Photo of Alan Cox
12
Articles Published
25+
Years Experience

Alan Cox

CEO and Founder

Leadership Team

Joined May 16, 2024

Areas of Expertise

strategy
leadership
cost accounting
software engineering
cloud operations
aws
azure
innovation management

About

Alan Cox founded Beakpoint Insights after experiencing firsthand the frustration that comes with mysterious cloud costs. As a technology leader who has spent over two decades building and scaling software organizations, he's seen how cloud expenses can spiral out of control—and more importantly, how companies struggle to understand why.

Before starting Beakpoint Insights, Alan served as VP of Software Engineering at Geoforce, where he transformed a stagnant engineering department into a thriving team that delivered modern, innovative solutions. During his tenure, he reduced annual cloud and operating expenses by over $250,000 without affecting customer experience or requiring layoffs. This experience crystallized his understanding of how much money companies waste on cloud resources simply because they lack visibility into what drives their costs.

Alan's career spans the full spectrum of technology leadership. As CTO of SignalPath (acquired by Verily, an Alphabet company), he built the technology strategy from the ground up, guided the company through $35M in funding, and led a team that grew from one to over 50 people. At WebAssign (acquired by Cengage), he directed all software development activities and served on the leadership team, managing an annual budget of $3.5MM+. Earlier in his career, he spent nearly six years at iContact, scaling from a startup to a company processing millions of email messages daily.

What sets Alan apart is his ability to bridge the gap between technical complexity and business outcomes. He holds an MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School with concentrations in Finance, Strategy, and Entrepreneurship, complementing his technical degrees in Computer Science and Operations Research. This combination allows him to see cloud cost challenges from both the engineering and business perspectives.

Alan lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where he mentors participants in the Center for Creative Economy's Velocity accelerator program. When he's not thinking about cloud costs, you might find him coaching youth soccer, hiking the Blue Ridge Mountains with his wife and kids, or grilling hamburgers.

His mission with Beakpoint Insights is simple: help companies stop guessing about their cloud costs and start making data-driven decisions that improve both their bottom line and their strategic position.

Professional Background

Geoforce

2022-2024

VP of Software Engineering

Transformed a stagnant, struggling software engineering department into a thriving one that partnered with product management to deliver a modern, innovative software solution. Responsible for software engineering, software quality assurance, cloud operations, corporate IT, and security.

SignalPath

2015-2021

CTO

Led SignalPath’s efforts related to software engineering, architecture, software quality assurance, cloud operations, IT infrastructure, IT operations, information security and compliance.

Education

UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School

MBA

Finance, Strategy, and Entrepreneurship

2024

North Carolina State University

M.S.

Operations Research

2005

Appalachian State University

B.S.

Computer Science, Applied Mathematics

2002

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