‘We haven’t bought two companies that look the same. Most firms think our acquisitions are too specialized. The only way specialization works is if you fully integrate, more than most MSPs are willing to do. That’s why others buy generalists. Integration is brutal,’ says Harbor IT CEO Johnny Lieberman.
Harbor IT says it’s approaching growth differently than a traditional MSP. Backed by private equity firm Worklyn Partners, Harbor IT buys highly-specialized MSPs, then integrates and rebuilds them into a unified platform to serve mid-sized companies.
“We set out to build a little bit differently,” Johnny Lieberman, CEO of Harbor IT and co-founder of Worklyn Partners, told CRN in an interview.
The New York-based solution provider has completed 10 acquisitions, assembling what Lieberman called a mosaic of 10 to 15 critical capabilities. Now, the company is shifting focus from expansion into new areas to doubling down on three verticals: critical infrastructure, private equity portfolio companies and healthcare.
“We filled in the mosaic,” he said. “What we’re looking to do now is reinforce the industries that we have a right to win within.”
That focus comes as midmarket companies ramp up spending on cybersecurity, systems integration and IT standardization, he said, and businesses are no longer treating IT as a cost center but as a driver of enterprise value. “They’re looking at technology integration… as something that can increase your multiple by two or three turns,” he said.
Looking ahead, Harbor IT plans to lean further into cybersecurity and deepen specialization across its verticals, aligning sales, delivery and advisory teams around specific industries.
“We’re leaning aggressively into our cyber differentiation,” he said. “We started as a cybersecurity company and we’re making it a mandatory part of our offering.”
CRN spoke further with Lieberman about midmarket IT spend, Harbor IT’s M&A strategy and where the company is going in 12 months.
Historically, what has been your M&A strategy and how has it evolved?
We set out to build a little bit differently. The opportunity I saw was acknowledging that a lot of these businesses started by being really good at one thing, and then became generalists over time. Their DNA was still that specialization. My theory was if you commit to fully integrating, unwinding these companies and rebuilding them so there’s no trace of the original, you can buy very specialized businesses and stitch them together.
That lets you become a one-stop shop for the midmarket, solving the 10 to 15 things they really need but doing it through specialists, not generalist MSPs that became more sales fronts than engineering shops.
Are there still gaps you’re trying to fill through acquisition?
We’ve filled in the mosaic at this point, now it’s about doubling down. We’re focused on critical infrastructure: oil and gas, agriculture, manufacturing, aviation, private equity portfolio companies and healthcare. We’re not trying to spread ourselves thin. We’re looking for companies that reinforce those three areas where we already have a right to win.
So where are your customers putting their IT spend in 2026?
In the midmarket, there’s a big push toward cyber monitoring, proactive advisory and basic compliance. Upmarket, especially private equity-backed companies, it’s aggressive spending on system integration and application standardization. Three or four years ago, some of that was window dressing. Now they’re really leaning in because they see it can increase valuation multiples by two or three turns. That’s been the biggest shift: IT is no longer just keeping the lights on, it’s driving exit value.
What keeps you up at night as a CEO?
The variability in customer maturity. You can have a public company that’s completely backwards and a small private company that’s incredibly advanced. Being flexible enough to meet companies where they are without prescribing, but still steering them in the right direction, is very difficult.
And it comes back to governance. The average midmarket company has a board with zero people who understand IT or security. Until that changes, you won’t see real maturity across the market.
What do you want more of from vendors?
Simplicity. There’s too much friction, especially when integrating and consolidating tools. In an ideal world, you’d see everything in one portal, realize cost benefits from scale and only engage vendors at a high level. Instead, it’s constant meetings and complexity just to make systems functional and cost-efficient.
What are your customers asking about AI right now?
A lot of it is [Microsoft] Copilot-driven, companies paying for tools and pushing employees to figure them out. There are also security concerns around tools like chat-based AI. But the biggest opportunities are practical, like indexing massive amounts of historical data and making it accessible. If someone leaves, why should knowledge leave with them? AI can preserve context—customer history, decisions, sensitivities—so businesses aren’t dependent on key individuals.
What’s the hardest lesson you’ve learned from acquisitions?
It’s incredibly difficult for someone to go from being a manager to being a producer. That’s often misunderstood by both buyers and sellers. Also, you need a mix of industry and non-industry people on your leadership team. That balance creates healthy tension and better decision-making.
How is Harbor IT different from other MSP roll-ups?
We haven’t bought two companies that look the same. Most firms think our acquisitions are too specialized. The only way specialization works is if you fully integrate, more than most MSPs are willing to do. That’s why others buy generalists. Integration is brutal.
But if you get it right, you unlock real organic growth by cross-selling specialized capabilities across your customer base.
What can we expect from Harbor IT over the next 12 months?
We’re leaning aggressively into our cyber differentiation. We started as a cybersecurity company and we’re making it a mandatory part of our offering. At the same time, we’re investing heavily in vertical specialization. Not just a few experts but aligning sales, delivery, advisory and customer success around specific industry pods. Our mission is simple: lean into the hardest-to-serve verticals. If we can solve those problems, we can solve anything and make our customers more secure in the process.
