N-able: Build, Buy or Partner? Growth Framework

Deciding where to Build, Buy, or Partner is essential for every (SaaS) company. John Pagliuca, CEO of N-able, choses to partner if he can achieve 🍀 Quad (4X) Win. N-able has partnerships DNA, serving 25K MSPs who, in turn, cater to 500K SMEs.

N-able is SaaS with $400M+ in ARR and 2.4Bn market cap. The company is exceeding revenue expectations recently, pushing its stock 45% in the last year, back to its 2021 height.

The company's SaaS helps managed service providers (MSPs) support and manage digital transformation of SMEs with tools like remote monitoring and management, cybersecurity, etc.

📊 Decision Framework: Build, Buy, or Partner

John Pagliuca thinks from the end goal - do we offer the best solutions for the customer?

If something is missing, then he asks a set of questions:

Is it our core business?

Does the amount of R&D required fit our business profile?

Will our partner win if we integrate them in our product?

Will it offer a better-together experience for our customer?

Pagliuca's explains:

“At N-able we build a significant amount of the IP ourselves. But in a couple of different areas, we choose to partner with enterprise-grade companies, integrate that technology into our platform because we believe it's a better-together experience for the MSP to do their jobs effectively and efficiently.”

🎯 Case study: partnering with SentinelOne, instead of building

“….We're very thoughtful as to what path we'd like to go through. A lot of the times, it has to do with the competitive landscape and the type of solution, right? So we've chosen, with EDR [Endpoint Detection and Response] as an example, to partner with SentinelOne.

Why? Well, that's to be the best and to make sure that we have the best offering for our MSPs, we would need to have a level of R&D in research and development that doesn't necessarily fit our profile, and we believe through the partnership with SentinelOne we can honor our mission and give our MSPs the best security.

And what we do there is we integrate it into our remote monitoring platform and now MSPs can monitor, manage and secure in one dashboard in a really efficient way...”

💎 Finding their 4X wins:

“So wherever we can get that, what I call that quad win,

a win for the SME [end customer];

a win for the MSP [N-Able customer];

a win for that partner, in this case, SentinelOne;

and a win for N-able

- we do that....

Looking ahead, security, depending on where we are in security, is usually a good vector where we'll either look to use an enterprise partner and OEM or potentially look to acquire if it fits the profile. Where we typically build is where it's in our core DNA around monitoring and management.’’

💡 Sounds simpler than it is. Build/acquire where it’s your core DNA. Otherwise partner to bring best-in-class solutions to your customers.

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