Paul Daversa’s Post

Armada’s mission to redefine the future of edge computing just got a boost! Today, we’re thrilled to announce a $40 million funding round led by M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund. This investment propels our total funding to over $100M and marks a significant milestone in our journey to bring AI to the edge and bridge the digital divide. We’ve also signed a key partnership with Microsoft, which brings Armada's innovative solutions to the Microsoft Azure Marketplace , allowing Azure customers to use pre-committed spend on Armada’s cutting-edge solutions and making our technology more accessible than ever. Dive deeper into our vision and read more about our latest developments from #AllieGarfinkle at Fortune https://bit.ly/3Y4v1rr.

Sagnik Nandy, former President and Chief Development Officer at Okta, is joining Docusign as Chief Technology Officer. With his extensive enterprise expertise and technical vision, Sagnik will lead Docusign's engineering efforts as they expand into Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM), an innovative new SaaS category. We're excited to see how Sagnik and Docusign continue to scale innovation in digital agreements. Lindsay Keith #ClientNews

ARE CEO SEARCHES MORE DIFFICULT IN THIS MARKET? I have been asked this question many times over the past 12-18 months : WHY ARE CEO Searches different?  Or WHAT MAKES them different I have completed over 100+ CEO searches here at Daversa. Majority being Series A-C with some later stages sprinkled in, common threads are the following ALIGNMENT ON SPEC IS PARAMOUNT.  75% of my work has been replacing a founder. 25% have been changing “professional CEO’s” out. You have to invest a tremendous amount of time creating true alignment, understanding the board and founder dynamic thoroughly What do we NEED.  Where are the GAPS?  What skills are essential to work in concert with the brilliant founder who got the company to where it is today?    What are the headwinds causing this change? Founder fatigue? Increase focus on GTM execution? (Shifting models perhaps?) Trying to find product market fit? STAGE RELEVANCY   I firmly believe that this is paramount to any CEO search I run.  You have to find someone who has seen the movie, wrote the script and directed the action.  There are outliers (many i can mention) but stage relevancy is a paramount criteria in my view DOMAIN EXPERTISE  In many cases domain expertise is critical, in others having an outside view can be helpful to a change of thought and approach.  There are exceptions- it's no secret I do a lot of work in cybersecurity. I firmly believe that knowing your buyer/ICP as a CEO is important.  In data, analytics and SaaS you can interchange a bit- it's a little more pliable FUNDING SITUATION One aspect that has become increasingly evident is fundraising experience. 75% of the time board members will ask about a candidates track record being able to successful raise capital. THE FOUNDERS MENTALITY IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT Lets face it. Some founders naturally conclude that stepping aside is the best for the business, some are moved on by the board.  No matter what the key is to truly understand the heritage story behind the founder and company. Truly understand their journey and skills. For most founders, they pour their blood, sweat and tears into building a great company, great culture.  We will need them to be ALL IN to land a legendary CEO.  FIRST TIMER VS BEEN THERE/DONE THAT  I firmly believe that when you run a CEO search your main goal is to buy experience. You want to obtain a CEO who has done this before.  But the way i like to run my projects is we look for both existing experience while also evaluating “next gen” CEO’s. At one time Frank Slootman, Dan Streetman, Bill McDermott and Doug Merritt needed someone to bet on them.  We know how those movies played out. So never turn your back on the next great CEO simply because they haven't risen to that level yet. More to follow… Daversa Partners Dan Streetman James F. Brear Tom Thimot Gregory Webb Justin Shriber Brad Brooks Glenn Weinstein Marshall Heilman Jim Hyman

Today, we are delighted to announce the appointment of Marc Whitten as our new Chief Executive Officer, effective July 16. Marc is a proven leader with decades of experience leading teams at scale with deep expertise across software, hardware, platform and services, which will be crucial to fulfilling our vision. We are also pleased to welcome Nick Mulholland as our Chief Communications and Marketing Officer. Nick’s extensive experience in building sought-after brands and driving customer growth will be invaluable as we enter the next phases of our journey. You can read more about these leadership appointments here: https://lnkd.in/gCuFZFzG