Tercera's Bill Petty & Michelle Swan + Orium's Jason Cottrell on SIs

Tercera is the leading growth private equity firm in the composable space, providing growth capital to systems integrators (including Orium). Think of Tercera as a VC but exclusively for growing SIs. In this episode, Bill and Michelle explain what they look for when making investments in SIs, how investment banking differs from private equity, consolidation within the SI ecosystem and more. Jason provides great context on the role that SIs play, why they took on growth equity from Tercera, and how he expects the SI space to evolve over time.

- 1:35: What systems integrators are, the role they play in our ecosystem, etc. from an ISV standpoint
- 03:17: Introducing our guests
- 06:16: Explaining Terms: SI, GSI, agency and where Orium fits
- 08:27: The Tercera business model, investment decisions
- 12:45: What is an investment banker?
- 14:02: Why do SIs build IP when they are ultimately paid on billable hours?
- 17:37: There are commerce vendors out there who have substantial professional services teams, thereby competing for revenue. Why do they do that, how do you compete against a vendor's own staff? Thoughts on said venders.
- 22:25: Evaluating SIs - what are the red flags?
- 24:48: How does SI-focused PE differ from more traditional vendor-focused VC?
- 29:27: "Real" AI is here. How does it impact business, both today and in the future?
- 31:45: What’s the decision process around doing in-house, staff aug, having a partner do piece(s) or the whole thing? What type of orgs choose which approach and why?
- 34:02: Consolidation in the MACH SI space - why are the GSIs buying up smaller SIs in this market?
- 36:32: Closing remarks