose partner Ben Nye later became full-time CEO. The company reports over 1,600 CIO customers, 24 consecutive quarters of record revenue, and a 91% rate of customers reaching full payback within three months. The company does not disclose its revenue figures.
Shmuel Kligger built the technology from the ground up after Bain Capital's team saw that existing startups in the space were competing against VMware. He had previously built SMARTs, a system management product that EMC acquired, and applied that concept to a new market.
- •Bain Capital's sector focus and early investment in a founder's rebuilt concept let the company compete in a market where its rivals had been acquired or had failed.
- •A licensing model that customers can buy in term or perpetual form, sized to sockets and cores, reduced friction for large enterprise buyers.
- •Reporting a 91% three-month payback rate gives enterprise CIOs a concrete return argument that supports sales despite price increases.
- •Twenty-four consecutive quarters of record revenue and Inc. 500 placements provide credibility that matters to enterprise buyers evaluating infrastructure software.
- 1.Identify a large, growing infrastructure market where existing startups are being outcompeted by a dominant incumbent, and build a differentiated product for the gap.
- 2.Price software in a way that matches how the buyer's infrastructure is sized, so the cost aligns with the value they can measure.
- 3.Publish concrete ROI metrics such as payback period and performance gains so enterprise buyers can justify the purchase internally.
- 4.Build a customer community and transparent content so practitioners can share deployment know-how and advocate internally.
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