Chamber Insider Blog

Thank you to ParkMyCloud for answering a few of our questions.
Congratulations on being named a finalist for Technology Innovator of the Year!
The 24th Annual Loudoun Small Business Awards will be on November 1, 2018 – Tickets/More Info Here

1. Tell us your story of how your company got to where it is today? 

We founded ParkMyCloud in 2015. The premise was based on the idea that cloud is a utility, and there is need to optimize the cloud like you do your own utilities — otherwise if not there is waste. For example, you turn off lights when not in a room or lower the temperature in the house during the day when not home in the winter – you do this to reduce waste and save money. The same concept can be applied to the public cloud. Users need to turn off resources when they’re not being used and integrate this process with enterprise IT operations for maximum efficiency.

In 2015, cloud waste was about $5 billion – in 2020, it’s projected to reach $21 billion. It’s a large, complex problem. With that wasted spend in mind, we founded ParkMyCloud to give cloud customers an easy-to-use cost control platform – one that can automatically take action to reduce wasted spend through governance and policies.

In the past 3 years, we have grown to have 600+ customers in 25+ countries, and we are adding 25+ new customers per month. We have done this with a small, efficient team based out of Sterling, VA leveraging the latest in marketing and sales tactics, and have a built an enterprise-grade platform that supports, large multi-national companies like McDonald’s, Turner, Fox, Unilever, and National Geographic to name a few.

For me, the most important thing we have done is put a solid product and team in place, and have networked and leveraged local organizations and firms to help grow the PMC brand – AOL Fishbowl Labs, MAVA, Cooley Capital Call, Connectprenuer, Loudoun County Economic Development, and AWS DC Meetup.

2. What would it mean to you and your company to win a Small Business Award?

Although ParkMyCloud now has a global customer presence, Loudoun County will always be “home”. We’re part of a movement of local companies taking advantage of the growing technology expertise in the area to innovate.

Winning a Small Business Award would be a huge validation to the team as we enter year three of the startup journey, and it would also show that cloud computing is one of the centers of technological innovation today.

I have also been a LoCo resident since 1997. It’s impressive to see how much the county has grown and all the resources now available to residents and businesses alike.

3. If you weren’t running your own business/working at this business, what would you be doing?

If I wasn’t running ParkMyCloud, I would still be in the cloud space, just at a larger company. My background is in global IT sales with Micromuse and IBM Tivoli, and I have always enjoyed the mix of technology and sales.

4. What book are you reading right now? / What is your favorite book?

Right now I’m reading Firewall (Nick Stone Book 3) by Andy McNabb – I still use my original Kindle, and read almost every night – it’s relaxing for me. I generally read what I deem as ‘guy, action novels’ – not too much thinking involved.

5. If you have 24-hours off, and your family was out of town, what would you do?

That’s an easy one: something active – I’m not a big fan of sitting around. In the spring/summer/fall locally that would be golf, biking or hiking, and in the winter skiing. Also, really enjoy going to Leesburg. The downtown area has really gotten to be a lot of fun the past 5 years and I like that it’s mostly local eateries/breweries and not chains.

6. What is the smallest thing that has made the largest impact on your business?

The interesting thing about running a small business is that there are so many little things that have an impact. At ParkMyCloud, we’ve cultivated a culture of listening – we’re always thinking and adapting to things we hear from employees, investors, industry experts, and of course our customers.

From day 1, the feedback we get from customers, and potential customers, has built our product.

We don’t build anything new because we think it’s a good idea, we build it because we listen to what they tell us, and how we can make them more efficient at managing and controlling their cloud costs. I guess the original impact would be the entire idea for ParkMyCloud, which we got when cloud users told us they had no easy way to turn resources on and off.

7. What did you want to be when you grew up as a child? / What was a childhood dream that you had?

I went to WVU, studied Finance and got my MBA because I wanted to be stock broker. The Move Wall Street came out in 1987 when I graduated from HS in Reston. I should say my broker career was short lived, I lasted 3 months on no salary (commission only) at John Hancock right out of WVU.

8. Who is the one person that has influenced you the most in your career?

Easy one, my dad – he’s a successful entrepreneur and mixed in his white collar business career with trying different ventures, it clicked with him big time after I got out of college. He worked hard, surrounded himself with smart people, and continues to give back to the community by supporting charities and scholarship programs.

9. What is your favorite thing about running a business in Loudoun County?

We love the small business community in Loudoun – whether it’s Loudoun Startups, 1 Million Cups, or MAVA, there’s always a meetup or event to connect with other entrepreneurs and startups. I’ve met mentors, business partners, and future employees at Loudoun events.

As a cloud company, we’re also particularly proud to be founded in the data center capital of the world – did you know that up to 70% of the world’ Internet traffic runs through Loudoun every day?

10. If you’re not in the office where can we find you?

We have co-working space at Terminal68 in Sterling. We also allow for remote work so sometimes I work from home, and if not there at Starbucks, Peet’s, WholeFoods, and any other place with WiFi – that’s just during working hours.

During non-working hours there is a lot of carpooling in the evenings, Riverside HS sports, soccer on the weekends, and of course for me the gym, golf, old man soccer and BBQ’s in the hood. Last weekend on Saturday evening we went to Middleburg and had drinks at Salamander, dinner at the Red Fox Inn, and a nightcap at Pazzo’s.

11. What is your favorite weekend activity in Loudoun County?

Well, my favorite weekend activity is usually watching my son play football and my two girls play soccer, however that’s only in LoCo half the time as they both play for FC Virginia, a Loudoun-based soccer club. It does involve quite a bit of travel, so we have been as far away as CA and FL to play in tournaments.

When not on the soccer field or at a Riverside HS game, I enjoy golfing in warmer months (at Belmont Country Club), and skiing in the winter months (that’s not local), and we do all things Loudoun – breweries, wineries, OneLoudoun, Leesburg, Belmont Chase, Middleburg, etc. – you name we try it. We are the ideal Loudoun residents – make $$$ here, spend $$$ here.