From Engineering to Entrepreneurship The Stratodesk Story
Jan 25, 2024
Evan Kirstel
Unlock the future of end-user computing with the mastermind behind Stratodesk, Emanuel Pürker. Our candid conversation traverses the innovative landscape where no Touch OS and no Touch Center are changing the game for corporate device management. Let Emanuel guide you through the benefits of a Linux-based operating system, from ironclad security to cost savings, and learn how these systems are reshaping remote work in the wake of the pandemic. As businesses adapt to the new normal, discover how the blend of enterprise security and superior user experience is being redefined, with platforms like Island leading the charge in secure browsing.
From the mind of an engineer to the heart of an entrepreneur, listen to Emanuel's personal voyage in founding Stratodesk and the pivotal role of cloud computing in today's digital ecosystem. Gain insights into the importance of product excellence, the art of assembling a skilled team, and the strategic influence of trusted advisors. Emanuel also shares the elation of returning to industry events and personal pursuits that fuel his passion outside the office. Don't miss out on this episode's exploration of the tech frontier and the visionary people driving its evolution.
Unlock the future of end-user computing with the mastermind behind Stratodesk, Emanuel Pürker. Our candid conversation traverses the innovative landscape where no Touch OS and no Touch Center are changing the game for corporate device management. Let Emanuel guide you through the benefits of a Linux-based operating system, from ironclad security to cost savings, and learn how these systems are reshaping remote work in the wake of the pandemic. As businesses adapt to the new normal, discover how the blend of enterprise security and superior user experience is being redefined, with platforms like Island leading the charge in secure browsing.
From the mind of an engineer to the heart of an entrepreneur, listen to Emanuel's personal voyage in founding Stratodesk and the pivotal role of cloud computing in today's digital ecosystem. Gain insights into the importance of product excellence, the art of assembling a skilled team, and the strategic influence of trusted advisors. Emanuel also shares the elation of returning to industry events and personal pursuits that fuel his passion outside the office. Don't miss out on this episode's exploration of the tech frontier and the visionary people driving its evolution.
More at https://linktr.ee/EvanKirstel
Speaker 1:
Hey everybody, super excited for this chat today about the cutting edge of connectivity and security with the founder and CEO of Stratodesk, a company I'm excited to learn about. Emanuel, how are you? I'm good. How are you Doing? Well, we're on the sides of the coast so we're just commiserating about weather challenges, but really excited to have you here. Maybe let's start with a little introduction to yourself and the journey you've been on at Stratodesk for a number of years.
Speaker 2:
My name is Emanuel Emanuel Pürker. I am indeed the founder and CEO of Stratodesk. I'm an engineer by nature and I have become an entrepreneur. So engineer turned entrepreneur. I'm originally from Austria but have been living in the San Francisco Bay Area for quite a while I mean, I forget to count track, actually, I don't even want to know. It has been almost 15 years now. So I came into this space actually many years ago, predates Stratodesk with an actual challenge that a company had and said, hey, we need somebody to solve that, without going into all these details.
Speaker 2:
And user computing is a fascinating topic because sometimes it's a bit overlooked, because people think primarily about apps and flashy things and hey, I can do this in my browser, and so on. But actually the operating system is what gives most people headaches, and headaches of various sorts. I mean, you have issues with availability, something does not work, you have issues with cost, you're paying too much, security breaches, et cetera, et cetera. So that means I feel this is almost something that is a bit underappreciated, and user computing and operating systems in particular, and so I came into this space. I still find it interesting, highly interesting. After so many years. It's not getting boring. So yeah, here we are today.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, well, it's been a fantastic journey and tell us about the original mission or vision. When you started and kind of where you are today. You had something called no Touch OS and no Touch Center. What did you have to overcome to kind of build your communication suite?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, in a nutshell, no Touch OS is a Linux-based operating system that is carefully made specifically for the purpose of being an end user computing operating system. So what this means is think of all these PCs. Imagine a corporation, imagine a hospital, a government office, anything where you run many, many PCs. And this is unlike a personal PC where you say, yeah, I can always fix something if something does not work. If you have 10,000 of these boxes, then the challenge is you cannot go to each and every machine and even if somebody sells you a great remote management tool, you still do not want to log into each and every PC and do the same task. So that means you need some sort of overall management, something that ensures that these machines are all in sync, so you can do things based on the plain Windows operating system. You can also use Linux like we do. Our no Touch OS, as I already mentioned, is specifically made for the purpose. So there are so many flavors of Linux out there. We made our own flavor of Linux specifically for that purpose, so we can run fleets of PCs and laptops and even Raspberry Pis. Honestly, I'm not kidding. We can run the same thing on a Raspberry Pi and it can give you a complete Windows desktop. So that's it. Thank you Bye, that you work with.
Speaker 2:
Obviously it's not running on the same machine, it's running somewhere else, but it gives you access to a complete corporate work environment. But it has clear advantages it is more secure, your cost goes down and the ease of use goes up. And since we don't sell any kind of hardware, so we give you a piece of software that you can and actually should install on something that you already have, because every desk today, looking any skyscraper, any office building, even at home, people already have PCs. So our requirements are much lower than what you would need for running, say, a Windows-based workload or any type of end-user computing workload locally. If you run it remotely, you only access it. When it's hosted somewhere else. Your requirements on the endpoint go down. That means the software runs on older machines and you know every machine, every PC that is not being built, translates into kilograms, if not tons, of carbon dioxide safe. So that means there is an inherent sustainability factor that comes with it.
Speaker 1:
Lots of benefits and value there and I'm wondering through the pandemic with remote work and the whole BYOD trend as well, you must have seen just a massive boost in deployment and reach across the enterprises. Tell us what that was like.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, absolutely so. I mean, nobody obviously wants to benefit from the effects of a pandemic, but end-user computing was something that suddenly was in the spotlight for us specifically, and again I'm saying, end-user computing is a broad topic. It involves Microsoft, windows, it involves other companies, their services, cloud and so on. For our perspective, having remote work put so much in the spotlight was certainly good because, as I already said, we only give people software. You can install that software on even older PCs. Nobody says these PCs have to be corporate owned, right? I mean, our software does not know who paid for that PC. That means BYOD is natural. We don't have to do anything for BYOD. We don't check your credit card statement, who paid for it, so you can run it and you can even run it live. So you can use a USB stick. You still keep your machine with your Windows, your games, whatever you run on your PC. You plug in the USB stick, you do a live boot. Nothing will change on your hard drive. There is no cross pollution of any sort. You run it from the USB stick.
Speaker 2:
So that obviously in 2020 was the year of BYOD and the year of remote work, and even today, when some companies say they want to do return to office. I mean nobody, or very, very few companies have a 100% return to office. It's always some kind of hybrid work. So if I carry my USB stick around with my secure operating system, I can run this, even in the company. I might share office space with somebody else. Maybe I can only in Monday, tuesday. Somebody else uses that very same PC, the piece of hardware that does not contain any user data. Nothing on Wednesday, thursday, right? So there are a lot of possibilities.
Speaker 1:
Indeed, you have very fascinating trend that you're riding on top of. Talk about the customers you're working with. How are they deploying you. Are there certain verticals or industries you're getting most traction? Where are you seeing the biggest take up?
Speaker 2:
So, generally speaking, the solution works everywhere, as long as you have, say, a certain number of machines. I mean, I certainly run the software for myself too, but it really makes sense. As I said in my initial statement, the beauty comes in if you have multiple machines. So that's clearly a corporate thing, a B2B thing, and the more the merrier, the more machines you have, the more PCs under management, the better, and actually it starts honestly, I mean, you see the benefits with 20 PCs, with 25 machines.
Speaker 2:
Traditionally, say, 10 years ago, five years ago, the markets or our customer base skewed towards larger corporations, verticals, healthcare this was one of the very early verticals adopting that kind of model finance, manufacturing, government and federal government speaking about the US but honestly, it's not just the federal government, it's so many local governments, I think the United States there are somewhat 17,000 government entities. That means cities, independent government bodies like, say, your water district, your sewer district and so on, and they all have the same issue they nobody runs after them and says, hey, I give you money so you can buy new PCs, I give you money for more SaaS products and more money for new Windows and Windows 11 and so on. Right, nobody does that. It's all taxpayer money. It's the opposite. So how do you run your 50 PCs, your 500 PCs or, with larger organizations, 5000 PCs? How do you run these as efficiently as possible, where you, as I said, don't go to each and every single machine and do something and get the screwdriver out in the software sense and change something?
Speaker 1:
great points, and so true. Let's talk about the ecosystem very complex, rapidly changing, can't keep up with the news when it comes to cloud providers and big tech companies in the space like Citrix and Azure and VM. Where. How do you integrate your complement into all of these ecosystems? What does that mean for your customers?
Speaker 2:
We have traditionally been always a partner of the big VDI providers. Citrix was obviously the first company that jumpstarted. It got public 20 years ago. Again, I forgot keeping track of how many years here and there the Ember is in the space with a separate EUC product have a business unit. There is Microsoft. Microsoft not only providing the base operating system itself Windows 10, windows 11, any Windows, also product called Windows 365, slash, azure, virtual Desktop so both are cloud solutions by Microsoft. We interface with these solutions. There are other great providers as well.
Speaker 2:
There has been an ecosystem built up over the last years and all of these mentioned give you access to Windows-based apps. Again, we have a Linux-based operating system that runs on the local PC. That is secure, minimized, lower tech surface and easy to manage. But what you see as a user is Windows apps, either complete Windows desktop or Windows apps. These are delivered by our partner companies and there you have a choice. With our solution, you can run multiple at the same time. Equally important to that whole block of Windows stuff is browsing, saas apps, web-based apps Besides just running, say, a browser, which is a bit like Chromebook.
Speaker 2:
We can configure Notouch. It comes up with a browser. It's a very secure environment. There is also an ecosystem on its own that is pretty hot right now is enterprise browsing. I read just a few weeks ago one of the companies, talon, was bought by Palo Alto Networks. These things are on the news. We are partnering with Island, which is another secure browser provider. Actually, they call themselves enterprise browsers. It's not just about the security, it's much more. It's about enterprise browsing. So these can also run. If you run, I could particularly say what is a secure or enterprise browser worth if the machine that you run it on has all the viruses and all your keystrokes are being sent to some servers abroad? So, in order to complement this as a solution, you definitely want both. You want the enterprise browser, but you also want this enterprise endpoint operating system. Put these together there is also something else.
Speaker 2:
Oh, pardon me, sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 1:
No, please continue.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so there is also something else going on in this. We have been working with automation and IoT software providers. Now this is an even broader topic. It strays a bit away from the standard EUC business, but we have always been open in terms of technology. We said we don't want to do just the PC, so we ventured very early into the Raspberry Pi space or the ARM CPU space. It's interesting. We did a product with Citrix together at the time. It was called Workspace Hub, which was kind of the first thing where EUC meets IoT. So we have continued doing that. We can run specific IoT apps as well, but I mean, that is a topic on its own, yeah.
Speaker 1:
A great topic for Mobile World Congress. I just booked my travel, so I'm sure you'll make some news there, as everything is gets computers embedded in them, from cars to scooters.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely, it's fascinating to watch.
Speaker 1:
Let's talk about the economics of end user computing, where this era of efficiency and cost savings I imagine that's part of your pitch is reducing high-speed IT spend, maintaining spend. How do you communicate that to customers and what do they see as an outcome?
Speaker 2:
Yes. So traditionally I would say this was primarily about cost. So, absolutely, I mean it has shifted in the last years, definitely shifted towards security. So that still doesn't mean that customers are willing to spend more. Right, they want this security, but they also want to keep a lid on their spending. So there has been, I think 20 years ago, a study by Gartner Group that somehow jump-started this whole at the time it was called ThinkLiant Business where they found out that only a fraction, a quarter, of the total cost of ownership is the cost of the PC itself.
Speaker 2:
So you see the $500 machine, but it costs you over its lifetime, over its three years, $2,000. And again, it's thinking multi-persu. I think you have 80,000 PCs to manage. So that is a lot of money. But we have consistently shown that with that type of solution you can definitely save at least $400 per endpoint. Wow, and this is something that you essentially cannot ignore, especially because you don't lose anything. In fact, you gain security. Right, you don't lose. I still have my windows. It just comes from somewhere else, from a different machine, from a Cloud provider, my local data center, the machine itself is more secure, there's no user data and so on. So I'm not really losing, yet I am saving money.
Speaker 1:
Well, no brainer, as we say. I'd love to get some advice or insight from you, as the engineer turned founder, on that journey and any advice you may be able to share with aspiring engineers, entrepreneurs in the tech industry. You must have seen a lot and overcome quite a few challenges to get here today.
Speaker 2:
Yes. So my personal philosophy is that there are three main things you need to focus on. This is product, product and product. Because if you don't get the product right, I mean you can obviously invest more in making noise around it and taking people out and making expensive gifts and so on, but ultimately people will notice Like they're saying all had no cattle. So I believe if you turn it around and maybe this is because I am an engineer and I still like playing with Linux, honestly I do home automation. I have also hobbies that center around these Linux and tinkering with operating systems, so that is clearly a technology focus I believe ultimately that benefits also the customers, especially in a market like this. This is really the long game. If you put your trust in StratoDesk, you want to know that we don't go away. So we have the track record. But also from a forward-looking perspective, I will certainly focus on the product.
Speaker 2:
I will always focus on the product. So this is, I guess, one thing. It's for the long run. Then, from other perspectives, I mean, obviously everyone on the journey needs to learn their lesson about sales, how to build up your sales, how to build up your marketing. Also, your finances. This is difficult. If you just start your company, you do not have a CFO, but still you need to surround yourself with people, with trusted advisors. I've been very lucky to have people, very trusted advisors, who are still with me after I started StratoDesk in 2010, where I can say, look, let's play out scenario XYZ. What does it mean? You get a good answer. So I believe, for all these things, that they are not yours, because you are, again, a founder. Maybe you are not an engineer, but there is one area that you are really good in. Maybe a second one, somehow, or the others definitely find the right people.
Speaker 1:
Wonderful advice. So we're in 2024 full steam. I know my calendar is all booked up through March, but what are you excited about? Any travel coming up or events or what's on your mind?
Speaker 2:
So I actually try to not travel too much. So I have collected now, post pandemic, more and more airline miles. I'm trying to put a cap on that. I am traveling a lot between Europe and America, so this alone gives me much time spent on airplanes and on airports. Our market is changing a lot. I mean, if you follow the new secrets has been bought, the Ember is spinning off the EFC business. That also means trade shows are changing. So we have traditionally had some very specific trade shows, so the usual places Vegas, orlando and the Ember trade show in Barcelona, which is always nice to go there in November. So these are the things. Our trade shows are also good for people meeting, meaning strato desk, people meeting each other and hanging out. Because we are not fully remote, we still have office locations. We have an office in Nashville, tennessee, so I plan to go there and this is always nice being there. Also, let's say Europe. Of course I like mountain climbing, so when I'm in the Alps I cannot resist to be there. I wish in.
Speaker 1:
Deutsch. Welche Alpen findest du liebchen in Schweizer, in Österreich?
Speaker 2:
In Österreich die Südalpen, Und so war Wien in Italien.
Speaker 1:
So now we have a good language. We'll make another. We'll do another session in German. How's that I'm? I'm already in German and I need a lot of practice. So that's that's my good beer. Well, thanks so much for all the insight and vision. Really an amazing success and hopefully we'll meet you at one of these many events out in the industry. And thanks everyone for watching. Reach out to strato desk with any questions, comments. They have great content out there on the internet to consume. Thanks, emmanuel.
Speaker 2:
Wonderful Thank you. Okay, thank you, thanks very much Thank you very much, thank you.