Cirrus Networks is the only publicly listed company in the CRN Fast50 top 10. It is also the largest, having grown 154.11 percent to hit $14.9 million in 2015. Founder and chief executive officer Frank Richmond says he has his staff to thank for the spectacular growth and reverse listing. “Any good business is about its people. We have some of the best people that I’ve ever worked with in this business.”
The roster includes some heavyweight talent. In November 2014, in the midst of due diligence for the reverse float, Cirrus Networks scored a coup with former iiNet director Andrew Milner agreeing to join as chairperson.
“He helped [iiNet founder] Michael Malone build that business to what it is today,” says Richmond.
The Perth company was formed in late 2012 with a mission to bring “some under-represented global technologies” to Western Australia, where vendor representation can be weak. “The [west coast] market was dominated by a small handful of very large global manufacturers. We set up shop and brought in a few key people early on. We grew the business to just shy of $6 million in revenue. From that growth came some interests from various entities to invest. I was looking at a way of fast-tracking our strategic growth plans, and getting some capital into the business.”
A newspaper article about Cirrus Networks then planted the seed for this year’s ASX listing. “From that, the phones rang hot. We ended up going down the line of a reverse listing, with a mining shelf in WA,” says Richmond.
Customers appreciate the company’s independent advice, he says. “We tell our customers ‘no’ when we think it’s wrong. We tell them ‘yes’ and deliver when we think it’s best. We’re a customer service-based company, providing technology solutions. We say what we’re going to do and we do it. Don’t overpromise and under-deliver.”
A spend on infrastructure during the 2015 financial year was a big contributor to Cirrus’ Fast50-level success. “We didn’t launch our managed services until end of June, but during the year, we were always planning to build our infrastructure-as-a-service in our cloud. We have our cloud infrastructure in Perth to service local customers – it gives them choice and flexibility around how they consume IT.”
Perth customers appreciate local providers, according to Richmond. “A lot of customers here are very parochial. They want local relationships with local infrastructure and want to know that you’re here to service them when needed. That’s one of the reasons we actually invested in our own, but also we have the ability to burst out to public cloud, giving that real flexible platform for customers to consume what they need, when they need it.”
The next step is to go national and hit the east coast. “M&A is high on our agenda. We’re definitely keen to grow through acquisition,” says Richmond. “We see a national business is absolutely key to our success and to putting our service offerings to a wider audience.”
FACT FILE
- Founded 2012
- Key executives Frank Richmond (CEO), Andrew Milner (chairman), Dan Rohr (non-executive director)
- HQ Subiaco, WA
- Growth 154.11%
- 2015 revenue $14.9 million
- Headcount 26 (at time of entry)
- Top vendors EMC, Juniper, VMware
- Top distributors Westcon and Ingram Micro
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