While I have reached out to Coupa CEO Rob Bernshteyn as well as Spend Matters’ Carina Kuhl for a comment on my post from this morning, I was sent the link to a post that Jason Busch wrote about Coupa hiring former Spend Matters employee Thomas Kase. You can read it through the following link; http://spendmatters.com/2017/04/28/technology-analysts-ndas/
Given that it appears to have been written a couple of hours after my post was published, one might assume that Jason’s post was written as a result of the concerns I had raised. I don’t know?
However, and while I would strongly encourage you to read Jason’s response and reach your own conclusions, I personally have four major problems with what he has written.
Here they are;
- Jason’s post referred to Kase as an analyst, while the Coupa press release said that he was vice president of research and lead analyst. There is a big difference in titles and the corresponding responsibilities and influence. I read this as Jason attempting to minimize Kase’s role and importance at SM.
- He wrote that Kase’s last activity with Spend Matters was in January of 2016 – an interesting role for a VP of such stature. Unless of course, Coupa was embellishing Kase’s credentials. My take is that this is an attempt on Jason’s part to create some distance between SM Kase and Coupa Kase. (NOTE: Jason wrote that Thomas last covered procurement for Spend Matters in January of 2016. Although his title did change from April 2016 to the present, his job description remained almost the same as it was between 2011 and January 2016, when he was listed as being VP Research, Lead Analyst Sourcing & Supplier Management.)
- Jason’s assertion that; “It is common for analysts to move between research roles and “in-house” roles at vendors. Many other analysts covering the procurement technology space have made these transitions, and in some cases, they’ve gone back and forth” is true. However, when I used the excuse that all my friends were doing something, why shouldn’t I be able to, my father used to say to me if your friends jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge, would you? Just because this happens with disturbing frequency in our industry doesn’t make it right.
- Suggestions that there is a “rock solid” NDA in place with Kase, and therefore the Chinese Wall Stands strong – so no worries, are at best naive and at worst . . . well, draw your own conclusions.
As with every story I investigate, I will keep you posted. I will also let you know when I hear back from either Rob Bernshteyn and/or Carina Kuhl.
In the meantime, you can follow this developing story on Twitter with the hashtag #coupakase
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Procurement Insights 
John
May 2, 2017
Kase moving to Coupa isn’t big news. And Jason’s correct in saying Kase was not a major analyst there. But any objective analysis would clearly show that Spend Matters has been relentlessly shilling for Coupa for years. They need to be called on it and more often. Keep going!
piblogger
May 2, 2017
Yet the Coupa press release made him out to be a real mover and a shaker i.e. “For five years, Kase worked at Spend Matters as vice president of research and lead analyst . . .”
And this was all said under their PR headline “Coupa Hires Industry Expert Thomas Kase to Evangelize Value as a Service in Cloud Spend Management.”
Sure doesn’t sound like a minor player. Did Coupa get duped? Were they sold a bill of goods?
As for shilling for Coupa, I refer you to my April 28th post Spend Matters’ Kase Joins Coupa In An Interdepartmental Transfer. Specifically the point that “advertisers will not want their ads associated with content that, by its nature, cannot be trusted.” At the end of the day, as the trust in our industry’s media coverage continues to decline, practitioners will ultimately determine who is and is not shilling, which is the way it should be.