Tech start-up backed by $70million opens UK hub in Maidenhead

A flexible workspace in the centre of Maidenhead is excited to become home to the UK hub of a start-up launched by the founders of a hugely successful American technology company.

Slide is a business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) platform founded by former executives of Datto – a multi-billion-dollar company founded in 2007.

Also doing well, the new company Slide recently raised $70million (£52million) in new investment, and has opened a hub in Maidenhead for its UK market.

The base it has chosen is the Proxima building next to Maidenhead station, run by flexible coworking space provider MyWorkSpot.

Carlson Choi, the COO of Slide, sat down with the Advertiser to explain what they do – and why they picked Proxima, MyWorkSpot and Maidenhead.

BCDR is an ‘amazing’ service that you only appreciate when something goes wrong with your IT systems, Carlson said.

It makes continuous back-ups of these, meaning customers can ‘push a button’ and restore whole systems that have gone down for whatever reason.

“A really good example is in hospitality,” he said. “Hotel key cards are run by computer. When that computer goes down, nothing works.

“Our software will create a virtual version of that computer within minutes and get it back up so the key card works again.”

This technology originally came from Datto, one of the first companies to provide it.

When Datto was acquired by Kaseya for about $6.2billion (£4.6billion) in 2022, several senior figures from the original team went on to start Slide.

The aim is to bring a ‘more evolved’ new product, said Carlson.

“A lot of BCDR technology was created 15 to 20 years ago. Not a lot of innovation has evolved with it,” he said.

He said there is a very noticeable difference between what has been built new, and what has been built on top of old, akin to driving an electric car for the first time and feeling the difference.

“You can retrofit a classic petrol car all you want – no matter what you do, it’s not going to drive like a pure-built electric car,” he said.

Slide works with managed service providers (MSPs), companies often hired by smaller businesses with no IT department to handle their technology.

It is protecting about 10 petabytes – 10million gigabytes – of data.

“We’ve grown close to one thousand MSPs adopting the technology, which is amazing,” said Carlson.

About 20 of these are in the UK, he added, and the company is growing, bringing more and more people to its UK office.

It is using MyWorkSpot’s Proxima building for sales, assembling devices, adapting the product for the region, and offering technical support for customers and partners.

The Slide team swerved the obvious London choice due to its traffic – and landed on Maidenhead as a good option for its transport connections and parking offer.

Proxima being close to the station makes it ‘perfect’ for getting to London, Reading and all over the country.

In addition, the type of space means it has other desirable attributes, Carlson said.

“Even though we are a start-up, we’re not a start-up – we’re a bunch of old souls that have done it before. By starting fresh, you decide what culture do you want to have,” he said.

“We love open space to drive collaboration, [and] we want a hybrid environment where people can work from home, remotely, or on a train – and also have a base to come back to that feels like home.”

He also enjoys the ability to build a community, not just within Slide, but with the other companies and teams around.

Slide is the second US company to establish a UK base at MyWorkSpot in the past month, according to David Johnston, its director.

He said it was an ‘exciting time’ for the company, welcoming such established players in the tech industry.

“It’s fantastic to welcome a fast-growing international tech company like Slide,” he said.

“We’re seeing more innovative businesses choosing Maidenhead as their UK launch point thanks to its strong transport links, proximity to London and Heathrow, and a growing technology community.”