Faces of the Partner: 6 New Tech Advisors Entering the Channel
A significant portion of the partner community is retiring. Who will replace them?
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Name: Aram Bolduc
Company: TopSpin Tech
Title: President and Founder
Founded: April 10, 2023
Channel Futures: What were you doing before this venture?
Aram Bolduc: Vice president of sales, East, at Intelisys.
CF: What made you want to start your own firm?
AB: I have had a front row seat to watch and support the success of so many great partners. Deep down I think so many people at TSDs and suppliers would love to be partners. For me, the timing aligned both personally and professionally to allow me to follow my dream of being a partner and owning my own business.
CF: With what sort of technologies are you finding success helping your customers?
AB: For the last five years at Intelisys, I asked partners to get out of their comfort zone and sell across all technology verticals. So far, cybersecurity, potential cost reduction and adding business efficiencies have been what catches customers’ attention the most.
CF: What’s one thing you wished your vendor partners knew?
If supplier partners would improve communication around success in certain customer verticals, it would make it easier. One size doesn’t fit all, and if a supplier partner does really well in a vertical and can provide questions to the answers customers are thinking about proactively, it adds credibility.
CF: What’s one thing you need from your TSD partners?
AB: Suppliers are constantly making changes to their programs. Some are embracing the channel; others are making decisions that may have negative impacts on their business with the partner community. It’s vital for the TSDs to keep the partners proactively informed of changes as well as expressing to the supplier partners their concern around decisions that may have a different impact than they are anticipating.
Names: Guhan Raghu (left) and Doug Cardozo (right)
Company: 3DG Partners
Titles: Chief Operating Officer and Chief Revenue Officer, respectively, and Partners
Founded: 2020/2021
Channel Futures: When did you start your firm?
Doug Cardozo: 2020 was when we began laying the foundation for what our company is today. We were primarily in strategy and planning mode but didn’t go live with customers until late 2021.
CF: What were you doing before?
DC: I was working in various sales, engineering and leadership capacities at both regional VARs and large suppliers like Cisco and Zoom. My business partner Guhan Raghu most recently operated in a chief operations officer role for a healthcare organization, and he served in several CIO roles in various industry verticals before that.
CF: What made you want to start your own firm?
DC: From a business standpoint, after having spent some time in the VAR space, I recognized some big gaps in how customers were serviced and saw it as an opportunity. Guhan, having literally sat in the customer’s shoes as a former CIO, lends a lot of credibility and customer fluency to our business model, as him and I round out each other’s skill sets. The personal reason we wanted to start our own firm was to increase our quality of life by getting back ownership of our calendars.
CF: With what sort of technologies are you finding success helping your customers?
DC: Security solutions have been an amazing way for us to really add value to our customers, as well as establish immediate credibility. These solutions have given us a platform to show that we understand our customers’ market verticals and the unique nuances they face from a governance and compliance standpoint. Additionally, managed services have been an amazing way for us to be a part of our customers’ growth strategies and consult them on where to build, buy, or partner. More often than not, we are seeing customers wanting to focus on their core business rather than supporting certain functions in-house. We’ve had a ton of success connecting our customers with the right MSPs that allow them to do this.
CF: What’s one thing you need from your vendor partners?
DC: The biggest thing we need from our vendor partners is flexibility. If we are to provide value in a revolutionary way to our clients, we need the flexibility to deliver capabilities in a similar manner. This means we need out-of-the-box thinking and the ability to customize solutions to our clients’ business needs. The more flexible a vendor partner is with doing customer arrangements with TSDs outside a handful of preset SKUs on a line card, the more likely we are to bring them business.
CF: What’s one thing you need from your TSD partners?
DC: Our business model is built on showing customers how we have time and time again solved for the same businesses challenges they face every day, so they don’t need to learn the hard way. We seek for our TSD partners to do the same for us. We need them to proactively and continually let us know what they are seeing work, and where they are seeing people struggle, so we can learn from the exposure they have. Outside of this, we need our TSD partners to know our go-to-market model through and through so they can advocate on our behalf. More often than not, our biggest competition isn’t another trusted advisor; it’s a vendor partner not being willing to team. This is a huge place we lean on TSDs to advocate on our behalf based on knowing our model and how we execute.
CF: What’s the biggest challenge you face in your business?
DC: At this point, the biggest challenge we face is scaling processes as we continue on a trajectory of rapid growth. We need to continuously evaluate our processes and make sure that the framework we’ve used for our current phase of growth will hold up for the next phase. This need applies to nearly all aspects of business, but isn’t necessarily unique to us. It’s simply a byproduct of success and growth.
CF: Is there anything else you’d want to say to your peers reading this?
DC: We want to thank our peers who have paved the way for all of us. As the saying goes, “a rising tide lifts all boats”. There is no way we would have any of the success we’ve seen to date if our peers didn’t break down barriers in this industry before us. These companies have taken technology providers that historically weren’t channel friendly, and shown them the value that trusted advisors can bring. As a result, today we all have the platform to be successful in this business!
Name: Homa Shaner
Company: FWRD Tech
Title: CEO and Founder
Founded: July 2022
Channel Futures: What were you doing before this venture?
Homa Shaner: For 12 years, my career revolved around supporting our channel community. The companies that I worked for were always ahead of the curve, and most of my role consisted of training, enabling, and helping partners sell the solutions effectively. These technologies ranged from cloud with RapidScale, to SD-WAN with Aryaka, and cybersecurity with Nord Security.
CF: What made you want to start your own firm?
HS: Although I worked for great organizations with great technology, the idea of being able to make non-biased recommendations to customers was very appealing. Additionally, the challenge of building a business from the ground up and the reward that comes with it was very attractive. I watched many partners do the same and was ready to make the leap.
CF: What sort of technologies are you finding success helping your customers with?
HS: Currently, there has been a big shift in the marketplace to be able to do more with less. With that said, taking advantage of managed services has been very helpful to small IT teams. This includes managed cloud, network, and security.
Name: Dante White
Company: Oppuous
Title: CEO and Founder
Founded: January 2021
Channel Futures: What were you doing before this venture?
Dante White: I started Oppuous after being laid off twice during COVID-19. The second time was in November 2020. I took the holiday season off as I needed time to decompress and reflect. It was then that I had a kind of “come to Jesus” moment. I told myself, “There’s no loyalty in corporate America, and if I die building someone else’s dream I’m going to be pissed off! It’s time that I start my own thing and build a company that means something.’ I wanted the ability to do good while doing great. I got tired of hearing about social equity but seeing almost nothing done.
CF: With technologies are you finding a success helping your customers?
DW: UCaaS, connectivity, and IoT. I would LOVE to do more with cybersecurity.
CF: What’s one thing you need from your vendor partners?
DW: Faster response times and not changing workflow/protocols.
CF: What’s one thing you need from your TSD partners?
DW: Reduce the burden of MDF requirements.
What’s the biggest challenge you face in your business?
Without proper capital it’s difficult to scale quickly.
Is there anything else you want to say to your peers reading this?
Come on in; the water’s fine! Being an agent can be a ton of fun and super rewarding.
Name: Joe Rice
Company: CXponent
Title: CEO and Founder
Founded: April 2021
Channel Futures: What were you doing before?
Joe Rice: I started my career in the channel at Avant in 2012, and co-founded and ran another brokerage firm in the channel in 2014 until I sold my interests in 2020.
CF: What made you want to start your own firm?
JR: Even before I started at Avant, it was frustrated by the limitations of working for large telcos (AT&T and CenturyLink) and knew I could really help clients and build deep relationships if I had independence from working for a vendor. In terms of choosing to build another agency from scratch, I found that being an entrepreneur is a lot more aligned to how I want to spend my time when I’m not with my family. The opportunity to build and lead a business has the right mix of excitement, fear, and forced self-reflection and growth that provides a lot of fulfillment for me.
CF: What sort of technologies are you finding a lot of success helping your customers with?
JR: We’re finding the most value creation for our customers in marrying technology and operating model improvements – and finding opportunities for quicker wins that also line up to a longer term roadmap. The customer experience/contact center technology stack is a large focus of ours that has massive business benefits available, especially as organizations try to leverage AI responsibly. Work from anywhere infrastructure (SASE) and managed services are areas every organization seems to have plans in maturing. Both require operating model maturity – meaning investments or changes in shared services, roles, responsibilities, and upskilling to capture all of the benefits that the technology can bring.
CF: What’s one thing you need from your vendor partners?
JR: We have an opportunity as an industry to be more client focused; not only in how much concrete business value can come from a purchase, but also to take more time to understand how these projects – and the risks associated with saying yes – impact their careers and reputations inside their companies. There’s huge upside, but also risk.
CF: What’s one thing you need from your TSD partners?
JR: I’d like more resources to be directed towards creating awareness and evangelizing the value of our entire ecosystem to our clients and prospective buyers. At scale, the entire channel is a massive win-win-win for clients, vendors, and our channel, yet we often are starting from scratch explaining our business model.
CF: What’s the biggest challenge you face in your business?
JR: The time it takes to build trust with new clients (partially because many are new to the concept of co-selling and the indirect channel) and how long it takes for revenue to come in so we can reinvest faster.
CF: Is there anything else you’d want to say to your peers reading this?
JR: I’ve ran into a few other agents in our space who don’t disclose their revenue model or partnership with vendors. This is a huge disservice to the value we all provide. All of our clients – even procurement – are part-time buyers when it comes to the specific mix of technologies, services, and vendors to consider. Clients are looking for more certainty on their vendor decisions than ever before, and we have real value, leverage, and expertise to offer. Avoiding it, being scared to talk about it, or lying about it doesn’t help the trust in our channel.
Name: Reginald Hilliard
Company: TeleTechTX.com
Title: CEO and Founder
Founded: April 2022
Channel Futures: What were you doing before?
Reginald Hilliard: I am still operating three different businesses with the same model (middleman).
a. Diamond Broker
b. BeSpoke Clothier
c. SWAG Branding Agency
CF: What made you want to start your own firm?
RH: I was introduced by a gentleman that believed my 34-plus years of experience in my other three verticals as a “trusted advisor” would be a natural fit into the telecommunication technology solutions vertical.
CF: What sort of technologies are you finding a lot of success helping your customers with or are interested in pursuing?
RH: Currently, cybersecurity, AI, contact centers, internet, and phone.
CF: What’s one thing you need from your vendor and TSD partners?
RH: All things. I am still learning and leaning on the expertise and experience.
CF: What’s the biggest challenge you face in your business?
RH: Landing the business through my established clientele. I want them to trust me as they do in my other verticals. Relationships are on my side, but reading the tea leaves in this telecom world is going to be my challenge.
Name: Reginald Hilliard
Company: TeleTechTX.com
Title: CEO and Founder
Founded: April 2022
Channel Futures: What were you doing before?
Reginald Hilliard: I am still operating three different businesses with the same model (middleman).
a. Diamond Broker
b. BeSpoke Clothier
c. SWAG Branding Agency
CF: What made you want to start your own firm?
RH: I was introduced by a gentleman that believed my 34-plus years of experience in my other three verticals as a “trusted advisor” would be a natural fit into the telecommunication technology solutions vertical.
CF: What sort of technologies are you finding a lot of success helping your customers with or are interested in pursuing?
RH: Currently, cybersecurity, AI, contact centers, internet, and phone.
CF: What’s one thing you need from your vendor and TSD partners?
RH: All things. I am still learning and leaning on the expertise and experience.
CF: What’s the biggest challenge you face in your business?
RH: Landing the business through my established clientele. I want them to trust me as they do in my other verticals. Relationships are on my side, but reading the tea leaves in this telecom world is going to be my challenge.
If the phrase “Faces of the Partner” sounds familiar to you, the chances are pretty good that you were in the audience at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo earlier this month when we kicked off this initiative.
Today’s communications and IT channel is no place for the faint of heart. But there’s no place these individuals would rather be. They are the heart and soul of the modern channel partner community. They are leading, selling, marketing, developing solutions and supporting customers. And we plan to introduce you to a good number of them — the new, the old, the innovative, the cool, the next generation — as they put into words what they do and why they do it.
If you were at CPLV23 and were introduced to our premiere group of faces, you were probably also in the audience for the session “Rethinking the Workforce of Tomorrow.” During that panel discussion, Ron Lovern, executive vice president of Triton Networks, noted that this the first time ever that five different generations are in the workplace. So let’s use that as the stepping stone to our next group of faces, the aforementioned “new.”
Faces of the Partner: New Tech Advisors
As the traditional technology agent channel enters a generational shift, new tech advisors are stepping up to the plate.
Channel Futures is highlighting six channel partners who founded a technology advisory firm in the last two years. This article commences a three-part series on the shifting technology advisor population. The second installment will include partners who have retired or semi-retired, and the third will include partners who are running established businesses.
The technology advisor ecosystem has grown significantly from its humble beginnings decades ago. The industry has evolved from brokering a small handful of long-distance telephone carriers to consulting business customers on sophisticated IT and communications projects. Historically, most tech advisors left jobs as sales leaders at carriers, leaving cushy base salaries to pursue the dream of running their own firm. They wanted to better serve their customers with a more vendor-neutral approach, and they idealized the independence that came from leaving the corporate environment.
But the path to establishing a growing base of residual commission hasn’t been easy. Some partners describe the first few years of running an agency as a harrowing “walk through the desert.” Despite the immense financial upside of the tech advisor model, many firms don’t make it.
Nevertheless, many partners have flourished. Agents’ success has led more and more suppliers to sign with technology services brokers that intermediate their relationships, and more recently their success has brought institutional investors into the space. Private equity firms in particular have courted partners to sell their books of business. Many partners have seized that opportunity as a financial option to retire.
As some of the industry’s most successful partners leave the business, eyes are turning to the people who will replace them.
“Those partners used to be great generators of new logos and new customers, but if they’re all walking away with a lot of money, who’s going to sell the net-new for them?” Comcast Business senior vice president of indirect channels Craig Schlagbaum said to Channel Futures earlier this year.
Different Talent Sources
But if more partners are going to enter the space, they may come from a different source. The rich pool of talent that came out of carriers like Cbeyond, Cable & Wireless and MCI. Although agents have historically been associated with telecom, the new generation doesn’t seem tied to telecom. Some are leaving UCaaS, CCaaS and SD-WAN providers. Others are leaving established agencies to start their own ventures. Others come from a TSD. Still, others are entering from entirely outside the world of technology.
Channel Futures got in contact with six of these new partners to learn about why they started their firms, their biggest opportunities and their biggest challenges.
Scroll through the six slides above to read a Q&A with six new partners.
Want to contact the author directly about this story? Have ideas for a follow-up article? Email James Anderson or connect with him on LinkedIn. |
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