Michael Skok, Underscore.VC (Boston)

Skok's background has included funding a number of channel-focused software companies over more than a decade with North Bridge Venture Partners, including open-source software firm Acquia, which has a "huge" channel program, he said. Now, as co-founder of a new venture firm focused on the cloud, Underscore.VC, Skok said he's come to the conclusion that "in today's environment it's becoming more important, not less important, to have a really good channel" for vendors. "The more that we move to the cloud, and the more we have this challenge of ‘doing more with less,' the channel only becomes more critical. Not for technology reasons, but for business reasons, to help cloud services get integrated into people's businesses."

"The channels that we're seeing really thrive are the channels that are thinking about, how do they really connect the dots between the technology and business," Skok said. "The new channel is what I call business integrators--the business-tech integration is their value add. If you're not participating in that way, then I think you're missing an opportunity."