Brett Cheloff is a CEO who will play video games like Fortnite with co-workers and friends after work. It’s relationship building — and fun, Cheloff said.
Cheloff was named the CEO of Zorus in August after more than a year at the company. His appointment has turned a page for the company. It set Tampa as the new headquarters and focused the company on Cheloff’s goal to expand its reach in customers and partner communities.
Zorus sells monitoring and malicious activity-blocking software for managed service provider channels. It was founded in 2017 and was a Connecticut-based company until the past year, as Cheloff slowly established its presence in Tampa through hiring and opening an office in Westchase. There’s still a presence in Connecticut, and a significant part of the company works remotely, and that won’t change, he said.
In 2022, the company’s revenue grew by 172%, and revenue has grown around 319% since he joined in 2022, according to Cheloff.
Ian McChord was the co-founder of Zorus and the CEO for three years before stepping down, allowing Cheloff to take over. McChord’s brother, Austin McChord, is the founder of Datto, a global software company that was Connecticut’s first tech startup with a valuation of $1 billion. In 2022, Datto was acquired and taken private by Kaseya, the Miami-based software company. Austin is a board member and an investor in Zorus.
Cheloff’s career was jumpstarted by the ConnectWise boom in 2019 when the company was acquired for more than a billion dollars. He attributes his career, in many ways, to ConnectWise founder Arnie Bellini, he said.
Connecting to a history in Tampa
He has lived in Tampa since ConnectWise flew him and his co-workers at LabTech from Ohio in the 2010s to “sell them on the dream of Tampa’s tech hub,” he said.
LabTech was the first acquisition that ConnectWise made. It was a venture Cheloff helped build, starting at 19 years old. His soccer coach connected him with an unpaid internship for experience, and the position evolved into a developer role of the MSP that caught ConnectWise’s attention.
He remembers staying at a Marriott in downtown Tampa when first meeting with ConnectWise about the deal. He called his girlfriend at the time, now his wife, and expressed his excitement about the city as he looked at the bay view. They later moved into an apartment close to the scene he enjoyed that day, he said.
After more than 15 years in the space, Cheloff is devoted to MSPs, he said. He’s passionate about supporting his customers and the community because it helps small and medium-sized businesses access the safety and IT that typically are available only to large companies.
“There is an unwavering dedication that I personally have toward the MSP community,” Cheloff said, referring to customers and other businesses seeking advice.
Paul Sagan is a senior advisor at California-based venture capital firm General Catalyst, chair of the board directors at Zorus and a leader for several other companies like ProPublica and Moderna.
It was an unquestioned, easy decision to promote Cheloff, and the board is encouraged about the opportunity to grow the product and customer base, he said.
“We’ve had a really loyal employee base so far, and I think part of that is to the credit of Brett for motivating people and showing them a vision for what success at this young company can look like,” Sagan said.
