IT Channel Oxygen’s May IT Solutions Provider of the Month, Redsquid, is a B Corp on an acquisition charge, and has a workforce that is over 40% female.
Redsquid CEO Sohin Raithatha reveals its secret sauce…
You’re one of the UK IT channel’s most recently accredited B Corps. How tough was it to obtain?
As we became carbon neutral [in 2021], we sat down as a team and discussed what would be our next step, what did we really want to achieve and what message did we want to give to the market about what you can do as an MSP. After research and lengthy conversations, we decided B Corp was the right next step for us, a certification that suited our brand, ambitions and visions.
We went straight to it and, headed up by our Director of Sales and Marketing, we went through the initial assessment which laid out the projects and tasks ahead of us. Before making any changes, we already saw we had a score of 57.5, and felt we were in a good position. The next 10 points came easily, so from there (67.5) to the required 80 points is when we saw the real challenge. In this stage we were regularly discussing next steps at board level, to identify where we wanted to prioritise budgets and which part of each of the pillars we wanted to stand out and have the biggest impact.
Overall, the process of changing our organisation and implementing new processes and benefits took about two years. With this, we reached 80 points last summer a score we continued to improve on through the verification stage, ending on a total of 93.6 in the early part of this year as we achieved the certification.
You’ve made 3 acquisitions in the last nine months. Does your B Corp status make it harder to select and integrate acquisitions?
The people and the way they operate are extremely important to us which is also why we’ve have never had any redundancies as a part of integrations. Doing this, integrating them into our sustainability profile and now B Corp certification is much simpler process and actually brings great benefits to the organisations we acquire as they roll out the benefits to customers and people alike. It would of course mean that there are some businesses that could not be a target for us, but truthfully they probably wouldn’t have been anyway.
Is it more than coincidence that the bank that has supported your recent M&A is also a B Corp?
As we were looking for a new lending provider last year to support future acquisitions, we were going through the B Corp certification at the same time. As the conversation fell on banking, this led a natural consideration of now having a choice of better impact banking – an opportunity that seemed imperative as we were going through the process of making our processes as sustainable as possible.
Now partnering with another B Corp to support our acquisitions, it directs the targets and brings us together over aligned values for a long-term partnership.
How large is Redsquid today?
We are over 50 employees and likely to double over the next 12 months, a far cry from where we were just two to three years ago. If it wasn’t for AI, technology and automation we would likely have far more people, but as a business we have decided to invest in great tech that gives our people the tools to make them more productive and efficient, so we do not become that people heavy.
We’d much rather have happy people that have the technology they need to do their job, than more people in the organisation. With this we focus on sustainable growth, where we try to promote from within and have clear career paths for our people.
You started out as a Vodafone partner, but have moved into IT managed services. What proportion of your business is comms vs IT today?
We have been on such a journey since we began almost 18 years ago and the services we deliver have changed throughout the years. Today, comms takes up about 30% of our services whereas IT are 50-60%. With the mobility services getting more heavily regulated in the UK, we have had to make these changes to our business dynamics. From an acquisition point of view, it’s easier to upsell comms into managed services than the other way around – not that it can’t be done, the cycle just becomes longer.”
How many more acquisitions do you plan to make in the next 12 months, and in what areas?
We’ll likely complete another three to six this financial year, predominantly in the IT managed services space. Alongside their culture, I am looking at their IT services, geographical reach and their customer base.
Redsquid employs more women than the UK reseller/MSP average (which stands at 28.8%, according to our recent analysis). Is this by accident or design?
At Redsquid we are currently over 40% women, which are represented at all levels of the organisation from interns to the board. It’s an interesting conversation that always needs to be had in the industry to encourage more women and girls into tech. We have had an industry-high proportion of women from the early years which has come naturally to us. Our culture foster creativity and trying out new ideas, a sort of community that can only be created when you have diversity amongst the people.
Other than gender diversity, we also have people from 16 to 60 years, we have people from all social backgrounds and we currently have 12 spoken languages in our offices. So diversity for us is really integrated into who we are, and I don’t see it ever being any different.
What’s an obscure fact about Redsquid most people won’t know?
With all the M&A going on in our industry in the moment I actually don’t think most people know that Redsquid was started by Vince and myself in his spare bedroom with just a phone, a pen and the yellow pages.
Can you tell us more about the charity initiative you are launching?
As always, we will have a charity of the year who we collaborate with to raise funds and awareness throughout the year. This year we will be supporting ‘Action Through Enterprise’ a charity working with a community in Ghana to set up schools and provide the children with the education they need for a better future. We will be working with the charity to fundraise and collect technology donations we can take with us when we go to visit them next year to set up new IT rooms for the children to learn about IT.
What’s an industry trend not enough people are talking about?
That would absolutely be sustainability. For an industry that can be so innovating and future thinking, we are lagging painfully behind when it comes to driving sustainable and environmental change. We’d love to see our partners and networks taking greater responsibility and committing to targets of their own to drive real change. That’s why we keep shouting about what we do, to inspire an encourage conversation that will force us all to be better.
What benchmarks or achievements would make it a successful 2024 for Redsquid?
For a real successful year, M&A will be fundamental to our continuous growth as well as looking at our organic growth.
Throughout this we will continue to invest in sustainability and championing the industry as the number one sustainable MSP.
