astro posted on February 22, 2010 16:39
It’s always fun to see two friends get together and collaborate. Matt at LabTech has justed been funded by Arnie at ConnectWise top go and grow. Recently ConnectWise announced a $30M commitment to invest in SMB technology solutions. One of the first recipients of this funding is LabTech, a MSP-related software company and services provider. Matt Nachtrab, CEO at LabTech, shared the following with me last Friday afternoon. “We were introduced to Arnie and David Bellini, cofounders of ConnectWise, at their 2009 annual Partner Summit. We immediately realized that we shared many traits in common. Just as we developed our managed service solution for managed service companies, they developed ConnectWise for their use and then offered it to the IT Nation. We are also passionate about the success of the IT channel.
We recently completed our integration into ConnectWise via their API. When they announced formation of ConnectWise Capital to incubate innovation for the IT channel, we knew this could be a great opportunity to expand our market and increase our training and partner support. ConnectWise will bring its 28 years of experience, channel focus, and market leadership to help us reach our full potential.
There will be no impact to our partners who use a different PSA tool. Just like ConnectWise, we believe in offering our partners more choices, not less. We will continue to support and improve our interfaces with all PSA solutions.”
So what does this mean for the SMB community? I believe you’re seeing a mature community start to consolidate as the economy recovers. In the mergers and acquisition (M&A) world, this is called a “roll-up” and it’s how free markets behave and operate. I am interested in your opinion. Is the emerging M&A activity in our space a good thing or do you oppose? Comment on my blog at www.smbnation.com