As the technology services distributor market consolidates, Sandler Partners remains a stubborn holdout.
The California-based TSD reaped the rewards of its lone-wolf strategy in 2025. Omdia estimated the company's revenue grew 24% year over year. Sandler Partners SVP Caleb Tucker said the firm's revenue reached $209 million.
The firm has also established a growing, loyal base of technology advisor partners. According to Tucker, one-third of the partners Sandler Partners signed in 2025 were new to the market, which means the other two-thirds had prior agreements with rival TSDs.
Many of those TAs tell Channel Dive that they prefer Sandler Partners’ boutique feel in an industry that is getting larger.
“We feel that we are the fourth or fifth TSD in terms of size, but still maintain that culture, humanity, familiarity, that most of the agents in the business started with and grew their businesses with,” Tucker told Channel Dive.
The TSD is expanding its digital platform to compete with larger rivals. It plans to give partners access to the virtual AI sales engineer its employees currently use internally to research vendors and products. The company is also expanding its APIs for its Scout serviceability tool.
But at the end of the day, Tucker said the mission is to remain simple and steady.
“Bring us deals, we'll pay commissions, and we'll grow this together, month-over-month, quarter-over-quarter, year-over-year,” he said.
A renegade strategy
The TSD field has winnowed in the last five years, with larger players gobbling up regional firms and even some national players.
Telarus, Intelisys, Avant and AppDirect — the top four in Canalys’ market share rankings — have each partnered with institutional investors. Avant’s recently announced recapitalization with Pamlico Capital and Court Square Capital Partners was the market’s first second-bite at the apple, and Tucker said he expects another domino to fall soon.
Sandler Partners has held out as an anti-private equity TSD. Managing Partner Alan Sandler in his keynote speech at the company’s 2022 annual summit joked that the company was in exclusive talks with a French investor called “Je Mens,” before revealing the translation: “I am lying.” The company didn’t plan to field offers for at least another 10 years, he said at the time — and at every annual keynote since.
“Alan’s commitment is another six-and-a-half years not to sell. He's made that statement publicly many times, and I think he's crazy enough to keep it,” Tucker said.
PE-backed TSDs are profitable, Tucker acknowledged. Independence allows Sandler Partners to take a longer-term view of the market.
“We don't face pressure on making covenants or missing covenants with lenders. Beneath all of the equity guys, they've got a lot of debt into those companies now,” Tucker said. “[They] have external pressures that they have to navigate. If we see an opportunity, whether it's spending money this quarter or this year, we're able to execute on it and move forward.”
A personal touch
As TAs expand in size and capabilities, their business remains relationship-based.
That goes for their TSD partners as well as their clients.
“Most of the TAs I talked to are with the TSD that they're with either because of a relationship or because it was the first one they met and got introduced to and started working with,” North Atlantic Consultants’ President Michael Agri said. “There's really no bad TSD options, in my opinion.”
Agri said he receives frequent reachouts from his Sandler Partners channel manager and sales engineer to help him strategize. It’s a personal touch that goes a long way for him and other small business owners.
“As a technology advisor, we just feel so much like we're on this island where nobody really cares about you, nobody wants to help you, and then you have this TSD that won't leave you alone,” Agri said.
TAs also put a higher value on commission delivery than vendors and TSDs are willing to admit, according to Agri. A TSD collects a TA’s vendor commission, takes a small split of it and ideally helps the TA track and recover unpaid commissions.
Sandler Partners has recovered millions of dollars on behalf of partners going back to 2013.
“They're not flashy, but they have the heart, and they have the drive and the connections, and they're just really good people,” Agri said.
