Cybersecurity Startup JASK Hires Jessica Couto As Channel Chief

JASK has landed former Carbon Black channel chief Jessica Couto to grow the cybersecurity startup's partner network internationally and attract different types of solution providers.

The San Francisco-based company has tasked Couto with growing JASK's North American channel community from 10 partners today to 40 by the first quarter of 2019 and boosting the share of business flowing through the channel from 90 percent today to 100 percent by the end of 2018. Couto has experience building channel programs at startups like IntSights, Hexadite, Carbonite and Carbon Black.

"This is what I love doing," Couto told CRN exclusively. "I am in heaven, because this is what I love to do."

[Related: CRN Exclusive: Security Startup IntSights Names Long-Time Partner Exec Couto As Global Channel Chief]

Couto will work alongside former Cylance channel chief Marc Davis, who joined JASK in January and will now focus on supporting strategic alliances and global MSSPs. Couto, meanwhile, will run the channel from a holistic standpoint globally and support smaller MSSPs. Both Davis and Couto – who started Oct. 1 – are reporting into Chief Marketing Officer Greg Fitzgerald.

Now that JASK has a sales organization, tons of alliances, and nine people in its channel business unit - including three U.S.-based channel account managers (CAMs) - Couto said she wants to formalize JASK's partner program with incentives and perks as well as action plans for different types of channel partners.

Couto wants to expand JASK's partner community beyond traditional resellers and MSSPs to include systems integrators (SIs), referral partners, one-time contracts and international distribution. She also wants to increase the amount of gross profit available for partners that bring net new customers into JASK.

Additionally, Couto said she wants to ensure that gross profit is preserved for partners that participate in the buying and procurement cycle on opportunities that JASK brought to the solution provider. All told, Couto wants to restructure JASK's partner program to better reward the channel for the effort that they're putting forward.

In her first quarter at JASK, Couto plans to redefine the company's partner program and have it ready to launch at the start of 2019 as well as work with the legal department to revise and implement additional channel contracts to support all types of partners.

She also plans to recruit additional key partners in whitespaces across the U.S., focusing on resellers that have a track record of working with security startups rather than just selling legacy systems. Finally, Couto said she plans to create channel-facing collateral, content and training to support the onboarding of additional partners.

Couto said she's currently working with JASK's channel marketing team to update battle cards and generate a partner portal with videos and training. And as the company expands into the global market, Couto said she wants to roll out more co-marketing opportunities to allow for better understanding of the company's offerings as JASK integrates with more alliances.

Under Couto, JASK in 2019 will continue onboarding partners and expanding internationally by working with distributors. The company will also continue to roll out other features that will help with product development and create more around partners in the partner portal itself, Couto said.

All told, Couto said JASK has brought together a very tenured channel team as well as A-list players in the product development, marketing, and customer success spaces. Plus JASK's partner program provides for demos and licenses internally, and includes two channel Sales Engineers (SEs) to help with technical onboarding and training, according to Couto.

"You're bringing back [together] the people who have already done it," Couto said.