Welcome to the Arena from ICR – Conversations with Today's Innovators & Business Leaders

In an industry that's seen incredible growth in the last few years, lots of Saas companies are exploding. But Saas software vendor AvePoint was on the scene long before the industry took off, and their strategic vision of the cloud's potential has helped secure their own extraordinary long-term growth.

Back in March we chatted with AvePoint's Chief Brand Officer, Dux Raymond Sy about building brands, so I'm excited to learn more about this growing company with today's guest, AvePoint's CEO, Dr. TJ Jiang.

TJ co-founded AvePoint in 2001, and he's served as CEO since 2005. He holds a Master's degeree in electrical and computer engineering from Cornell University, and a PhD in data mining from NYU and in 2010, TJ was the recipient of Ernst and Young's, Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
Ave Point is the Saas backbone of data management and the hybrid workforce. Their full suite of Saas solutions enable organizations worldwide to collaborate with confidence in the cloud. More than 9 million cloud users rely on AvePoint solutions for securing data, sustaining connections and ensuring business continuity.

TJ and I spoke about the early, lean years of the business, AvePoint's careful choices along the way, and the evolutionary factors that have made AvePoint one of the biggest players in the Saas industry.

Show Notes

Summary

In an industry that's seen incredible growth in the last few years, lots of Saas companies are exploding. But Saas software vendor AvePoint was on the scene long before the industry took off, and their strategic vision of the cloud's potential has helped secure their own extraordinary long-term growth.

Back in March we chatted with AvePoint's Chief Brand Officer, Dux Raymond Sy about building brands, so I'm excited to learn more about this growing company with today's guest, AvePoint's CEO, Dr. TJ Jiang.

TJ co-founded AvePoint in 2001, and he's served as CEO since 2005. He holds a Master's degeree in electrical and computer engineering from Cornell University, and a PhD in data mining from NYU and in 2010, TJ was the recipient of Ernst and Young's, Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
Ave Point is the Saas backbone of data management and the hybrid workforce. Their full suite of Saas solutions enable organizations worldwide to collaborate with confidence in the cloud. More than 9 million cloud users rely on AvePoint solutions for securing data, sustaining connections and ensuring business continuity.

TJ and I spoke about the early, lean years of the business, AvePoint's careful choices along the way, and the evolutionary factors that have made AvePoint one of the biggest players in the Saas industry.

Highlights:
  • TJ's enterpreneurship story: how AvePoint began (3:15)
  • What AvePoint does and who their clients are (5:58)
  • How the pandemic influenced their business (7:38)
  • TJ explains the benefits and necessity of Saas technologies (10:15)
  • The size of the market and why this is just the beginning of digital transformation (13:34)
  • TJ talks about AvePoint's go-to-market strategy (15:01)
  • Why AvePoint is enjoying great growth when other companies are struggling (16:58)
  • The story on some of AvePoint's latest acquisitions (19:01)
  • TJ discusses their philosophy on capital allocation (23:03)
  • Some of the factors that have led to AvePoint's strong balance sheet (24:50)
  • The things that investors might miss about AvePoint (26:32)
Links:

ICR Twitter
ICR LinkedIn
ICR Website
TJ Jiang LinkedIn
TJ Jiang Twitter
AvePoint Website
AvePoint Twitter
AvePoint LinkedIn

Feedback:

If you have questions about the show, or have a topic in mind you'd like discussed in future episodes, email our producer, elizabeth@lowerstreet.co.

What is Welcome to the Arena from ICR – Conversations with Today's Innovators & Business Leaders?

In the increasingly crowded and competitive corporate and financial ecosystem, it’s harder than ever for companies to break through the clutter and be heard. The media, investors, agenda-driven influencers, even customers and competitors, are defining your business story on their terms. Therefore, it is imperative that companies take control and proactively drive the conversation with stakeholders in an effort to build & maintain equity value.

In Welcome to the Arena from ICR, Co-Founder & CEO of ICR, Tom Ryan, interviews key business and financial players who influence the fate of public or aspiring public companies in the capital markets. As a former Wall Street Journal ranked sell-side equity analyst and the founder of one of the largest strategic communications firms in the world, Tom understands what it takes to navigate this complex environment.

This is a forum for CEOs, CFOs, institutional investors, sell-side analysts, financial journalists, private equity professionals and other financial community participants to share their stories and give advice in an open and candid conversation.

For more information, visit http://www.icrinc.com