‘We wanted to go off script,’ says Wes Spencer, Empath co-founder. ‘From day one, we said we wanted our first round to come 100 percent from people inside our industry. We wanted MSPs to have skin in the game.’
Empath has secured $2 million in a fundraising round backed entirely by MSPs and others within the channel ecosystem.
For company co-founder Wes Spencer, it wasn’t just about raising capital but “setting a precedent for how startups in the MSP ecosystem could involve their own community in building the future.”
“We wanted to go off script,” Spencer (pictured) told CRN. “From day one, we said we wanted our first round to come 100 percent from people inside our industry. We wanted MSPs to have skin in the game.”
[Related: Empath Eyes Big Growth In 2025 With New Hires, Platform Courses For MSPs: Exclusive]
Empath, which is a training and education platform, wanted the funding round to be MSP-led to allow those who rely on the platform to become investors. The company also aims to deepen engagement, trust and accountability through this initiative.
“You get two huge wins,” Spencer said. “MSPs get real input based on real investment, and if we exit, they get to say, ‘I was a part of that.’”
Founded in 2023, Empath has seen rocket ship growth, according to Spencer, with the company expecting to hit $1 million in revenue by July. The platform now serves more than 325 MSPs and employs 21 people, with plans to grow the team to about 30 by the end of the year.
“We are a product that literally helps MSPs get better, not this backdoor, ‘reselling our product makes you better.’ No, we directly impact the MSP,” said Kyle Christensen, Empath co-founder.
He said most MSPs don’t have the funds to be a venture capital firm, so Empath allowed them to come in under very small investments, “just so we could have their voice.”
About 25 MSPs participated in the funding round.
After running an MSP with her husband for about 20 years before selling it to private equity in 2022, Jennifer Vanderwier stayed in the industry as a consultant and facilitator. She now works with Empath as one of its navigators helping teach courses for MSPs.
“They’ve tapped into something the MSP space has desperately needed,” she told CRN. “When my team wanted to keep learning, we had nowhere structured to send them, just a bunch of blogs or scattered resources. If Empath had existed back then, I would’ve bought licenses immediately.
“They’re not just raising money,” she added. “They’re inviting MSPs to become strategic partners. Not a lot of companies do that. It creates a sense of shared growth and purpose.”
Shawn Torres, CEO of Slidel, La.-based MSP In-Telecom, said he invested in Empath because the MSP industry has been “starving for real education and accountability.”
“This platform fills a massive gap in our space,” he told CRN via email. “I believe in the mission, I believe in the founders and I’m all-in on building something that truly moves our community forward.”
The raised capital will be invested primarily in product development and outbound growth efforts including conferences, marketing and hiring across sales, client success and engineering roles.
“One of the big pushes that we’re making with the funding is to build an extensible system that can actually tie into third-party training platforms. The first launch will be a Microsoft integration,” said Alex Farling, Empath co-founder.
Looking ahead, the company plans to leverage AI to mine insights from PSA data and help MSPs identify gaps in knowledge, tools and strategy.
“Every MSP uses their PSA differently,” Spencer said. “That unstructured data is gold but it’s messy. Our roadmap is about unlocking it to deliver personalized, data-driven guidance on how an MSP should grow.”
While this round stayed free of venture capital funds, Spencer said that private equity backing is on the horizon, possibly as soon as December.
“We’ll likely raise $5 to $10 million in our next round,” he said. “And we’re already planning to carve out a portion of that for MSPs who want in. MSPs deserve a seat at the table. We hope we’ve started a movement. I want every seed-stage round to at least consider bringing the community in.”
