Curt Allen, Ken Bisnoff, Other Channel Heavies Form Consulting Practice

Curt Allen, Ken Bisnoff and other big names in the channel have struck out on their own with a new consulting practice, EagleTEQ Advisors.

Allen left his job as Vonage’s channel chief and Bisnoff became a technology consultant after nearly 22 years with TPx. Other founders include:

• Steve Braverman, former CEO and founder of X4 Solutions.
• Mike Cromwell, who also works with Netrio, and was previously with XO Communications, Global Crossing and Frontier Communications.
• Cardi Prinzi, previously Windstream Enterprise‘s chief marketing officer. Before that, he held roles with EarthLink, TPx and Equinix.

EagleTEQ addresses the technology solutions provider and distributor markets, and the private equity/investor community. The founders have a combined 150 years of business experience, hence the hook “we have been there, done that.”

The consulting practice’s services include leadership advisers, sales on demand, sales enablement as a service and marketing as a service.

Cromwell originally founded the consulting practice in 2016 and the five are now equal partners.

EagleTEQ’s Mike Cromwell

“I’ve known my new business partners Curt Allen, Ken Bisnoff, Steve Braverman and Cardi Prinzi for many years, during which we’ve been competitors, business partners and over time have become close friends,” Cromwell said. “I’ve held them all with a high degree of respect and couldn’t ask for a better team to be working with to take my initial vision to an entirely new level. Our new business will focus on both technology solutions providers, as well as technology distributors such as channel partners, VARs and MSPs, with our mission being to help our clients accelerate their growth trajectory. While our focus initially starts by delivering a full suite of advisory solutions centered around business planning, go-to-market strategy, and sales and marketing, our combined expertise enables us to help our clients quickly pivot from our recommendations to operational execution.”

Quick Formation

Allen said the five founders came together in mid-December. It “steamrolled real quickly” toward an operating agreement and aligning resources.

EagleTEQ’s Curt Allen

“You can hire someone who will bring in a Harvard MBA who may or may not have worked in our space, or you can hire us, who’ve all sat in your seat and we’ve done your jobs,” Allen said. “We have a lot of engagements in the hopper already just from our network. A lot of fractional officer work seems to be emerging where someone will say, ‘Hey, I can’t necessarily afford to hire Curt Allen to come in and be channel chief, but I’d love to hire Curt as a fractional channel chief to help me, whether it’s coach someone on the team, help us find someone to run that role, or put a plan together for us to execute inside the channel, those types of things.”

EagleTEQ can provide chief revenue officer, channel chief and chief marketing officer roles, or help with mergers and acquisitions, he said.

There haven’t been many people starting consulting practices supporting either the buy side or the sell side of channel business, Allen said.

Channel businesses had to transform due to COVID-19,and EagleTEQ can help them with that continuing transformation, he said.

“We’re kind of authorities on successfully developing that remote workforce — that remote leadership,” Allen said. “We think a lot of them have been light on execution. And so we’re going to sell people strategy for sure. We’re going to work to understand their definition of success and build a strategic plan toward that. But it’s that next layer. It’s taking that 150-plus year user experience combined and building tactical plans to execute those things in this environment, whether it’s utilizing tools, understanding exactly what …