Building Treeline: a new model for IT and Security service delivery.
Joined March 2026
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We joined up with SugarShot two years ago and it's been very rewarding and fast-paced working with them to redefine the IT industry. As our first design partner they were shaping our development and strategy as much as benefitting from the results of it, and a lot of what Treeline does today came out of this collaboration. We're excited to be able to talk more publicly about this work.
Press release in the comments.
We've been hearing a lot about harnesses lately - harness engineering, agent harnesses, the systems around the model.
A harness is just another word for software. It's the tooling, memory, guardrails, and integrations built around a model so it can do useful work. The model on its own was never the complete product.
There's been so much attention on how powerful models are (and they are), but the value you actually get isn't only in the model; it's in how well you put it to work.
We're naturally good at counting the cost of the thing itself (the model, the license), but we often overlook what it costs to implement it well, what it's worth when we do, or what's at risk if we do it half-heartedly. None of this is new. We've gone through wave after wave of adopting new technology into a business, and the lesson is always the same. The value isn't in the tool; it's in how well you customize it and put it to work for your business.
I keep coming back to Julien Bek's article, 'Services: The New Software.' The argument: for every dollar a company spends on software, it spends several more on the people to run it.
The real prize is in doing the work to deliver the outcome, not selling the tool.
Software is designed to be sold to thousands of companies. Out of the box it fits maybe 80% of what any business needs. But the last 20% is the part that shapes how it transforms your business (or doesn't), and that's not a software challenge; it's an implementation challenge.
The conversation often centers on which tools you're using, but it's not how you differentiate yourself (everyone can buy the same tools). It's how you put them to work, and knowing when to lean on them and when not to. The outcomes are what matter to customers, and that will never come from software alone.
In the last month, Anthropic and OpenAI both stood up consulting arms, funded by private equity, to send their own engineers into companies and get the technology actually working.
I think this is one of the more honest moments we've had in AI.
The model is the easy part to buy, but the hard part to use.
The model is a swipe-of-the-card decision...You can have a great one by this afternoon. But you can't swipe a card for the parts that create value: clean data, real security, the judgment to know where the tech belongs, and the ability to integrate it into how your business runs.
That gap is an implementation problem, not a model problem. And implementation is custom, specific, and human before it is technical.
Hussain and I have spent two years on the problem space: IT and security services are at least a decade behind modern technology.
We didn't have everything figured out when we started, but we saw a gap and thought it was big enough to build something significant.
As we continue to bring what we’re building to market, we’re finding that the conversations feel intuitive - the model’s resonating with both operators and technology providers.
I’m excited about where the market is headed and we’ll be announcing more soon (particularly on the partnerships side).
Until then, here’s a quick reflection on the opportunity we saw within this market.
There are over 40,000 MSPs in the US, $6 trillion in global IT spend, and the industry hasn't structurally changed in two decades.
IT and security shouldn't be the thing that slows a business down, but for most companies it still is.
What we're building at Treeline combines human expertise with modern software to move with you as you execute and grow. We’re seeing strong alignment and feedback from the market and are excited to share more in the coming weeks.
Peter Doyle retweeted
There's a difference between a business that uses AI and one that's built on it.
Jeff Gaines, Treeline CGO, on Evolved Radio explains what the difference is and how it affects end customers: linkedin.com/safety/go/?url=…
Rich Freeman at @ChannelholicSMB is one of the most trusted voices in IT and security. I'm grateful he took the time to dig in.
We stayed quiet for two years - this is a complex category on the verge of significant change, and we're glad the story is finally out there:
channelholic.news/p/treeline…
Peter Doyle retweeted
Can you have too much SaaS?
Most businesses stitch together 30 to 35 software tools just to keep the lights on.
When we started Treeline, our first instinct was to build another software tool. We talked ourselves out of that fast.
Customers didn't need a 36th tool. They needed someone to rebuild the model underneath.
@PeterdoyleX on why we went back to the drawing board 👀👇
Today we're announcing Treeline and $25M from a16z.
Software and AI have crossed a threshold and we're rebuilding IT services around it - great software paired with experienced technicians, designed to be a foundation for growth.
We're hiring, reach out!
