Tom Erickson, CEO of Drupal experts Acquia to talk at BoS2013 about growing a global software business

We want to let you know that the CEO and co-founder of one of the most successful open source companies on the planet will be speaking at Business of Software Conference this year about how to scale internationally. Please welcome Tom Erickson, CEO of Acquia to the Business of Software Conference family. Tom has a huge amount of experience leading large and small software businesses in lots of countries around the world including the US, Australia, France and a place called England, the one cricket playing country he has lived in. 3-2-1…

Tom co-founded Acquia with Jay Batson to commercialize the open source Drupal platform created by their other co-founder Dries Buytaert. He became CEO of Acquia in 2009, following the sale of Tele Atlas to TomTom, where he had been Chief Products Officer. Acquia is a commercial open source software company providing products, services, and technical support for the open source Drupal social publishing system. As CEO at Acquia, Tom drives the strategy and culture of the business and has guided the company to CAGR bookings growth of 1250%. In 2012, Acquia was named the fastest growing software company in the USA in the Inc 500 list of private companies. Acquia has three US offices and operates in 11 other countries.

Prior to Tele Atlas, Tom was the CEO of Systinet, the leading company in SOA governance and has also had executive roles at webMethods, Baan, Watermark and MRO Software. He is also an angel investor and adviser to software startups around the world. His blend of startup and established software company experience gives him a unique view into rapidly scaling software companies.

Systinet’s revenue grew 5x in the 18 months Tom was at the help prior to the sale of the company. Tom led webMethods’ international growth from 2000-2004 at a CAGR of 90% in what was arguably one of the toughest periods for enterprise software ever.

He has spent 14 years of his career living in Australia, England and France. He continues to be passionate about travel, languages, photography, and food and wines. Follow Tom on Twitter: @tom_eric

How to scale an international software business successfully

Drawing on a long and successful career as a software entrepreneur in multiple countries and cultures, Tom will talk about how to scale a global software business.

He will explain the critical importance of understanding key elements of the business including the business model, the company culture and how that culture can scale are as important to the ultimate success of the company as it is to understand what kind of company you want to be before you set out. He also has a lot of experience with M&A and will share some of his thoughts on what makes M&A work or fail.