We're thrilled to announce Headline’s investment in Thread, a company reinventing how managed service providers (MSPs) deliver IT support. At its core, Thread is not just reimagining the help desk; it's building the AI system of action for modern service delivery.
As investors, we look for transformational platforms built on deep domain understanding, with an opportunity to own workflows and data in a large, underserved market. Thread checks all the boxes. Its AI-native platform is redefining how MSPs triage, assign, resolve, and automate support – not incrementally, but fundamentally.
Here's why we believe Thread has the potential to become a generational company.
Why This Market? Why Now?
The managed services market is enormous: Over 150,000 MSPs globally serve millions of SMBs and mid-market companies. Yet despite their critical role, most MSPs still rely on email inboxes, spreadsheets, and billing systems to handle service and support.
Thread enters at a perfect moment. MSPs are under pressure to do more with less: clients expect real-time, always-on support, but technician headcount can’t scale linearly. Meanwhile, AI is unlocking 10x gains in efficiency across organizations. From GitHub Copilot in development, to AI playbooks in sales, to autonomous chatbots in customer support - the future of work is AI-augmented.
Service delivery is next. Thread is building the AI-powered foundation for that shift.
Thread’s AI Service Desk: A Full-System Redesign
Thread replaces legacy helpdesk infrastructure with a purpose-built AI platform. Its flagship product is a fully integrated service desk with:
- Magic Agents: AI assistants that greet end users instantly and autonomously handle routine support requests. These agents triage issues, collect structured data, trigger automations, and resolve tickets – often without human intervention.
- Automated workflows: Thread connects to PSAs, RMMs, documentation systems, and RPA platforms to orchestrate resolution end-to-end. No more copy-pasting between tools.
- Intelligent technician tooling: For escalated tickets, Thread provides technicians with complete context, AI-generated summaries, resolution suggestions, and even automated closing notes and time entries.
The result is support that’s faster, cheaper, and better. MSPs using Thread have reported:
- 5x faster responses;
- 78% faster resolution times;
- 86% of tickets resolved same-day;
- 300+ hours saved per month in manual triage, logging, and dispatch.
Value Flywheels: AI Agents + Workflow Ownership + Data
What excites us most is what lies beneath Thread's UX:
- Autonomous Service Agents: These aren't chatbots. Thread's agents operate like AI coworkers, gathering info, triggering fixes, updating systems, and closing loops. This isn't assistive AI; it's AI doing the work.
- Workflow Depth: Thread integrates across the MSP stack – from ConnectWise and Autotask to RPA and internal documentation. It doesn't ask MSPs to rip and replace; it meets them where they are, and gradually absorbs more of the workflow.
- Data Ownership: Every ticket, resolution, and automation flow becomes part of a growing intelligence layer. Over time, Thread will build the most complete dataset on service delivery across MSPs. That feedback loop makes its agents smarter and more useful with each deployment.
In a fragmented industry underserved by modern tools, Thread is positioned to become the default AI operating system for MSPs.
Why We Backed the Team
Thread’s co-founders, Mark Alayev and Matt Linn, experienced the MSP pain firsthand. They both spent time at an MSP, where they rose through the ranks by innovating and operationalizing the business to over 300 employees. In leading that service provider, they learned exactly how broken service delivery is - along with how to fix it. They’ve since assembled a technical and go-to-market team with deep empathy for their customer and a track record of shipping fast.
In a short amount of time, they’ve built a world-class product, integrated with the core MSP stack, attracted tremendous new leadership talent, and deployed with more than 500 MSPs serving over 10,000 small and medium businesses worldwide. The traction is real, their customers are thrilled, and the Thread vision is far bigger than tickets and chatbots. We have no doubt that Mark, Matt, and new executive Michael Evers make up a team uniquely capable of executing on that vision.
TL;DR
Thread is an AI-first, deeply integrated system of action for the future of service. We believe every vertical will have an AI-powered operating system. For MSPs, that will be Thread.
We're honored to be early partners.