EVault Does CEO Do-Si-Do

During a game of musical chairs at data protection software and services startup EVault Inc., COO Phil Gilmour found himself sitting in the president and CEO seats when the music stopped this week (see EVault COO Becomes CEO).

Alston Noah, who had been CEO since September 2000, when his company, Vital Vault, merged with EVault, has become EVault's chairman. Noah replaces James Balkcom, who is affiliated with EVaults lead investor, Council Ventures LP.

Why the change? A major reason was the company’s need to gather all of its management team together at its headquarters in Walnut Creek, Calif., Gilmour says. In 2000, Noah took over the helm of the company, but he never moved from his home in Huntsville, Ala.

"I want to be humble here, but we had such great success last year, and about 90 percent of the activity going on was emanating from Walnut Creek," he says. "I was already running most of the operations. It was a case of form following function, perhaps. This gives us a better management touch."

Privately held EVault, which provides disk-based backup and recovery software and services, claims it just completed the most successful year in its history (see Backup Service Providers Swell).Gilmour says the company increased its revenues by 200 percent during the past fiscal year, which ended June 30, 2003, with an annual run rate exceeding $12 million. And, he says, the company expects similar growth over the next year. "By the conclusion of this [fiscal] year, in June of '04, we’ll be in a profitable state," he says. "Our VCs are very happy."

The company has received $17.2 million in funding to date, which includes a $6 million Series C in March 2003. Its backers include Council Ventures, Massey Burch Capital Corp., and River Cities Capital Funds. Gilmour says he doesn’t expect it to need any further rounds (see EVault Raises $6M Series C).

Over the past year, the company has also more than doubled its staff, from 40 employees in June 2002 to a headcount of 90 today. Most of the new EVault staff members were added to improve customer support and R&D initiatives, Gilmour says, adding that the company is gaining a lot of customer traction among midsized businesses. Last year, he says, the company added 600 direct service customers, and this year it expects to add another 1,500. In addition, EVault has about 50 customers for its software and 21 partners reselling its products.

Before co-founding EVault in 1997, Gilmour was founder and managing partner at Armstrong Gilmour Accountancy Corp., a regional certified public accounting and business consulting firm.

— Eugénie Larson, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch