Lumen, Upstack Sign Deal: What Does This Mean for the TSBs?

Upstack has signed a partnership with Lumen Technologies in a landmark move for the private equity-backed channel partner and the rest of the technology advisory channel.

The deal, announced Thursday, marks the largest direct agreement Upstack has signed with a supplier. The sales partners operating under the Upstack umbrella can leverage Upstack’s contract to sell Lumen rather than working through the distributors and TSBs they have traditionally used for Lumen. The announcement also indicates that New York-based Upstack has built enough scale to justify a a contract with the behemoth carrier. Upstack has acquired more than 20 sales agencies using more than $150 million from Berkshire Partners, Midcap Financial and Morgan Stanley Private Credit.

Lumen’s Dave Young

“Upstack is a shining example of a ‘next-generation partner’ capable of helping businesses adopt emerging technology solutions that will enable their digital transformations and beyond,” said Dave Young, senior vice president of strategic sales for Lumen. “We’re thrilled to be Upstack’s first major technology partnership providing business customers expert advice combined with access to Lumen’s advanced solutions portfolio.”

Lumen is moving a step closer to the customer with the deal by signing a direct contract. It will use Upstack’s platform for automated quoting and pricing, as well as Upstack’s roster of advisory partners and their customers.

Upstack’s Nick Caruso

“With its robust solution set and global network of emerging technologies for customers, Lumen has become a leading Upstack partner month after month,” said Nicholas Caruso, senior vice President, global channels and alliances for Upstack. “We’re looking forward to working with Lumen to help our clients leverage more of the Lumen platform and its next-generation cloud and edge technologies.”

Background

Upstack, which Christopher Trapp founded in 2017, burst on the scene in 2021 with its $50 million Berkshire Partners investment. At the time, the deal marked the largest private equity investment in a direct-selling agent.

At the time, Trapp told Channel Futures that he and his team had debated building a technology solutions brokerage (TSB), formerly known as a master agent. But ultimately, he said Upstack preferred to focus on customer-facing sales.

“The [TSBs] are very talented at managing the relationships with suppliers,” Trapp said in 2021. “The agents are very talented at managing the relationships with the customers. We’re focused on that. It would be dilutive to our value proposition if we tried to be great at both of those today. So we’re going to continue leveraging those [TSBs] going forward,” he said.

Trapp also acknowledged at the time that Upstack would form certain direct partnerships with suppliers and leverage its own back office for those practices. And indeed, the firm has already done that. Cybersecurity provider Netacea announced in January that it had signed Upstack as a partner. In March, Upstack announced an agreement with new data center provider Wyoming Hyperscale White Box.

For many of these smaller vendors, going direct with an agent makes …