Coro channel leader Joe Sykora ascended to CEO at the cybersecurity vendor in a rare move from channel chief to chief executive.
With Sykora at the helm, it also signals a major pivot to a 100% partner-led model. Under his leadership, Coro has expanded its MSP and reseller ecosystem, sharpened its focus on partner profitability and strengthened alliances with major hyperscalers like Amazon, Microsoft and Google.
Sykora is a familiar name in the IT channel from senior roles at Proofpoint, Bitdefender, and Fortinet. However, he said he deliberately chose to leave the enterprise world for a smaller, more agile business where he could put the channel back in control.
“I wanted to go smaller. I wanted to go back to 100% channel,” Sykora told Channel Dive. “Proofpoint was a mixed model, so it was difficult being the channel guy. Career-wise, I wanted to go smaller so I could go back into a full leadership position. Being the CEO here, it’s a little easier to make changes and fully embrace the channel.”
Sykora said the new role represents a “natural evolution” for senior channel executives who want broader influence.
“I was at an industry event a couple weeks ago, and there were still a lot of my friends who were channel chiefs… Everyone was so excited [about Sykora’s chief exec role] because it gives them a path – that if they do want to take on a C-level role, it’s possible,” he said.
Coro changes partner focus
Sykora as Coro’s channel head made a major change in the types of partners it pursues.
Coro was once best known in the U.S. for going to market through agents, which rely on the vendor for servicing the customer. Coro is now refocused on building an ecosystem of MSPs and cybersecurity-specialist resellers who fulfill the services component.
Tech services distributor Telarus told its partners in an email last month that Coro had officially exited the TSD model. Coro will not contract directly with end customers and it will re-route its Telarus business through service provider Adaptiv Networks, which is a Telarus supplier.
“We’re not going to compete with any of our partners on services – that’s their space,” Sykora.
Coro’s partner program, refreshed just three months into Sykora’s tenure, is designed to make it easy for both MSPs and resellers to onboard and protect customers. “It’s what they need – predictability and simplicity,” he said.
Coro is also exploring new digital routes to market. “We are hosted with Amazon and also on the Amazon Marketplace… and we’re looking at Azure, Google, and Oracle,” said Sykora.
Sykora said Coro made its partner program easy and predictable, “where they get the protections they need and guaranteed margins.”
“We give partners a way to make margin on licensing when selling with Microsoft or Google,” he said. “Our customers typically aren’t buying E5 licenses, so they need something else – and we deliver that at roughly 10% of the cost of enterprise stacks, without compromising on security.”
Fresh Funding Fuels Global Expansion
Founded in 2014, Coro spent its early years developing an all-in-one cybersecurity platform for organizations with lean IT resources – a market often underserved by enterprise vendors. The company completed its Series D funding round in 2024, collecting fresh capital to expand globally.
Now, Sykora is spearheading that international growth, launching new operations in EMEA and APJ over the past year. To lead EMEA, he has recruited Neill Burton, another Proofpoint veteran with a strong channel pedigree.
“We are 100% channel, which is fabulous for someone like me that thrives on driving business through the partner ecosystem,” said Burton. “Joe made some really significant and bold, brave changes when he became CEO.”
Burton said Coro’s technology – an integrated security platform that consolidates email, endpoint, cloud, and network protection – is particularly suited to the SMB and mid-market. Coro intends to simplify cybersecurity, he said.
“A single platform, single data plane, with different modules that just snap together,” he said. “Easy to buy, easy to install, easy to use and run.”
