Fast-growing parallel file system supplier WEKA has parted ways with president Jonathan Martin, CFO Intekhab Nazeer and CRO Jeffrey Gianetti as it prepares for a spurt of late-stage growth towards an IPO.
A WEKA spokesperson told us: "We can confirm that Jonathan Martin and Jeffrey Giannetti are no longer with WEKA. Jonathan and Jeff were instrumental in supporting WEKA's impressive growth in the past few years, and we are grateful to them for their dedication and contributions. As with all personnel matters, we cannot and will not comment on the specifics of their departures as a matter of privacy.
"We can share that 2024 was a banner year for WEKA. We continued on a hypergrowth trajectory and achieved two considerable milestones - becoming both a Unicorn and a Centaur company with a $1.6 billion valuation and over $100 million in ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue)."
"Helping a company grow to $100 million ARR requires an experienced executive skillset. We were fortunate to have had exceptional leadership from Intekhab Nazeer, Jonathan Martin, and Jeffery Giannetti, supporting WEKA on that journey."
Intekhab Nazeer was WEKA's CFO up until this month, when Hoang Vuong was hired as his replacement. Concerning this, WEKA co-founder and CEO Liran Zvibel said: "Intekhab joined WEKA five years ago with a strong background in helping early- to mid-stage startups enter hypergrowth. During that time, he played an integral role in supporting our company through a tremendous period of early growth and expansion, and we are grateful to him for his many contributions.
"As WEKA surpassed $100 million ARR this year and is on a hockey stick growth curve, we determined it was time to find a finance leader with deep experience in helping late-stage startups navigate an accelerated growth trajectory. Hoang Vuong checks all the boxes and then some, and we are thrilled to welcome him to the WEKA team."
Zvibel commented on Vuong's appointment: "We are ecstatic to welcome Hoang Vuong as WEKA's new chief financial officer. 2024 was a banner year for WEKA, as we achieved several major financial milestones and added many of the world's leading AI and HPC innovators to our customer base. Hoang's track record of driving growth and public company experience will help accelerate our momentum."
Vuong served as CFO at Amplitude Inc. from 2019 to 2023, helping to take the company public in September 2021. Before that, he was the chief operating officer and CFO of GoFundMe. He has also held various leadership positions at Intuit, Demandforce, and Deloitte. He currently serves on the board of the software developer Revinate, Inc.
Concerning the president and CRO departures, the WEKA spokesperson said: "As we scale to meet our next financial milestone of $1billion ARR, we are laying the foundation for accelerated growth and innovation, adding leaders to our team who are experienced in taking a company through this next critical phase while delivering exceptional value to our customers and stakeholders."
We don't yet know who will replace Martin and Gianetti, but think that their replacements have already been chosen.
It's likely that Nazeer, Martin and Gianetti have stock in WEKA and, should an IPO occur, will profit from that. But what this says about a startup's loyalty to the execs who helped it to grow to its current state we'll leave you to judge. CEOs and exec chairpeople - Amit Pandey is WEKA's executive chairperson - need a degree of dispassionate ruthlessness, and this episode perhaps shows that in action. The interests of a business generally supersede those of its employees.