nCrypted Cloud Revamps Business Model

"I thought one of my friends or co-workers was playing a joke on me," says Nick Stamos, co-founder and CEO of nCrypted Cloud. "I have been in the enterprise space for 20 years and I had never seen anyone send a request like this to a customer support email."

In January 2013, nCrypted Cloud had released the free consumer version of their software and were responding to customer support email.

One message claimed to be from a major UK university, stating that the institution was interested in the enterprise version of the application and in reserving 14,000 seats. It was from Imperial College London, rated by The Financial Times as the 8th Best College in the World. They are now a major nCrypted cloud client. This was the seminal event that caused the company to change their business model.

Originally founded in 2012 as a firm geared toward providing their patent-pending software solution to consumers using Dropbox, privately funded nCrypted Cloud experienced a second event that changed the business’ direction – the RSA conference in February in San Francisco, CA.

"I attended the show and ran into customers from my previous company and their attitude concerning secure cloud storage had changed dramatically," said Stamos. "For the first time, enterprises were saying that they were actively looking for a secure cloud storage solution to their Dropbox challenge."

Despite the shift in corporate direction, the company is still true to its roots.

"We still have a free version of our solution," noted Stamos. "We believe that everyone has at least two identities, a personal identity and a corporate identity. Allowing consumers to download the free version is a great way to attract enterprise customers."