Rubrik UK channel boss Lisa Roberts has exited the back-up vendor to follow her dream of launching an incubator for emerging vendors, IT Channel Oxygen can reveal.
Having publicly announced her departure on LinkedIn earlier this week, Roberts today lifted the veil on Colition, which aims to help innovative vendors break into the UK and EMEA channel.
Colition has already inked a partnership with Distology that will see it effectively become the cybersecurity VAD’s vendor incubation arm.
Talking exclusively to IT Channel Oxygen, Roberts – who has also built out channel teams at Symantec and Cisco Meraki – said she is enjoying “being back on the hussle”.
“I’m having conversations with really exciting vendors and the diary is already filling up, which shows there is a need for something to help vendors break into this market and fast-track their success,” she said.
Distology mixology
Colition will help Distology incubate vendors it lacks the bandwidth to take on itself, Roberts said, adding that the two companies will be independent of each other.
“I wanted to build something I solely owned,” she explained.
“Distology have so many vendors they aren’t able to take on, and partnering will help fast-track those vendors. I’ve got the power of [Distology CEO] Hayley [Roberts] and her team, and the Distology brand, behind me to help those vendors, so the partnership works well for both of us.”
Colition will specialise in building out local go-to-market and channel strategies, Roberts said.
“My vision is to scale this out quite quickly,” she said.
Roberts’ ploy to leave her role as Rubrik’s Director – Channel & Alliances UKI & Emerging EMEA after two years was a “personal decision”, she stressed.
“Rubrik was such an amazing journey I realised how much I love building and helping vendors go to the next level,” Roberts said.
“They have been flying, their IPO has happened, and it felt like a really natural time for me to step away and hand over to new leaders to take the channel team to the next level,” she concluded.
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
