Chicago Tech Unicorn SMS Assist Names New CEO

Chicago tech company SMS Assist, maker of a property management platform and one of the city’s “unicorn” tech companies valued at $1 billion or more, has a new chief executive.

The company announced Monday that Marc Shiffman has been promoted to CEO. Shiffman, one of SMS Assist’s earliest employees, previously served as president and CFO.

Shiffman takes over the top job at SMS Assist from Taylor Rhodes, who is leaving the company to pursue a new undisclosed opportunity, according to a news release.
“SMS Assist has gotten to where we are today by staying true to our founders’ vision, hustling harder than anyone else in the industry, and continuously reimagining how to best serve our customers and affiliates,” Shiffman said in a statement. “It is my honor to step into this role as SMS Assist’s CEO. By working together with our entire SMS team to fully realize the potential of what we’ve started, there’s no limit to what we can achieve.”

Rhodes made a big splash when he joined SMS Assist in 2017 from Rackspace, which he helped lead to an IPO in 2008. He took over for founder Mike Rothman, who remains the company’s chairman.

Founded in 1995, SMS Assist makes a cloud-based platform that helps property managers maintain multiple buildings by tracking maintenance orders, providing instant invoicing, automatic service audits and data analysis on properties. It has raised more than $255 million in funding to date and is valued at $1 billion. Its backers include Goldman Sachs, Insight Venture Partners and Pritzker Group Venture Capital.