Successful Bridgepointe Partners Agree to Upstack Acquisition

Upstack is continuing its inorganic growth strategy with the acquisition of another technology adviser.

The New York-based agency is buying M2 Enterprise Group. Upstack is using a massive Berkshire Partners investment to land M2 and several other consultancies/agencies.

Upstack now owns M2’s book of business, which focuses on unified communications and contact center services. In return, M2 co-founders Mike Casagrande and Mike Leonardi now hold equity in Upstack as members of their advisory team. They’ll continue to sell to business customers.

Upstack’s Mike Casagrande

Upstack’s Mike Leonardi

Casagrande and Leonardi both worked as independent Bridgepointe Technologies agents before joining forces in 2018 to launch M2. They both had won sales awards with Bridgepointe, and M2 continued their success. The company in three years has more than 350 customers, growing 100%-125% year-over-year.

Upstack will relieve certain back-office and account management duties for Casagrande and Leonard, who can focus more on growth.

“Plus, we get the opportunity for a liquidity event unlike most agents, who must continue to sell or risk that their commissions will run out,” Casagrande said.

M2 operates out of Irvine, California.

Background

Upstack has been targeting top-performing agencies for acquisition. CEO Christopher Trapp has vowed to create the “best direct sales agency in the world.” He took his experience from the data center and colocation sector to found Upstack as a “cloud and internet infrastructure platform.” The company often pairs together technology adviser firms with complementary skill sets. As a a result, a UCaaS-focused agent can team up with a colocation-focused agent in order to help a customer who needs both services.

Upstack’s Christopher Trapp

“Instead of walking away from deals, we can tap into the Upstack advisoers’ expertise to help our customers with any cloud or IT infrastructure requirement,” Leonardi said. “That helps our clients and increases our value as their trusted advisers; plus, we’re able to leverage our expertise with clients of other Upstack advisers.”

Trapp praised Casagrande and Leonardi’s expertise in colocation, unified communication and contact center.

“On behalf of Upstack, I am proud to welcome Mike Casagrande and Mike Leonardi to the team. Over the last three years we have been watching with admiration as M2 was recognized as Bridgepointe’s fastest growing agency,” Trapp said.

Upstack in late April announced the purchase of Cloudnexion, a nine-year-old consultancy that has earned major accolades from Intelisys. The Upstack team made an appearance at PlanetOne’s kickoff golf event last week.