Business Insight From The Fast Growth 150

Solution provider executives gave us their thoughts about growth in 2025 and growth expectations for this year, the business strategies they relied on to achieve that growth, and the difficulties in hiring the technical talent they need to maintain growth. Here’s what they had to say.

This week CRN published the 2026 Fast Growth 150, which identifies the fastest- growing solution providers in the IT industry.

As part of that application/selection process, we asked solution provider executives a number of questions about their business including their performance in 2025 and their expectations for this year, the business strategies they employed last year to help sustain and grow their companies, and the challenges of hiring technical talent both in 2025 and this year.

While the Fast Growth 150 may be a unique subset of the IT channel, the provided answers, nevertheless, offer a snapshot of what’s happening in the channel right now given all the turbulence from the AI wave, rapidly shifting geo-economic conditions and other factors.

(Note: 144 of the Fast Growth 150 provided answers to the questions, so the calculated percentages are based on those 144 respondents.)

Here’s a look at what the numbers had to say.

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Most Fast Growth 150 solution providers say they performed either as expected or better than expected in 2025.

How would you characterize your company’s financial performance in 2025 compared to what you had projected heading into the year?

We performed better financially in 2025 than we expected: 64 (44.4%)

We performed as expected financially in 2025: 68 (47.2%)

We performed worse financially in 2025 than we expected: 9 (6.3%)

Don’t know: 3 (2.1%)

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Adding new IT technology partners, investing in employee training and certifications, and hiring more technical and sales talent were the most widely utilized business strategies in 2025.

Which business strategies did you use to help sustain/grow your business in 2025?

(multiple answers allowed)

Added new vendor/technology partners: 122 (84.7%)

Cut vendor/technology partners: 26 (18.1%)

Expanded into new technology markets: 92 (63.9%)

Expanded into new geographies in North America: 67 (46.5%)

Expanded into new geographies outside North America: 26 (18.1%)

Focused on fewer geographies: 5 (3.5%)

Added new vertical market practices: 64 (44.4%)

Cut vertical market practices: 4 (2.8%)

Invested in training/certifications: 119 (82.6%)

Invested more in marketing: 101 (70.1%)

Implemented salary freezes: 0

Implemented layoffs: 5 (3.5%)

Implemented furloughs: 0

Reduced employee benefits: 0

Expanded employee benefits: 33 (22.9%)

Hired more sales talent: 109 (75.7%)

Hired more technical talent: 114 (79.2%)

Hired more marketing talent: 63 (43.8%)

Got a loan from a non-government source: 3 (2.1%)

Acquired/merged with another company: 30 (20.8%)

Sold the company2 (1.4%)

Didn’t make any changes: 0

Don’t know: 1 (0.7%)

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