Michael Murdoch, CEO and co-founder of AppRiver
AppRiver leverages cloud computing to make powerful, best-of-class email and Web security services affordable for businesses of all sizes. Michael Murdoch co-founded AppRiver with CTO, Joel Smith, in 2002, and serves as the CEO of this award winning company.
Hi Michael! AppRiver has become a leader in the email and Web security sector. What’s been the formula for success in this competitive category?
We’ve always believed that success comes from offering outstanding products and services at a fair price and backing them with Phenomenal Care. We create real value for our customers and that’s something other businesses may tend to ignore.
What made you and co-founder Joel Smith believe that you could build a successful email and Web services company?
User admin screen
From our own experiences as business owners, Joel and I understood that small and medium-sized companies needed many of the same types of IT services as Fortune 500 companies. Spam and virus protection in particular had become an extremely urgent need, but the solutions on the market then were either prohibitively expensive or only marginally effective.
At the time, no one was really talking about “cloud computing,” but we recognized that providing subscription-based security applications over the Internet would allow us to offer a dynamic, super-secure solution for a fraction of the cost.
We also knew that SMBs were wary about launching complicated, time-consuming applications, so we made sure our services were very simple to deploy and fully supported by our team. And nobody wants to get stuck with a lousy product, so we decided that we would offer all of our services free for 30 days.
AppRiver Corporate Headquarters in Gulf Breeze, Florida
You’ve been at the helm of AppRiver since you co-founded the company in 2002. What’s been your greatest challenge as CEO?
Throughout the years our customer base as grown to more than 45,000 companies worldwide, and with that growth came the challenge of meeting customer need without changing cost structure or sacrificing performance. Also, we will work tirelessly to make sure Phenomenal Care is part of everything we do here at AppRiver, always.
AppRiver has thousands of customers. Has it been difficult to scale the business?
We’ve experienced the normal growing pains that many growing companies face such as staffing, billing, office space, etc. The hard part is scaling our Phenomenal Care commitment, making sure every one of our customers knows they are valued. For example, we work closely with new customers to ensure a fast, efficient onboarding or migration process. And if you have any issues, you can speak to a trained AppRiver employee, based here at our Florida headquarters, any time of the day or night.
AppRiver Co-founders, Joel Smith, CTO, and Michael Murdoch, CEO
AppRiver also boasts a very high customer retention rate. How do you keep your customers so satisfied?
We’re proud of the fact that 93% of our customers choose AppRiver year-over-year. And again, the main reason we’ve been able to do that is because customer service is not an add-on or an afterthought. Instead, it’s deeply embedded in our corporate culture.
How hard is it to stay ahead of the spammers and virus makers?
There are billions of dollars at stake for successful spammers, so there are a lot of smart people working for the ‘dark side.’ Fortunately, AppRiver has a brilliant team of analysts and technicians who monitor cyber risks on a 24/7 basis. This research leads to immediate and constant improvements to AppRiver’s security posture, protecting clients from ever-changing threats while striking a balance between security, compliance and productivity. In addition, our proprietary email filtering systems are updated approximately 4,000 – 8,000 times each day, so illicit email is quickly identified and blocked.
Spam reporting
Cloud computing is fundamental to your business. Is it here to stay?
There’s a paradigm shift going on in the industry about how we deal with computing infrastructure. Today, companies are evaluating the cloud as it offers tremendous cost savings, scalability, ease-of-use and management. Throughout the next few years, we will see more organizations and consumers move appropriate applications into the cloud.
What’s the corporate culture like at AppRiver?
Our success is a product of a special relationship between dedicated employees, motivated partners and well-satisfied customers. Strengthening that relationship through continuous workplace improvements, innovative service offerings and phenomenal care remains the highest priority. That’s why we offer many on-site training and certification opportunities through our on-site training and development facility. AppRiver University offers employees a multitude of training courses that are designed to develop technical, professional, wellness and life skills.
Congratulations on being named the 2009 Ernst & Young Florida Entrepreneur Of the Year! What are some of the other awards recognizing AppRiver that you are particularly proud of?
AppRiver training session
Thank you! We’re very proud to be recognized as one of the “Best Companies to Work For in Florida” by Florida Trend magazine for three consecutive years, and to have earned CSIA’s International Service Excellence Award.
What’s the future hold for AppRiver?
Our pipeline continues to be strongly influenced by what the market demands. We’ve seen a surge in customers who need stronger email safeguards in order to comply with governmental privacy laws worldwide. So that’s one area where we expect continued growth. Our channel partners have also told us that Web security is a rapidly growing need among their clients, and so we’ve launched our SecureSurf Web Protection service to meet those needs.
The market is massive and global, but it demands that we pay close attention to what our customers need – and then answer with quality products, fair pricing and exceptional customer support.
For more information about AppRiver, please visit http://www.appriver.com/.
