Business Showcase : Nitro

By @SimonCocking

Interview with Peter Bardwick CFO of Nitro @NitroHQ. Nitro accelerates the way businesses create, prepare, and sign documents. Anytime, anywhere. The goal: smarter documents for everyone. We recently featured a piece on Peter Barkwick’s appointment as Nitro’s new CFO. Nitro founder Sam Chandler recently mentioned that the goal is to bring the company to the point of an IPO, so Nitro will definitely be a company to look out for.

Describe the company, the elevator pitch …

Nitro accelerates the way businesses and users create, prepare and sign documents—anytime, anywhere. From small companies to large organizations, Nitro provides innovative and easy-to-use document productivity solutions without sacrificing user experience. Nitro is committed to saving knowledge workers hours every day while dramatically lowering software costs. As a result, more than 500,000 businesses run Nitro, including over 50% of the Fortune 500.

How are you different?

Nitro has a unique combination of an existing business (Nitro Pro) with over 500,000 customers and a solid growing revenue stream along with new and exciting cloud-based document management products.  Very few, if any, tech start ups have the customer reach and domain expertise that we have.

Why will the company / product do well?

We have great customers, products, and people.  That’s half the magic formula for disrupting industries.  The other half is ‘right place and right time’.  Traditional document management and office productivity tools are endangered species.  Today’s knowledge workers are looking for simpler and more streamlined solutions.  Nitro represents the vanguard of a new wave of productivity and collaboration platforms that could outpace outmoded working methods like email in the coming years.

Where are you based, how is the broadband?

I am based out of our San Francisco office. The broadband is excellent!

When was the company launched?

Nitro was founded in 2005 in Melbourne before moving HQ to San Francisco in 2008. Once we had grown to the 100 employee mark in San Francisco we made the decision to open our EMEA HQ in Dublin in 2013.

What have been your biggest wins to date?

From a company perspective:

• 500,000 customers around the globe
• Multiple awards related to rapid growth and product excellence
• Operating on the desktop and the cloud
• Hiring the best engineers in our business.

From my own career:

• Named 2014 Bay area CFO of the year for Small to Mid Size Public Companies.
• Led my most recent organization, Rocket Fuel, in the third-most successful IPO of 2013.
• My first IPO, for CBS MarketWatch, remains one of the most successful IPOs ever.
• In total have raised almost $11b and sit on a variety of corporate boards

What type of people (market segment) are you trying to attract to your product?

• Our target market is anyone, or any entity, that interacts with documents.

Tell us about your team?

• We have approximately 200 people around the globe, with offices in Melbourne, San Francisco, and Dublin.
• As we are a product driven company we have a heavy focus on engineering talent and have been able to attract some of the most notable names in our industry.
• We are also growing our global sales force.
• In my role as CFO I lead our accounting, finance, legal governance and IT functions.

What are your long term plans for your product / company?

Disrupting the way organizations manage their documents and workflow through cloud based solutions—stay tuned!!

What are your favourite tech gadgets?

• Nitro Software
• iPad
• Electronic Traction Control on my motorcycle

What tech gadgets do you wish you could use to help you?

• Personal exercise tracker that automatically tracks calories of food intake

How can people find out more about Nitro?

Peter’s LinkedIn is www.linkedin.com/in/jpbardwick

Or through Nitro’s website here or through our social media channels below;

Twitter

Facebook

LinkedIn

Youtube

Instagram

If you would like to have your company featured in the Irish Tech News Business Showcase, get in contact with us at Simon@IrishTechNews.net or @SimonCocking