Malwarebytes global channel sales SVP on unified partner approach and major partner growth

With MSP, reseller and distribution recruitment all growing around 100 per cent year-on-year, Brian Thomas talks to CRN about this significant growth opportunity

Channel partners are integral to Malwarebytes' growth strategy after a successful recruitment drive across the board.

That is according to Brian Thomas (pictured), senior vice president of global channel sales at Malwarebytes, who spoke with CRN about the ambitions he has his sights set on for his one-year anniversary in the role.

He explains his first six months were focused on everything channel partner.

"My key focuses so far have been unifying our partner programme and experience, simplifying our go-to-market motion to address the entire partner community, growing every geography in tandem with our solutions. We're very much in high growth mode right now.

"Longer-term in the company I think what you're going to see is an evolution of Malwarebytes for business as the corporate arm.

"That's what ThreatDown is, the corporate arm of Malwarebytes. We're embracing a more holistic partner approach and a programme where it's more about reducing complexity and costs for both our partners and customers.

"The baseline theme here is unification of the corporate arm, reducing complexity and costs for our customers and partners. All of that being said, it's a lot more holistic than it's ever been."

A more holistic approach

Delving deeper into what this means, Thomas explains it has to do with the way the vendor addresses its customers and the partner programme's targeting.

"Partners wanted to see a unification of our programme.

"Specifically, what I mean by that is, we have resellers, we have managed service providers, we have distributors, we also have integration partners. They all wanted to see a unified approach in the ThreatDown partner programme, that isn't just a managed service provider business unit.

"They wanted to see a holistic partner programme that reached every single partner, agnostic of which silo they would be fitting in."

By the end of 2024, Thomas reveals he wants the vendor's flagship product to be the main event.

"By the end of this year, I really want to see ThreatDown established as the default cybersecurity company for both our partners and our customers that they support in the corporate distributed enterprise and SLED (state, local, education) verticals.

"If that becomes the reality at the end of 2024 it will be a very successful year for us."

Areas for opportunity

There are two main areas of growth for Malwarebytes - its partner programme and its product, Thomas says.

"On the programme side, MSP recruitment has grown year-over-year at 104 per cent. Our reseller recruitment has grown year-over-year at 92 per cent. And our distribution recruitment has grown 114 per cent year-over-year.

"So you'll see an overwhelming amount of partners that are coming in and flooding into our programme. I think you're going to see that trend continue.

"On the product side. I think you're going to see Security Advisor which is one of our most popular pieces of both OneView and Nebula. I think you're going to see a lot of AI enhancements there over the span of the year. But simply put, programme and product."

Growth strategy

And how will Malwarebytes capture these opportunities? A key element to the vendor's strategy lies in recruitment.

"Specifically to the UK market, we've invested heavily in distribution," says Thomas.

"In the UK and Ireland we also have our Cork, Ireland EMEA HQ based there. I think we'll also be growing from an employee perspective out of Cork.

"I think you're also going to see continued growth on the same trends of partner recruitment in the UK through our distributors.

"Last year, we signed over 40 distributors globally, of which I believe we have around five in the UK and Ireland region. And so I think a similar trend you're going to see is a lot of partner recruitment in the UK part of the world.

"We can't pinpoint a specific target number, but I'd say that from a percentage standpoint, we'd really love to be at that over 100 per cent year over year growth."

The partner message

"What we want to do is make sure our partners are investing and they're investing in best in class cybersecurity solutions, which we believe we have," Thomas claims.

"And we want them serving their customers while reducing costs and complexity. That's our entire value proposition.

"So really, what we want to see from our partners is them continuing to invest in their customers. And we believe that we bring a solution to the market that best addresses those two problems, costs and complexity."

"Our goal is overpowering threats with ThreatDown while empowering IT.

"It's those two things together, and Malwarebytes' goal as a whole and that's our core goal is to help customers do this fundamentally. Overpower threats and empower IT. That is the entire message of ThreatDown from beginning to end."

Saturated market overwhelming customers

Thomas explains how customers are feeling overwhelmed in such a saturated cybersecurity market, leading them to seek out advice.

"They crave guidance and they crave simplicity. Our bundle offerings absolutely address this challenge, but that's really what we're seeing across every side of the channel.

"Whether you're an MSP, a reseller, a distributor, an integration partner, an ISV. Fundamentally, that's the largest challenge we're seeing.

"There are so many options available, but very few vendors are going out of their way to simplify those offerings into easy to use bundles for very core segments such as corporate accounts, commercial accounts, and distributed enterprise.

"I think that's what they crave more than anything is guidance and simplicity. I think that's what we're doing really well right now."