SaaS Alerts Hires Kaseya, Thrive Networks Veteran Jim Lippie as CEO -

SaaS Alerts has hired Kaseya and Thrive veteran Jim Lippie as CEO, the startup unified monitoring and alerting platform provider has confirmed.

SaaS Alerts is purpose-built for MSPs that want to monitor, protect and monetize such SaaS applications as Microsoft 365, Google Workspace (formerly G Suite), Salesforce cloud CRM, Box, Dropbox, Slack and more, the startup says. The SaaS Alerts platform can monitor and alert on potential security vulnerabilities in those platforms. Moreover, SaaS Alerts is free for MSPs to use within their own businesses.

Lippie previously was general manager and senior VP at Kaseya, the MSP-centric IT management platform provider. Earlier, he was president and CEO of Thrive Networks (now known simply as Thrive), one of the first MSPs acquired at scale.

Jim Lippie Joins SaaS Alerts: Executive Perspectives

Lippie's move to SaaS Alerts reunites him with co-founders Chip Buck and Seth Bostock. The trio previously built independenceIT, a desktop as a service (DaaS) provider that ultimately joined CloudJumper and then tucked into NetApp.

In a prepared statement about Lippie joining SaaS Alerts, co-founder Bostock said:

“Our forward plan requires focused execution and the ability to build and lead a high-performing team to further our growth as we continue to deliver Software as a Service (SaaS) security tools purpose-built for the managed service provider market. Jim has a proven track-record of exceptional leadership in this space and has a unique understanding of the MSP community and vendor eco-system which positions him as the ideal chief executive for SaaS Alerts.”

Added Lippie in a prepared statement:

“I’m grateful for my time at Kaseya and am proud of my contributions - and the achievements of the team there. It’s truly been an amazing ride. Now, I look forward to this next chapter where I can help MSPs in a new and different way through SaaS Alerts. I’m excited to leverage my experience in the software space to further the SaaS Alerts model which allows MSPs to capture an incremental revenue stream by protecting the SaaS applications many of their SMB customers are already using. The need for MSPs to mitigate cyber threats for both themselves and for their customers is at an all-time high and with SaaS Alerts, we bring a solution that addresses this need in a unique and unprecedented way.

The mission of SaaS Alerts is to build the most MSP-friendly software company in the ecosystem. MSPs will find SaaS Alerts policies conducive to helping them grow and become more profitable.”

Cloud Services Monitoring: The Emerging Landscape

Monitoring popular SaaS applications could be a blue ocean opportunity for SaaS Alerts and its MSP partners. Although much of the MSP software industry was largely built on PC, server and infrastructure management, only a few MSP-focused startups now focus purely on monitoring cloud infrastructure (IaaS), platforms (PaaS) and applications (SaaS).

In addition to SaaS Alerts, key names to know in the SMB market include Augmentt (from N-able veterans Gavin Garbutt and Derik Belair), while enterprise-focused players like DataDog and New Relic focus more on performance monitoring.