A critical assessment of NVMe-native BCDR for MSPs, the Datto founder’s channel insurgency, and the active trade-secret litigation that could halt product sales following a $70M Series B led by General Catalyst.
Slide (Project Orca Inc.) is an NVMe-native BCDR platform for MSPs founded by Austin McChord, who built and sold Datto for $6.2B. This report examines three critical questions about the business.
Genuinely differentiated. NVMe-native, cloud-first architecture with AMD EPYC hardware. Not rebadged commodity — custom-specified, purpose-built BCDR infrastructure.
Exceptionally fast. ~1,000 MSPs and ~4,000 appliances in approximately 12 months. McChord’s brand in the MSP channel creates organic evangelical adoption.
Active trade-secret lawsuit. Kaseya/Datto filed in Delaware Court of Chancery, trial April 20, 2026. An injunction could halt product sales entirely. Not disclosed in any public fundraising materials.
KEY FINDING: Investors funded a $70M Series B for a company 5–6 weeks from a trade-secret trial that could result in an injunction blocking product sales. The lawsuit — Datto LLC v. Project Orca Inc., Case 2025-0975 — was disclosed in zero public fundraising materials. The trial outcome is the single determining variable in Slide’s trajectory.
Slide’s architecture is purpose-built for MSPs — NVMe end to end, private cloud, and an open API that embeds directly into MSP operations.
AMD EPYC CPUs, NVMe u.2 SSD arrays — custom-specified, not commodity
NVMe-native end to end — avoids shared public cloud of legacy BCDR
Integrates with PSA, RMM, billing — embeds into MSP operations
Instant cloud capacity via phone call — no hardware dispatch needed
At under 24 months from stealth to a $70M growth round, Slide’s fundraising velocity is exceptional. ~1,000 MSPs and ~4,000 appliances in approximately one year — a commercialization pace genuinely fast for hardware-dependent infrastructure software.
Kaseya filed suit in Delaware Court of Chancery (Case 2025-0975, August 2025) alleging misappropriation of Hardware Independent Restore (HIR) trade secrets. If Kaseya wins an injunction, Slide could be legally barred from selling its product. Slide counters that VirtIO drivers (Red Hat open source) are not trade secrets and its 18-month clean-room build used no Datto code. This risk was disclosed in zero public fundraising materials.
Hardware Independent Restore — contested core of the lawsuit
McChord’s personal brand creates organic evangelical adoption
“#DattoMinusKaseyaEqualsSlide” created organically by MSP customers
End-to-end flash storage — genuine speed advantage over spinning disk legacy
Compelling for acquisition but creates churn vulnerability at scale
UK office + German data center — aggressive timing with trial 6 weeks out
Six structural risks that the Series B does not resolve.
Injunction could halt product sales. Kaseya seeks to block Slide’s HIR implementation. Disclosed in zero public fundraising materials. Existential risk 6 weeks away.
Even if Slide wins, the legal cloud creates MSP hesitation. HIPAA/SOC 2 compliance-conscious MSPs may avoid Slide during litigation. Channel distributors may stall partnerships.
Physical NVMe appliances at 4,000 units — logistics, defect rates, RMA, AMD supply chain. Gross margins below pure-SaaS. Growth requires significant capital intensity.
No multi-year lock-in means no contractual protection against MSPs switching to competitors — or back to Datto. No disclosed retention or NRR data.
Growth disproportionately tied to McChord’s personal channel brand. Litigation distraction or brand damage removes primary go-to-market fuel.
UK office and German data center launched simultaneously with trial 6 weeks out. Injunction could freeze EMEA investment mid-deployment.
Slide occupies a rare position: genuine product differentiation, exceptional founder pedigree, and an existential legal risk 6 weeks from funding.
Slide has the product, team, and market timing to become a dominant MSP BCDR vendor. The $70M Series B is warranted given the market gap and customer traction. But investors are funding a company 5–6 weeks from a trade-secret trial that could halt product sales entirely. Post-trial, if Slide prevails, conviction increases significantly. The lawsuit is the single determining variable.
Datto LLC v. Project Orca Inc., Case 2025-0975 — Delaware Court of Chancery, trial April 20, 2026. The outcome determines whether Slide becomes the next Datto or faces an existential injunction. No other variable matters until this is resolved.
Based entirely on publicly available information, including the Slide Series B announcement of March 10, 2026.
