Principle Networks
A commercial growth system installed with the leadership team of a UK MSP — and what happened to the numbers afterwards. In the co-CEO’s own words.
He helped us put in place the growth structure, commercial discipline and strategic thinking required to scale the business more effectively — and challenged us to think about growth as a system rather than a series of isolated activities.
A technically strong MSP, growing on founder effort.
Principle Networks is a UK managed service provider working in networking and cyber security. When the engagement began in 2023 the business was around £2.9m in annual revenue: real technical credibility, real customers, and growth that depended heavily on the founders being personally involved in it.
The work ran from 2023 to 2025, delivered personally by Michael Williamson alongside the leadership team. Not a report handed over at the end. Sessions in the business, with the people who would own the result afterwards.
What was actually installed.
Five things that did not exist in the business before, and were still being used after the engagement ended.
Growth structure
Instead of activity
- A defined way the business went after growth, rather than a set of initiatives running in parallel and competing for the same attention.
Market positioning and go-to-market
What they sell, and to whom
- A sharper position in a crowded market, and a route to it — which is what made the specialism in security worth building rather than just claiming.
Commercial discipline
The habits, not the theory
- How deals get shaped, how offers get priced, and what the leadership team reviews when it looks at the number.
Growth planning
A horizon longer than the quarter
- Targets the leadership team was aligned on and could plan against — including the EBITDA target that was hit a year early.
Growth as a system rather than a series of isolated activities.
That sentence is the co-CEO’s, and it is the whole engagement in nine words. Most MSPs at this size do not have a growth problem so much as a growth architecture problem — plenty of effort, applied in ways that do not compound.
A system compounds. Each quarter builds on the one before it, the leadership team can see what is working, and the business stops depending on the founders being in every conversation.
The foundations outlasted the engagement.
The engagement ended in 2025. What followed matters more than what happened during it, because it is the test of whether a capability was installed or a project was delivered.
- £1m EBITDA on £7.9m turnover, against a target the leadership team had set two years earlier — reached a full year ahead of plan.
- A strengthened leadership team, including a new CTO, with longer-term targets and equity aligned to them.
- An expanded vendor ecosystem, leaning further into the cyber security specialism the positioning work identified.
- New routes to market, including an indirect services channel through larger resellers — the kind of expansion a business can only attempt once its commercial model is repeatable.
In the co-CEO’s words: many of the foundations established during that period remain part of how the business operates today.
What the co-CEO said.
His contribution went far beyond traditional marketing support. He helped us put in place the growth structure, commercial discipline and strategic thinking required to scale the business more effectively.
He brings structure, challenge and commercial insight, helping leadership teams move beyond founder-led growth towards a more scalable and repeatable growth model.
“I would have no hesitation in recommending Michael to MSPs, technology businesses and leadership teams looking to accelerate growth, improve commercial execution and build long-term enterprise value.”
Russell Crowley · Co-Chief Executive Officer, Principle Networks
The hard part is the same.
Commercial capability, installed inside an MSP
Going into a technically strong managed service provider, working with its leadership team, and leaving behind a commercial system the business still runs. That is the organisationally difficult part, and it is the same part in an AI practice.
The building, not the advising.
The conversation has moved up a floor
What has changed since is where the commercial conversation happens. AI moved it from the IT director to the CEO, CFO and COO — which is exactly why the commercial half of an AI practice now decides who leads the deal.
Same discipline, more senior room.
Your business, in ninety minutes.
A Growth Review is the same read applied to your MSP: where the practice is constrained, what removing that constraint is worth, and an honest answer on whether we are the right people to help.
Win the business case before you win the build.