Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Ex-Carbonite exec Cooper in as RatePoint CEO; Creighton leaves

By Michelle Lang

After helping online backup company Carbonite Inc. grow with an eye toward an initial public offering, former president and chief operating officer Keith Cooper has taken those startup skills to RatePoint Inc., where he’s been appointed president and CEO. He takes over the RatePoint reins from co-founder Neal Creighton, a 2010 Mass High Tech All Star who left to pursue another opportunity, he said.

“My role [at Carbonite] was to take it from a startup and a few customers to an industry leader,” Cooper said in an interview. “It was a great ride, but my job there was done.”

Cooper left his role at Carbonite, the Boston-based online backup company, at the end of last year. After a brief few months off, he decided to join RatePoint because of the Boston startup’s focus on online reputation monitoring, an area he called a “growing industry.” Cooper also cited the company’s small business focus and the people and investors as factors that attracted him.

His own background follows a small business path, including a CEO post at FaxNet, which was acquired by Critical Path. He also served as  managing director of VIMAC Ventures, a Boston venture capital firm focused on early stage tech firms. He moved into a CEO role at webHancer, a web analytics firm acquired by Microsoft Corp., followed by his 3 year role as president of Carbonite, which had only been operating for two years at the time he joined in 2007.

Cooper joined Carbonite shortly after the company had received $15 million in a Series B financing round in May 2007. CEO David Friend said at the time that he expected Cooper to repeat his early successful strategies at gaining partnerships. By the end of 2007, Friend first mentioned the possibility of an IPO for Carbonite, and by 2009, was eyeing late 2010 or early 2011 for an IPO. Carbonite has not yet filed for its IPO.

With RatePoint, Cooper joins the company at a similar point in the startup’s lifecycle; the company raised a $7 million Series C funding round last August, with at least $23.5 million total raised to date. However, he said he does not necessarily plan to employ the same strategy with RatePoint.

“I look as IPO as a financing event, not a goal,” Cooper said. “We have a ways to go. This industry is still relatively young.”

Cooper did say that the 45-person company has plans for more hires, though he did not provide details.

Founded in 2007, RatePoint makes software for companies to publish and manage customer reviews on websites. Cooper said the company has three strategies to help small businesses manage their online customer reviews – assessment, monitoring and improvement. RatePoint first uses its own algorithm to give a score to a small business based on its online customer reviews. The monitoring refers to RatePoint checking out various review sites to keep tabs on what’s being written about a particular small business. And the improvement feature refers to strategies RatePoint helps customers use to connect with reviewers. Local companies using RatePoint currently include Aubuchon Hardware, Blue Ribbon BarbQ, Boston Paternity and Boston Web Guru.

Editor's note: A previous version of the article mischaracterized the nature of previous CEO Neal Creighton's leaving. Creighton said he has left of his own accord to pursue another opportunity.