Joseph Landes

Co-Founder & President Nerdio

Last Reviewed: September 29, 2026

Executive Summary

Joseph Landes is co-founder and President of Nerdio, the Chicago company that builds management and automation software for Microsoft’s cloud desktop platforms, Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365, sold to enterprise IT teams and managed service providers. He came to the company from the vendor side rather than the customer side: after 23 years at Microsoft, including five postings outside the United States, he met Nerdio’s future CEO Vadim Vladimirskiy at Microsoft’s partner conference in 2018 and left to build the business with him. As Chief Revenue Officer he led go-to-market through a $500 million Series C in 2025 and the company’s passing $100 million in annual recurring revenue, and in January 2026 he became President, focused on Nerdio’s most strategic partnerships and on representing the company externally.

Career Highlights

• Named President of Nerdio in January 2026, having served as Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer; he continues to lead go-to-market with emphasis on strategic partnerships.
• Co-founded Nerdio with Vadim Vladimirskiy, whom he met at Microsoft Inspire in 2018, from automation technology first built inside Vladimirskiy’s managed service provider in Chicago.
• Nerdio raised a $500 million Series C led by General Atlantic in March 2025; Landes told TechCrunch the valuation was “north of $1 billion”.
• Nerdio reported in June 2025 that it had passed $100 million in annual recurring revenue with 85% year-over-year growth, serving more than 15,000 organisations in over 50 countries.
• Joined Microsoft as a summer intern in 1994 and full-time in 1995, spending 23 years there in product management, sales and international leadership roles.
• Worked in Germany, Russia, the Czech Republic, India and Brazil for Microsoft, including leading the server business for Eastern Europe from Munich.

Professional Journey

Landes arrived at Microsoft as a summer intern in 1994 while at college in Boston, knowing, by his own account, little about technology. He returned full-time on 30 May 1995 and worked through product management and sales roles in Redmond before a turn that shaped the rest of his Microsoft career: around 2006 he moved to Munich to lead the server business for Eastern Europe. It was the first of five assignments outside the United States, which took him to Germany, Russia and the Czech Republic and then to India and Brazil for about three and a half years each. He has described those international jobs as the most interesting of his time there. In all he spent 23 years at the company.

In 2018, at Microsoft Inspire, the company’s partner conference, he was introduced to Vadim Vladimirskiy, who was building automation technology for virtual desktops inside his Chicago managed service provider, Adar. Landes initially saw it as something Microsoft might use. Within about a month the two had decided to start a company together, and Landes left Microsoft to co-found what became Nerdio. The business formally spun out of Adar as its own company in 2020, as Microsoft’s Azure Virtual Desktop was gaining adoption and IT teams and service providers needed a simpler, cheaper way to run it.

As Chief Revenue Officer, Landes led Nerdio’s go-to-market as it grew through a Series A in 2020, a $117 million Series B in 2022 and a $500 million Series C in March 2025, led by General Atlantic with Lead Edge Capital and StepStone. The company does not disclose its valuation; Landes said at the time that it was north of $1 billion. In June 2025 Nerdio said it had passed $100 million in annual recurring revenue in just over five years as an independent company, which Landes put down to focus on customer needs, Microsoft innovation and capital-efficient growth.

In January 2026 Nerdio reorganised its senior team. Landes became President, keeping executive leadership of go-to-market but concentrating on the company’s most strategic partnerships and relationships and on acting as its external evangelist with customers, partners and the industry; Larry Sweeney, previously head of enterprise sales, became Chief Revenue Officer. Nerdio lists Landes as Co-Founder and President alongside Vladimirskiy as Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer.

Education

No first-party source names his college or degree. He has said he was at college in Boston when he joined Microsoft as an intern in 1994.