Faces of the Partner: 5 Tech Advisors Retiring, Transitioning

As tech advisors ponder opportunities to sell their business, retire or start a new venture, the next step looks different for everyone.

Channel Futures last week commenced a multi-part series titled “Faces of the Partner,” highlighting the demographic shift taking place in the technology advisor community. In the years following COVID-19, the advisor (agent) partner community has seen some of its most established partners consolidate through the funding of private equity firms. At the same time, new, born-in-the-cloud partners have entered the fold. The series pays homage to the people past and present who have built channel partner organizations.

Part one featured people who founded a technology advisor firm in the last two years. Now part two highlights people who have recently said goodbye to their firm. In most of these instances, they sold their business to a larger company. And while the entrance of private equity and institutional investors has presented an opportunity for entrepreneurs to scale their businesses, for many of them, it has been an opportunity to earn liquidity and enter a new phase of life.

Some of the tech advisors in the images above have entered a full-on retirement. Others remain employed in some capacity but have moved away from day-to-day activities. Others have started up a new firm entirely.

Mercury’s Greg Osler

But regardless of the move they made, these partners are encouraging their peers to make their next move with clarity.

“If you’re looking to sell or retire, do it for the right reasons,” said Greg Osler, who recently sold Mercury Communication Services to Procure IT. “Those reasons are not about you, but about your employees, family, friends and your customers. You can’t build a company by yourself; you will have to have a lot of help along the way. I would say it’s important to never forget that.”

Channel Futures queried these partners about why they chose to make a change, how the transition has impacted their life and what advice their peers should hear. Read the Q&A with these tech advisors in the five slides above.