BlueSky IT Partners Accepts Bridgepointe Investment

Bridgepointe Technologies has made an equity investment in BlueSky IT Partners.

The deal, announced Thursday, makes BlueSky founder and CEO Meg Toups an equity partner in Charlesbank-backed Bridgepointe. The agency side of BlueSky will adopt the branding of “Powered by Bridgepointe."

In the meantime, BlueSky's IT field services division will remain independent.

Meg Toups

Toups said her company is getting more "technical and executive backing to execute for our customers."

“Over the years I’ve had offers from various firms to join as a partner, but Bridgepointe stood out as being fundamentally different,” Toups said. “It was critical for me to align with a growing, financially stable partner, which would be a win not just for me, but for my clients. Bridgepointe allows BlueSky to scale, meaning we can provide our services to more enterprise clients, and have the technical and executive backing to execute for our customers.”

Toups has built a strong reputation in the agent/advisory channel since founding Houston-based BlueSky in 2010. The company has built a client base in unified communications as a service (UCaaS), contact center as a service (CCaaS), and more recently, cybersecurity.

“We’re thrilled to have Meg join the Bridgepointe family as a partner,” Bridgepointe co-founder and chief revenue officer Brian Miller said. “Her accomplishments, deep roots with CIOs and tech leaders, and focus on the enterprise market with a significant footprint in Texas, is truly impressive. Having someone of Meg’s caliber is further proof of our expanded vision for the future of Bridgepointe.”

Related:Bridgepointe Gets $100 Million-Plus in PE Funding

Toups worked in sales in the telecommunications industry before founding BlueSky. That includes successful stints as a senior account manager at Sprint and a channel manager at Covad.

BlueSky IT Partners Background

The technology advisor firm has won numerous awards inside and outside of its distribution channel. BlueSky was the 12th largest partner of tech services brokerage Telarus in 2021 and has garnered a Club TPC award from Intelisys. BlueSky has also earned multiple Channel Partners 360 awards, and Channel Futures recently honored Toups as a member of the first Technology Advisor 101.

According to the Houston Business Journal, BlueSky surpassed $20 million in gross sales. The firm started with only $15,000 in seed money, according to the profile. BlueSky has also landed on the Inc. 5000. For a great listen on how she and her team propelled the business, listen to the podcast interview she did with Inc. in 2020.

The National Diversity Council named Toups one of its "50 Most Powerful Women in Technology" in 2020. The Greater Houston Women’s Chamber of Commerce named her Entrepreneur of the Year.

Bridgepointe Acquisitions

Bridgepointe has conducted numerous acquisitions and investments in existing and new channel partners since announcing more than $100 million in funding from Charlesbank at the beginning of 2022.

That includes longtime Bridgepointe IT strategists (agents), technology advisors who did not previously work with Bridgepointe, regional/hybrid TSDs and companies with adjacent services (including Canon Group and PPT).

Bridgepointe chief strategy officer Scott Kinka said the deal might compare to the purchase of Parallel Technologies in terms of segmentation. In the same way that Parallel is operating its PBX interconnect business independently, BlueSky will operate its professional services business separately. In both cases, Bridgepointe has invested in their agent customer bases, Kinka said.