CRN Exclusive: Gurucul Launches Inaugural Partner Program, Names First Channel Chief

Security risk and user behavioral analytics company Gurucul is making its first formal foray into the channel, launching its inaugural partner program Wednesday and naming its first channel chief.

The Los Angeles-based company -- tying together key factors such as what information a user has access to, what privileges he or she has and what information he or she should have access to -- uses machine learning to provide risk and behavioral analytics to pinpoint and prioritize threats, and provide context behind user behavior in an organization.

The new partner program, called the Insider Partner Program, has a single tier and enables partners to create both technical and services offerings around the Gurucul platform.

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To lead the new program, Gurucul appointed Rosanna Pellegrino as vice president of strategic alliances. Pellegrino most recently served as vice president of strategic alliances at the Lumeta Corp., and has additional experience building startup partner programs at iSight Partner, Qualys and RedSeal Networks.

Bill Strub, co-founder at NaviLogic, a St. Paul, Minn.-based Gurucul partner, praised the appointment of Pellegrino as an important step in the company's investment in the channel. He said he has known Pellegrino from her previous roles and said she is "very channel-focused" and knows how to structure a partner program and invest in partners.

"We're pretty excited to see them invest in the channel," Strub said. "From a partner perspective, knowing they're investing in the channel sales makes it more interesting as partners. You know that you are going to be treated well when working together from a partnership perspective." Strub said his business is expecting to see "good growth" with Gurucul this year.

Saryu Nayyar, CEO of Gurucul, said in a statement that the company is committed to building out its relationship with partners.

"Rosanna has the right combination of channel experience, relationships and security industry expertise to build and manage our partner program in order to meet growing demand for our products," Nayyar said.

Pellegrino told CRN that she will be focused on enabling channel partners to build out their business around Gurucul, including creating both technical and services offerings around the company's platforms. She said she wants to be "hands on" with partners, growing together with lead generation, secure margins, marketing development funds, deal registration and more.

"We see [partners] as our business partner, so we're lockstep. That's very important to be successful," Pellegrino said.

Pellegrino said Gurucul will be targeting recruitment of security partners who are "forward-leaning" and "embracing leading technology in emerging markets."

The company has already signed up Cognizant, Cumbel, Navilogic, Optiv, SeeGee Technologies, Sun Management and Thundercat as partners, and Pellegrino said additional partner relationships are already in the works.

Going forward, Pellegrino said, she plans to expand the company's partner relationships outside of North America. She said she also wants to focus on building specific bundles of solutions to help partners increase their deal size and revenue.

"We are looking to build long-term relationships with these partners," Pellegrino said. "We will invest in our partners as much as they invest in us."