Investors loved it, private equity firms chased it and public markets rewarded it with valuation multiples that often seemed to defy financial logic. Over the last few decades SaaS businesses have become the most prized possession in the digital economy.
The Rise of SaaS and the Golden Era of Valuations
SaaS’ combination of recurring revenues, high gross margins, predictability and opportunity for scalability, has made it an consistently attractive target for investors. Consequently, since the late 2010s trade buyers and private equity firms have competed fiercely for these quality software assets. The investment thesis was elegantly simple. Build software once, sell it on a recurring basis, deploy anywhere thanks to the cloud, retain customers year-on-year and increase revenue rapidly. Unlike traditional industries, SaaS companies could grow without opening new factories, hiring large numbers of employees or carrying significant inventory. In comparison their revenue was predictable, margins were attractive and scalability was almost limitless. An apparently enormous multiple was quickly franked by rapid growth.
Then came the pandemic.
As offices were forced to close and workforces dispersed, software moved from being an enabler and improver of business, to becoming business critical. The result was a surge in demand for cloud-based software unlike anything the sector had experienced before. At this point SaaS appeared to be an unstoppable force, as valuations continued to climb. This period represented something of a ‘golden age’ for SaaS. The widespread adoption of cloud computing transformed how businesses purchased and consumed software. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated these trends dramatically, as almost overnight cloud software became critical infrastructure for organisations as they adapted to remote and hybrid working environments. As a result, demand surged across workflow automation tools, collaboration platforms, cybersecurity solutions and digital transformation technologies. As capital continued to flow into the software sector, public market valuations soared and private market transactions followed suit. By the end of 2021, software companies were consistently trading at eye-watering revenue multiples.
However, beneath the surface a new technological shift was beginning to emerge…
The Dawn of AI
While investors were still focussed on cloud adoption, another innovation was quietly entering the market. Artificial intelligence (AI). The rapid progress of AI has forced investors, operators and acquirers to reassess many of the assumptions that have underpinned software valuations for the last decade.
Compared to other technology cycles, the adoption of AI has been extremely fast. Government research found that there were 3,170 active AI companies in the UK in 2022 and 5,862 active AI companies by the end of 2024 – an 84.9% increase in 2 years. Unsurprisingly, enterprise spending on generative AI has reached meaningful levels in a fraction of the time it took cloud software to gain widespread acceptance. Organisations are no longer experimenting with AI solely through innovation teams or isolated pilot schemes. Instead, AI is increasingly being embedded directly into core business processes, customer interactions and operational work flows as headlines predict the technology will swiftly revolutionize working practices and replace human jobs.
The Impact on SaaS
It is clear that AI isn’t going anywhere, which is threatening profound implications for SaaS businesses, particularly those in the mid-market and currently considering disposal or fund-raising.
Historically, the value of a software company was largely determined by the company’s ability to build and distribute software quickly and efficiently. Strong growth rates, recurring revenue and customer retention were often sufficient to justify premium valuations. The “Rule of Thirty” rewarded rapid revenue growth in valuation terms even if that growth was at the expense of profits. This was because an underlying assumption of the market was that software in use represented a significant barrier to entry. A whole barrage of (now conventional) KPIs have been used by investors or acquirers to evaluate this “stickiness” and growth trajectory such as net churn, cost of customer acquisition and, of course, growth in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR).
AI is beginning to change that assumption. It enables the cost and complexity of developing software to fall rapidly; tools powered by AI are allowing smaller teams to build products faster, as well as to write code more efficiently and launch new services at unprecedented speed. Potentially it permits businesses to solve their own problems using AI rather than to deploy third party software to solve them. The result is that software development threatens to become increasingly commoditised.
For years, software companies were able to create value by helping clients perform tasks more efficiently. AI is allowing software to perform those tasks on behalf of people. The distinction may sound subtle, but from an investment perspective it’s profound.
For example, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform once helped sales professionals manage opportunities. Today, AI can identify prospects, draft emails, prepare notes and recommend actions to take. Similarly, where accounting software once organised financial information, AI can now interpret that information, identify anomalies and suggest decisions. At the hands of AI, software is evolving from a tool into a worker.
For many SaaS businesses, this is an uncomfortable situation, for if software can be built more easily and at a lower cost, the software itself becomes less valuable. In an environment where many of those businesses have historically been valued very highly this threatens “down rounds” or even the risk that the next round will not be forthcoming. The question facing investors is no longer whether a SaaS company is growing quickly, it’s whether that company remains relevant in a world where AI is becoming embedded into every application and over what period its relevance will be sustained.
The UK’s SaaS Mid-Market
Many of the UK’s most successful software businesses were built during the ‘race’ to use cloud software. At the time they developed loyal customer bases, strong recurring revenues and valuable market positions. In 2026, many of these businesses now find themselves caught between two competing situations;
On one hand, AI presents a huge opportunity. Businesses that are able to successfully integrate AI into development and thence into customer workflows may become more valuable than their competition.
On the other hand, AI is lowering barriers to entry at a pace few were able to predict.
Put simply, products that once took years to build can increasingly be replicated in the space of a few months and features that once differentiated software platforms can be reproduced through easily accessible AI models.
In other words, AI is both creating and destroying value at the same time.
For most of the last decade, success was measured by growth rates, customer acquisition and annual recurring revenue. Although these metrics remain important, they are no longer sufficient on their own. In 2026 investors want to understand who owns the data, who controls the workflow and who can create advantages AI can’t easily replicate. This is being translated into an appetite for the following key characteristics;
Software which embeds specialist domain knowledge such as deep vertical expertise.
Software which is integrated into customers’ workflows and systems and not just sitting over or alongside them
Software which has already demonstrably secured a trusted status within a regulated or compliance oriented environment where untested/untrusted solutions are unlikely to be a threat
Software which fulfils mission-critical functions within client businesses rather than being a “nice to have”
Software where there is a demonstrable development road map which incorporates AI within the back end of the business and moving to customer front end offerings over a realistic time horizon.
Software which enjoys direct access to customer data and the capacity to deploy that data (even if anonymously) to develop insights/provides a meaningful feedback loop.
Software which can demonstrate a genuine customer return on investment.
However successful they have been to date, there is scepticism about the long term value of software which is horizontal, relatively undifferentiated and which doesn’t embed specialist understanding of a niche environment or vertical.
Conclusion
The decline in average SaaS valuations in the last couple of years reflects more than rising interest rates and changing market conditions. Instead, it signals a broader reassessment of what makes a software business valuable. For most of the last decade investors rewarded growth, recurring revenue and scalability. While these fundamentals remain important, the rapid adoption of AI is shifting the focus towards defensibility.
As software only becomes easier and cheaper to build, investors will increasingly ask what cannot be replicated. Proprietary data, ownership of critical workflows, industry expertise and customer trust are becoming more important than software functionality alone.
This is creating a growing divide across the SaaS market. Businesses that use AI to strengthen their competitive advantage are likely to command premium valuations and attract investor interest. While those whose products risk becoming commoditised may continue to face pressure on growth rates and valuation multiples. SaaS multiples still remain second only to AI in terms of sector multiples, after all their fundamentals remain attractive over a three to five year horizon, but we are likely to see those multiples increase for some and reduce for others, depending on their defensibility and the likely impact of AI on their long term performance.
The “cloud race” era rewarded companies for delivering software. The AI era is rewarding companies that deliver outcomes. For mid-market SaaS businesses in the UK, that distinction is likely to define valuation performance for years to come.
Investors loved it, private equity firms chased it and public markets rewarded it with valuation multiples that often seemed to defy financial logic. Over the last few decades SaaS businesses have become the most prized possession in the digital economy.
The Rise of SaaS and the Golden Era of Valuations
SaaS’ combination of recurring revenues, high gross margins, predictability and opportunity for scalability, has made it an consistently attractive target for investors. Consequently, since the late 2010s trade buyers and private equity firms have competed fiercely for these quality software assets. The investment thesis was elegantly simple. Build software once, sell it on a recurring basis, deploy anywhere thanks to the cloud, retain customers year-on-year and increase revenue rapidly. Unlike traditional industries, SaaS companies could grow without opening new factories, hiring large numbers of employees or carrying significant inventory. In comparison their revenue was predictable, margins were attractive and scalability was almost limitless. An apparently enormous multiple was quickly franked by rapid growth.
Then came the pandemic.
As offices were forced to close and workforces dispersed, software moved from being an enabler and improver of business, to becoming business critical. The result was a surge in demand for cloud-based software unlike anything the sector had experienced before. At this point SaaS appeared to be an unstoppable force, as valuations continued to climb. This period represented something of a ‘golden age’ for SaaS. The widespread adoption of cloud computing transformed how businesses purchased and consumed software. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated these trends dramatically, as almost overnight cloud software became critical infrastructure for organisations as they adapted to remote and hybrid working environments. As a result, demand surged across workflow automation tools, collaboration platforms, cybersecurity solutions and digital transformation technologies. As capital continued to flow into the software sector, public market valuations soared and private market transactions followed suit. By the end of 2021, software companies were consistently trading at eye-watering revenue multiples.
However, beneath the surface a new technological shift was beginning to emerge…
The Dawn of AI
While investors were still focussed on cloud adoption, another innovation was quietly entering the market. Artificial intelligence (AI). The rapid progress of AI has forced investors, operators and acquirers to reassess many of the assumptions that have underpinned software valuations for the last decade.
Compared to other technology cycles, the adoption of AI has been extremely fast. Government research found that there were 3,170 active AI companies in the UK in 2022 and 5,862 active AI companies by the end of 2024 – an 84.9% increase in 2 years. Unsurprisingly, enterprise spending on generative AI has reached meaningful levels in a fraction of the time it took cloud software to gain widespread acceptance. Organisations are no longer experimenting with AI solely through innovation teams or isolated pilot schemes. Instead, AI is increasingly being embedded directly into core business processes, customer interactions and operational work flows as headlines predict the technology will swiftly revolutionize working practices and replace human jobs.
The Impact on SaaS
It is clear that AI isn’t going anywhere, which is threatening profound implications for SaaS businesses, particularly those in the mid-market and currently considering disposal or fund-raising.
Historically, the value of a software company was largely determined by the company’s ability to build and distribute software quickly and efficiently. Strong growth rates, recurring revenue and customer retention were often sufficient to justify premium valuations. The “Rule of Thirty” rewarded rapid revenue growth in valuation terms even if that growth was at the expense of profits. This was because an underlying assumption of the market was that software in use represented a significant barrier to entry. A whole barrage of (now conventional) KPIs have been used by investors or acquirers to evaluate this “stickiness” and growth trajectory such as net churn, cost of customer acquisition and, of course, growth in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR).
AI is beginning to change that assumption. It enables the cost and complexity of developing software to fall rapidly; tools powered by AI are allowing smaller teams to build products faster, as well as to write code more efficiently and launch new services at unprecedented speed. Potentially it permits businesses to solve their own problems using AI rather than to deploy third party software to solve them. The result is that software development threatens to become increasingly commoditised.
For years, software companies were able to create value by helping clients perform tasks more efficiently. AI is allowing software to perform those tasks on behalf of people. The distinction may sound subtle, but from an investment perspective it’s profound.
For example, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform once helped sales professionals manage opportunities. Today, AI can identify prospects, draft emails, prepare notes and recommend actions to take. Similarly, where accounting software once organised financial information, AI can now interpret that information, identify anomalies and suggest decisions. At the hands of AI, software is evolving from a tool into a worker.
For many SaaS businesses, this is an uncomfortable situation, for if software can be built more easily and at a lower cost, the software itself becomes less valuable. In an environment where many of those businesses have historically been valued very highly this threatens “down rounds” or even the risk that the next round will not be forthcoming. The question facing investors is no longer whether a SaaS company is growing quickly, it’s whether that company remains relevant in a world where AI is becoming embedded into every application and over what period its relevance will be sustained.
The UK’s SaaS Mid-Market
Many of the UK’s most successful software businesses were built during the ‘race’ to use cloud software. At the time they developed loyal customer bases, strong recurring revenues and valuable market positions. In 2026, many of these businesses now find themselves caught between two competing situations;
On one hand, AI presents a huge opportunity. Businesses that are able to successfully integrate AI into development and thence into customer workflows may become more valuable than their competition.
On the other hand, AI is lowering barriers to entry at a pace few were able to predict.
Put simply, products that once took years to build can increasingly be replicated in the space of a few months and features that once differentiated software platforms can be reproduced through easily accessible AI models.
In other words, AI is both creating and destroying value at the same time.
For most of the last decade, success was measured by growth rates, customer acquisition and annual recurring revenue. Although these metrics remain important, they are no longer sufficient on their own. In 2026 investors want to understand who owns the data, who controls the workflow and who can create advantages AI can’t easily replicate. This is being translated into an appetite for the following key characteristics;
Software which embeds specialist domain knowledge such as deep vertical expertise.
Software which is integrated into customers’ workflows and systems and not just sitting over or alongside them
Software which has already demonstrably secured a trusted status within a regulated or compliance oriented environment where untested/untrusted solutions are unlikely to be a threat
Software which fulfils mission-critical functions within client businesses rather than being a “nice to have”
Software where there is a demonstrable development road map which incorporates AI within the back end of the business and moving to customer front end offerings over a realistic time horizon.
Software which enjoys direct access to customer data and the capacity to deploy that data (even if anonymously) to develop insights/provides a meaningful feedback loop.
Software which can demonstrate a genuine customer return on investment.
However successful they have been to date, there is scepticism about the long term value of software which is horizontal, relatively undifferentiated and which doesn’t embed specialist understanding of a niche environment or vertical.
Conclusion
The decline in average SaaS valuations in the last couple of years reflects more than rising interest rates and changing market conditions. Instead, it signals a broader reassessment of what makes a software business valuable. For most of the last decade investors rewarded growth, recurring revenue and scalability. While these fundamentals remain important, the rapid adoption of AI is shifting the focus towards defensibility.
As software only becomes easier and cheaper to build, investors will increasingly ask what cannot be replicated. Proprietary data, ownership of critical workflows, industry expertise and customer trust are becoming more important than software functionality alone.
This is creating a growing divide across the SaaS market. Businesses that use AI to strengthen their competitive advantage are likely to command premium valuations and attract investor interest. While those whose products risk becoming commoditised may continue to face pressure on growth rates and valuation multiples. SaaS multiples still remain second only to AI in terms of sector multiples, after all their fundamentals remain attractive over a three to five year horizon, but we are likely to see those multiples increase for some and reduce for others, depending on their defensibility and the likely impact of AI on their long term performance.
The “cloud race” era rewarded companies for delivering software. The AI era is rewarding companies that deliver outcomes. For mid-market SaaS businesses in the UK, that distinction is likely to define valuation performance for years to come.
On Thursday 30 April 2026, HMT, together with YFM private equity, had the pleasure of hosting a dinner discussion for the leaders of IT Managed Service businesses in Central Reading. Along with Wendy Hart of HMT and David Wrench of YFM, the discussion was seeded and guided by Peter Sweetbaum, long term ex CEO of ECI-backed Content and Cloud and now Chair of Focus Group (amongst other things!) The discussion was refreshingly open and, without breaching the confidences of those present, the purpose of this brief article is to summarise the themes of the debate and to draw together some of the conclusions reached by the parties present.
Our dinner guests represented a wide cohort of Managed Service Providers from early-stage specialist businesses to much larger MSPs with a wide range of offerings. Despite this, there was a remarkably consistent view of the path to value for MSPs in today’s market and a remarkable consistency of preoccupations for those leading them.
Introduction
We began by discussing the reasons that MSPs have historically been attractive for investors and acquirers, leading to considerable consolidation in the space over the period since the global pandemic of 2020 to 2021. As an initially fragmented sector, simple “for scale” buy and build strategies in the space had permitted investors to bolt together a range of diverse SMBs to deliver cost synergies and multiple arbitrage. This represented a clear and straightforward exit route for the founders of such businesses and was for a while, a win-win.
The view around the table was that some of the M&A associated with this strategy has been poorly executed, resulting in deals focussed on scale for scale’s sake and a lack of meaningful integration. As a result, more recent buy and build strategies have been focussed on filling capability gaps, building vertical credibility and pricing acquisitions more sustainably; a more challenging scenario for sellers and buyers but a clearer eye line to value creation.
This led to a discussion of the ways in which current MSP leaders can best build value in their businesses and a strong steer from both Peter and David (as acquirers and investors of such companies) that a “distinct and compelling” offering, whether it be of technical capability or vertical understanding is the most direct route to value. While measurable ARR will continue to have value for its predictability, there is an increasing acceptance that professional services play a fundamental role in the MSP customer journey; not only contributing to effective and sticky deployment but also creating the differentiation which is a prerequisite of attractiveness as an acquisition target.
While Private Equity and Buy and Build Trade acquirers will continue to have a checklist for the “perfect” acquisition, the mix between professional services and repeatable services is no longer a fixed point on the list. Similarly, while there has traditionally been a tendency to disregard low margin high volume businesses in the space as “commodity”; investors and acquirers are now more willing to look behind the margins to better understand the degree of customer dependency, repeatability and differentiation offered by an individual company.
Inevitably a large part of the evening was spent discussing the role of AI in the MSP space and the wider “panic” around its impact on pricing and value in the sector. It was generally conceded that AI is taking up a lot of board room airspace. It was also conceded, however, that much of the internal debate around AI is currently speculation and hypothesis. All of the businesses present were actively considering how to use AI to reduce cost and increase efficiency, for example around incident analysis and response; but none were actively yet building an AI proposition as part of their customer offering and this was felt to be a little way off yet. Not least because of customer trust. IT services, selfevidently, are business-critical for most MSP customers.
It was felt that over the coming months, AI and the perception of its use in MSP services, was likely to lead to pricing discussion and a shift over time to value pricing for professional services rather than time-based pricing. It was also felt that there was a clear role for AI in terms of customer experience, using agentic models to triage issues and deliver front line advice. Undoubtedly MSPs will see some pressure to reduce the size of service desk teams as AI agents come into play and there have already been attempts to monetise AI solutions in some parts of the market.
We dragged ourselves away from the fascinating, thorny and currently unresolved question of the place of AI in IT MSP services to think about what “distinct and compelling” really means in the MSP context.
Areas of differentiation
Recognising that core IT services are coming under pressure from broader price sensitivity as well as a wide range of SMB providers the following were felt by our guests to be areas of differentiation and real value;
The collection, analysis and re-presenting of customer data (individual or collective) to deliver insights and predictions
Deep verticalization, permitting distinct industry solutions and proprietary knowledge in professional services including self-generated IP.
Pattern mapping in the consumption of products and services in order to offer and deliver packaged solutions that directly address customer needs
Solutions which are embedded deep within customer operations and demonstrably both sticky and business critical
The above factors seemed to play out across MSPs of different scale and focus, with several of our guests referencing occasions where it had been customer relationships and trust in delivery that made a substantive difference to winning or retaining work.
That brought us to the final discussion of the evening which surrounded the question of scaling and succession for the founders and leaders of IT MSPs. It was deemed that the energy and personal commitment of founders to the success of their business, and the passion for their proposition, played a material role in early sales success. This played out in the clarity with which they articulate the proposition as well as the personal investment in high quality delivery. We discussed the challenges of transitioning from a situation where the founders lead the business to a scaled entity, where a professional sales function can take-over. Drawing on the experience of some of the larger businesses represented and of Peter and David themselves, it was agreed that such transition needs to be undertaken slowly and with long periods of handover and co-working and that it puts the recruitment of senior hires firmly at the heart of successful scaling. It was well recognised around the table that an exit is all but impossible if a founder still sits at the heart of sales.
To summarise, at the end of a delicious dinner and an enthusiastic and participative discussion, we concluded that the focus of IT MSP owners should be on delivering organic growth through focus, differentiation and intelligent packaging of solutions, that M&A strategies should be capability focussed and not driven purely by revenue scale and multiple arbitrage and that AI should in the short term be directed at increasing business efficiency and improving the customer experience. While “founder-power” can move mountains, the prize comes from scaling business without loss of energy and culture.
On Thursday 30 April 2026, HMT, together with YFM private equity, had the pleasure of hosting a dinner discussion for the leaders of IT Managed Service businesses in Central Reading. Along with Wendy Hart of HMT and David Wrench of YFM, the discussion was seeded and guided by Peter Sweetbaum, long term ex CEO of ECI-backed Content and Cloud and now Chair of Focus Group (amongst other things!) The discussion was refreshingly open and, without breaching the confidences of those present, the purpose of this brief article is to summarise the themes of the debate and to draw together some of the conclusions reached by the parties present.
Our dinner guests represented a wide cohort of Managed Service Providers from early-stage specialist businesses to much larger MSPs with a wide range of offerings. Despite this, there was a remarkably consistent view of the path to value for MSPs in today’s market and a remarkable consistency of preoccupations for those leading them.
Introduction
We began by discussing the reasons that MSPs have historically been attractive for investors and acquirers, leading to considerable consolidation in the space over the period since the global pandemic of 2020 to 2021. As an initially fragmented sector, simple “for scale” buy and build strategies in the space had permitted investors to bolt together a range of diverse SMBs to deliver cost synergies and multiple arbitrage. This represented a clear and straightforward exit route for the founders of such businesses and was for a while, a win-win.
The view around the table was that some of the M&A associated with this strategy has been poorly executed, resulting in deals focussed on scale for scale’s sake and a lack of meaningful integration. As a result, more recent buy and build strategies have been focussed on filling capability gaps, building vertical credibility and pricing acquisitions more sustainably; a more challenging scenario for sellers and buyers but a clearer eye line to value creation.
This led to a discussion of the ways in which current MSP leaders can best build value in their businesses and a strong steer from both Peter and David (as acquirers and investors of such companies) that a “distinct and compelling” offering, whether it be of technical capability or vertical understanding is the most direct route to value. While measurable ARR will continue to have value for its predictability, there is an increasing acceptance that professional services play a fundamental role in the MSP customer journey; not only contributing to effective and sticky deployment but also creating the differentiation which is a prerequisite of attractiveness as an acquisition target.
While Private Equity and Buy and Build Trade acquirers will continue to have a checklist for the “perfect” acquisition, the mix between professional services and repeatable services is no longer a fixed point on the list. Similarly, while there has traditionally been a tendency to disregard low margin high volume businesses in the space as “commodity”; investors and acquirers are now more willing to look behind the margins to better understand the degree of customer dependency, repeatability and differentiation offered by an individual company.
Inevitably a large part of the evening was spent discussing the role of AI in the MSP space and the wider “panic” around its impact on pricing and value in the sector. It was generally conceded that AI is taking up a lot of board room airspace. It was also conceded, however, that much of the internal debate around AI is currently speculation and hypothesis. All of the businesses present were actively considering how to use AI to reduce cost and increase efficiency, for example around incident analysis and response; but none were actively yet building an AI proposition as part of their customer offering and this was felt to be a little way off yet. Not least because of customer trust. IT services, selfevidently, are business-critical for most MSP customers.
It was felt that over the coming months, AI and the perception of its use in MSP services, was likely to lead to pricing discussion and a shift over time to value pricing for professional services rather than time-based pricing. It was also felt that there was a clear role for AI in terms of customer experience, using agentic models to triage issues and deliver front line advice. Undoubtedly MSPs will see some pressure to reduce the size of service desk teams as AI agents come into play and there have already been attempts to monetise AI solutions in some parts of the market.
We dragged ourselves away from the fascinating, thorny and currently unresolved question of the place of AI in IT MSP services to think about what “distinct and compelling” really means in the MSP context.
Areas of differentiation
Recognising that core IT services are coming under pressure from broader price sensitivity as well as a wide range of SMB providers the following were felt by our guests to be areas of differentiation and real value;
The collection, analysis and re-presenting of customer data (individual or collective) to deliver insights and predictions
Deep verticalization, permitting distinct industry solutions and proprietary knowledge in professional services including self-generated IP.
Pattern mapping in the consumption of products and services in order to offer and deliver packaged solutions that directly address customer needs
Solutions which are embedded deep within customer operations and demonstrably both sticky and business critical
The above factors seemed to play out across MSPs of different scale and focus, with several of our guests referencing occasions where it had been customer relationships and trust in delivery that made a substantive difference to winning or retaining work.
That brought us to the final discussion of the evening which surrounded the question of scaling and succession for the founders and leaders of IT MSPs. It was deemed that the energy and personal commitment of founders to the success of their business, and the passion for their proposition, played a material role in early sales success. This played out in the clarity with which they articulate the proposition as well as the personal investment in high quality delivery. We discussed the challenges of transitioning from a situation where the founders lead the business to a scaled entity, where a professional sales function can take-over. Drawing on the experience of some of the larger businesses represented and of Peter and David themselves, it was agreed that such transition needs to be undertaken slowly and with long periods of handover and co-working and that it puts the recruitment of senior hires firmly at the heart of successful scaling. It was well recognised around the table that an exit is all but impossible if a founder still sits at the heart of sales.
To summarise, at the end of a delicious dinner and an enthusiastic and participative discussion, we concluded that the focus of IT MSP owners should be on delivering organic growth through focus, differentiation and intelligent packaging of solutions, that M&A strategies should be capability focussed and not driven purely by revenue scale and multiple arbitrage and that AI should in the short term be directed at increasing business efficiency and improving the customer experience. While “founder-power” can move mountains, the prize comes from scaling business without loss of energy and culture.
