Today I’m excited to officially announce Tercera’s newest portfolio company – Terazo! You can check out the official press release here.
Terazo is a software development and managed services provider that specializes in APIs and platform integration. It’s one of Twilio’s most promising partners. This investment, led by Tercera with participation from Twilio, will help accelerate Terazo’s expansion and hiring efforts, and grow its growing portfolio of integration and automation services — all at a time when nearly every company is ramping up its efforts to modernize and automate their systems.
Why Terazo?
Founded in 2016, Terazo quickly became a force to be reckoned with in the API economy, and in fewer than five years, has become a critical part of their clients’ digital supply chain. With one of its values being “Level the Playing Field,” Terazo is helping both first movers and technology laggards to build, automate and connect systems using cloud platforms.
When we were first introduced to CEO Mark Wensell and his co-founders Chris Busse and George Boatright, it felt like a natural match. As Mark states in his Q&A with us, “it’s the right meeting of somebody who believes in the same ecosystem and capabilities we believe in, and sees the immediate need for us to scale up to meet that need.”
At Tercera, our goal is to find, support and empower the people and services firms that will lead the cloud’s next wave of innovation. Terazo fit our thesis perfectly, exemplifying so many of characteristics that we believe will define the third wave cloud consultancies.
The cloud has matured significantly over the last 20 years, and the attributes that led to success in the first two waves won’t necessarily cut it in the next decade. The pandemic made that clear. The firms whose business values, delivery, go-to-market models, and talent are optimized for the third wave — who can help businesses build the differentiating digital experiences they need to connect and engage customers in a new way — are those that will win.
Why this ecosystem?
The API economy is huge, and as companies continue their migration to the cloud, it’s going to become even bigger. Entire business models are now being built on the consumption of data and services over APIs, and businesses are seeing first-hand the power (and necessity) of a programmatic approach. As Mark says, “things move fast in a digital world and that pace is only going to increase.”
Twilio is leading the charge in this space, providing an API-first customer engagement platform for digital transformation. CEO Jeff Lawson calls this moment in Twilio’s journey a “generational opportunity.” We believe the same can be said for the partners who support and extend these platforms. As Twilio expands its enterprise relationships, and broadens that platform, it will need partners like Terazo who, as Twilio Chief Customer Officer Glenn Weinstein puts it, “embody that builder mindset.”
Why Mark?
Our mantra as a firm is “people over products.” We look for services firms that want to do something big. In our quest to find founders who are mission-driven, values-oriented and growth-minded, Mark fits the bill perfectly.
As Mark so eloquently put it, “you must care about people and see people as the solution, not technology. And then you must find people that feel the same way.” Before founding Terazo, Mark was a CIO. He started Terazo to be the vendor that he was looking for and couldn’t find. After 15+ years in technology services, I can attest that the best leaders are those who understand their customers and know what it takes to build high-performing teams. That’s Mark.
If you want to find out a little more about Mark and his vision, check out his profile here.
