Industry Vets Combine Forces to Launch HPC Marketing Powerhouse

Lara Kisielewska (left) and Kim McMahon (right)

Lara Kisielewska (left) and Kim McMahon (right)

Today insideHPC is pleased to share news about Xand McMahon a newly formed marketing agency focused on HPC and technical computing.

Xand McMahon is a joint venture between two familiar faces in the HPC community: Lara Kisielewska from Xand Marketing and Kim McMahon from McMahon Consulting. As kind of a one-stop shop, Xand McMahon provides a full range of strategic and tactical marketing services for companies seeking to capture market share in HPC and technical computing. Both women entered the HPC arena in 1999 and have worked with dozens of HPC firms to provide messaging and branding, go-to-market strategies, advertising, PR, social media, event production, road shows, trade show management, technical content, partner management, lead generation, and product launches.

Lara co-founded Linux Magazine in 1999 and has been providing branding and design to Open Source and HPC clients since then, through a graphic design firm she launched in 1992. After noting how many of her technical clients badly needed marketing help, she launched Xand Marketing in 2005 with a Silicon Valley marketing maven and an HPC tech guru, who have both since left the firm. Xand Marketing was founded on a unique business model around helping clients access and effectively utilize marketing development funds made available by their suppliers, and has been serving clients in the HPC and Open Source space for the past ten years.

Kim has worked in HPC and technology since 1999 in a variety of roles, including leading and executing the go-to-market strategy for business units, managing partner relationships, co-marketing, product management, and sales. Her global positions have given her the experience to market US products outside of the country and to help foreign companies launch and market their products in the US. In 2007, Kim launched McMahon Consulting to provide marketing services to a wide range of technology and related businesses. The company will continue as a full-service marketing firm offering services outside the HPC and technical computing arena, focusing instead on enterprise and the high-end IT space.

Kim and Lara have been working together on joint projects in HPC for the past several years, and the success of those efforts led to a decision to formalize their union. The partnership works especially well because of their complimentary skill sets and core strengths, and the differing industry perspectives they bring to the table — Kim’s experience is largely corporate, whereas Lara has more experience working with smaller and start-up firms. One of Xand McMahon’s specialties is being able to translate their clients’ technical messaging into business value messaging, which serves to boost their clients’ sales.

“Lara and I are a good match, we really round each other out,” Kim says. “She’s been in the space forever so partnering with her to service HPC clients made a lot of sense.” For her part, Lara agrees. “I missed having a partner once my partners in Xand Marketing left to pursue non-HPC interests. A partner is a great sounding board, and a terrific way to scale as the business grows. I sought Kim out because of her strong reputation in the industry — I knew that together we could be an unstoppable force as the go-to agency for HPC marketing needs.”

The pair are especially well-respected in the industry. “We’ve all been told to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, but I’ve watched Kim and Lara make things work at HPC events for years,” said Rich Brueckner, President of insideHPC. “Now that they are combining forces, Xand McMahon is undoubtedly the go-to agency for making an impact in the HPC marketplace.”

Addison Snell, CEO of HPC market advisory firm Intersect360 Research, agrees. “The HPC industry is a tight-knit community,“ Addison notes. “You can find people who understand that community, or people who understand marketing, but finding both is a challenge. Kim and Lara have been doing that independently for years, and Intersect360 Research has worked with both. Now that they’re joining their complementary skill sets, it’s a no-brainer in terms of where to go to boost your marketing for HPC.”

xandKim and Lara have worked with more than 50 companies and consortiums in HPC and are very involved in the community, volunteering their time for Women in HPC, the HPC Advisory Council, and the SC planning committee. They are celebrating the launch of Xand McMahon by volunteering their services at ISC High Performance this week, offering free LinkedIn profile reviews to attendees and exhibitors during the coffee breaks throughout the show. To sign up, please register.

Visit Xand McMahon at booth #414 at ISC 2016.

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Comments

  1. Wayne Slater says

    Congrats Lara and Kim!