N-Able boss signals investment plans post-spin-off

N-Able has completed its spin-off from SolarWinds and indicated that the decision to go it alone will benefit the firm and its managed services-providing partners.

Following the move, N-able will provide cloud-based software solutions for MSPs and SolarWinds will continue to focus on providing IT infrastructure software.

N-Able CEO John Pagliuca said the decision to go it alone would enable the firm to focus on its key business.

“This whole exercise was predicated on really a simple premise and that’s a singular focus,” he said. “This allows us to focus completely on the needs of MSPs to help grow their business and help grow our business. It’s been around focus – I call it the ‘f’ word and it’s focusing on our MSPs to make sure that we’re putting the right roadmap, the right solutions, the right type of investment into them.”

Pagliuca said it was also important to focus on the investment community and N-Able had seen an increasing appreciation in the market to back firms involved with the managed services market.

“We’e seeing venture capital, we’re seeing private equity – this is good for the MSPs, this is good for the small to medium enterprises, this is good for ISVs like N-Able because it’s elevating the game, so the world on a macro level has really woken up to the opportunity,” he said.

There should also be benefits for UK MSPs that have worked with N-Able as a result of the focus and investment that will be put into the business, he added.

“Investing in R&D investment, investing in customer success, investing in international sales and marketing operations to grow the business for the long term,” he said.

“In the UK specifically, they are MSPs, our partners, who will see more investment, not just in sales but really partner success. We will also have more of a marketing assistance for these MSPs, our platform Market Builder. We know a healthy MSP means a healthy partner for us, if they’re growing, we’re growing, so the UK MSP base will start seeing a big influx of investment, and a bunch of different ways, product partner success and marketing collateral and support.”

Pagliuca said that the transaction itself was “a combination of well over 12 months of planning effort and work, but this is really the culmination of over two decades of this N-Able business doing right by these partners, and N-Able was almost going back to our roots”.

He added: “This is not just a rebrand exercise. This is a spin-off and we are a completely independent company with a different mission, a different vision and a different leadership team, to bring this company and our offerings to a different level for the MSPs.”