Dan Foster: Smaller, Nimbler MegaPath Stealing Market Share From Competitors

Edward Gately

MegaPath is attracting a lot of new partners this year without a lot of recruiting effort because its products “kick butt” in the industry, said Dan Foster, its new chief operating officer.

Last week, the provider of voice, data, security and cloud services announced it is expanding Foster’s role as president of business markets to include COO, charged with day-to-day management and leadership of the company, and full profit-and-loss responsibilities. He rejoined Megapath last summer after leaving the company in February 2015 when it sold its managed services division.

Last month, MegaPath announced it has surpassed 1 million lit buildings where it is providing dedicated internet access.

Foster’s role will expand to include oversight of customer care, service delivery, business processes and technology, and product development.

In a Q&A with Channel Partners, Foster talks about what his new role will mean to MegaPath’s partner community, and what his goals are for the company moving forward.

Channel Partners: How has your role with MegaPath changed through the years leading up to this?

MegaPath’s Dan Foster

Dan Foster: It’s essentially been rooted in go-to-market strategies and all of the components that it takes to be successful winning in the market. And then from there, it’s been, once you start owning product, you start finding yourself in operations, and once you’re in operations, you start finding yourself really owning the entirety of the customer experience. And so I view it from external inward looking, saying I own the customer experience, meaning what products do we put on the shelf, what does the customer do with that product when they pick it up, and then really importantly … how do you get that product to market, what distribution channels do you have, and then how to enable those to be successful, and how do you get all the distributors in the market picking up your products and selling them?

CP: Is this a big year, or the biggest year yet, for MegaPath? If so, how?

DF: The year ahead is probably the biggest one for us because it puts us into one of the highest growth markets with a compelling set of products and services. So we look at profitable growth, we look at new logos and we really try to say, how do we create the three key tenants: happy customers and partners, happy employees and then stewardship toward our shareholders, our board and the rest. And when we deliver on the first with great solutions, with employees that really are passionate, then all of the rest of that value creation occurs. It’s going to be a big year for us just because we think our products kick butt in the industry and I think a lot of the partners are showing that because we’re bringing on a lot of new partners this year where they’re just coming to us without a lot of recruiting efforts.

CP: What are the biggest issues currently facing MegaPath and what will be your role in addressing them?

DF: When you’ve got great product-market fit, it’s really about distribution. It’s ensuring that all the people know that MegaPath has a great product that really fits their needs. And so because we’re in this space of connecting businesses, securing those connections and then …