As announced today, Electric is acquiring Sinu, one of New York’s top Managed IT Service Providers.

“Why are you buying a services company? You’re trying to build software. This seems like a step back!” That was the initial reaction from one of our board members when I first floated the idea of buying a managed service provider (MSP)— I don’t blame them.

Yes, on the surface it might sound counterintuitive for us to buy a services business when our goal is to become a world-class software company.

I think there’s a tendency in Silicon Valley for companies to get so caught up in ‘disruption’ that they actually wind up just doing the exact same thing as everybody else.

Fortunately, Electric is based in NYC, and we are not afraid to be bold.

So why did we do this deal? A few reasons:

1. We’re in the business of turning repeatable services into software

As we continue to expand our offerings, we want to base our product roadmap off of the best run manual processes in the industry. Larry and his team at Sinu have the retention and satisfaction metrics to back up how great they are, and the years of expertise that create a huge competitive advantage for all of our teams.

2. We’re being strategic about market expansion

Most startups develop a ‘sweet’ spot early on, which are the types of customers you know you can win with over and over, but eventually you have to expand your view.

Organic market entry, even in adjacent markets can be extremely time consuming and expensive. Sinu’s team has done an excellent job winning and pleasing customers in a lot of industries where we currently don’t play but probably should. The combination of our two companies is a massive shot in the arm to our national expansion strategy.

3. People are everything

Perhaps most importantly, growing a company and doing it in a really customer-centric way requires a team with a shared vision. Larry, John, and the rest of the Sinu team absolutely share our vision for the future and commitment to our customers.

This deal is a big level-up for us, our customers, our strategy and we’re psyched for the road ahead!