“Seven Out of 10 Deals We Close Are Partner-Led” – Cato’s Channel Chief, Karl Soderlund

You can usually tell within the first five minutes of a conversation with a channel leader how real and substantive it is going to get. With Karl Soderlund, Cato's global channel chief, I got the signal fast. Grounded. Specific. No spinning, and definitely not pitching. Soderlund is totally focused on execution. And behind his no-nonsense streak, he has a clear set of goals and a real sense of purpose for where he wants to take the Cato channel.

The conversation moved past the usual talking points: how partners actually grow, where they need real support, and what it takes to build a channel model that holds up under pressure. Cato Networks is making a clear case to the channel at a time when MSPs and MSSPs are rethinking how they build and deliver security services. In this interview, Karl Soderlund, lays out why partner-led growth is central to the company's model, where managed SASE still creates room for services differentiation, and how AI capabilities are shaping partner conversations. The conversation came down to this: make the platform simpler to sell and operate, and give partners more room to grow revenue on top of it.

ChannelE2E: You’ve held channel leadership roles at Palo Alto Networks and Zscaler. At those companies, partners support growth, but the vendor still controls key parts of the deal. At Cato, partners appear to sit much closer to the customer lifecycle, from initial engagement through deployment and ongoing service delivery. What changed for you in that model?

Karl Soderlund: One way to look at the difference between Cato and other companies is through deal registration. In the broader market, companies like Palo Alto, Zscaler, and other leading vendors often see about 30% to 35% of their pipeline come from partner deal registrations. That is a strong benchmark. It means roughly three out of every 10 deals are coming from the partner community.

At Cato, that number is closer to seven out of 10. That tells us partners understand the value of the technology and are actively leading opportunities. When a deal is partner-led and comes through registration, the engagement is much deeper. The partner is often the one introducing us to the customer, bringing the existing relationship, and guiding the opportunity. Our role is to support them in every way we can so they can be successful through that process.

So from that end, we’re very much a different breed in how we work with partners. Everyone says they’re channel-first or channel-led or committed to the channel. But what really determines that is how engaged your sales team is and how your sales team behaves. It is easy to be good to your partner community in week one through 10, but in week 11 through 13, are you still good to them? Are you behaving poorly?

We take a unified approach. Even our sellers who work directly with end users and help build brand recognition and preference operate in a hybrid role, with a strong channel mindset. Most of the people we hire come from channel backgrounds, so they already understand the partner motion. We’re not teaching them how to work in this ecosystem from scratch. They come in knowing how it works.

ChannelE2E: What are the biggest shifts you’re seeing in the partner and MSP market right now, especially as AI becomes part of every security conversation? How is Cato trying to stand out?

Karl Soderlund: From an AI standpoint, having AI incorporated into your solution and leveraging AI is a cover charge now for Cato and for a lot of companies we compete against. If you do not have a stance on AI or technology that supports that, you’re going to be left out in the cold. This is why we acquired Aim Security, and it is now fully incorporated into our stack and our technology.

We feel blessed that we got the best AI company out there. It really allows a lot of differentiated technology, but it also solves a lot of the customer problems they’re trying to work through. For partners, the AI conversation has moved to the top of the agenda. They want to know whether we’re using AI in a meaningful way, what our strategy looks like, and how it can help them compete more effectively.

ChannelE2E: When partners ask about that AI strategy, what are you telling them?

Karl Soderlund: We have the tools that are complementary to what we do on our security stack, whether it’s AI for the user at the user level or AI for the developer to build and resource. We are seeing AISEC as a highly flexible, highly leverageable tool for our customers to meet their needs. Instead of telling partners, “Here’s the solution you need, and here’s how to use it,” we’re starting with their pain points and what they’re trying to solve. From there, we give them a flexible, scalable solution that can grow with their business.

ChannelE2E: Cato’s core pitch is one platform, one policy engine and one data layer. At the same time, MSPs and MSSPs often work across fragmented customer environments with multiple tools in play. How do you think about that tension between platform control and partner flexibility?

Karl Soderlund: When we say “one platform,” we’re really talking about simplicity. Our PoPs around the world run on the same stack, with the same policies and technologies available across each location. Every PoP is identical, and now each one also has GPUs built in, so the AI technology we acquired is fully integrated into the stack globally.

Customers can choose whether they want to use those AI capabilities. We’re not forcing it on them. The same applies to the rest of the platform. A customer may only want SD-WAN today, and that’s fine. But if they want to add SSE or AI capabilities later, they can turn those services on, scale them up, scale them down, or turn them off based on what they need.

That’s what we mean by platform. It gives customers and partners more choice in how they buy, how they use the technology, and how they improve security for end customers, whether they are an MSP, MSSP, or enterprise.

MSSPs are responding well to that model because it fits how they operate. Multitenancy, frictionless commerce, self-provisioning, license portability, and operational efficiency all matter deeply to them. You can have strong technology, but if you’re difficult to work with, it won’t fit their business model. MSSPs need a high-volume, high-velocity way to deliver services. Our goal is to complement that model and make it easier for them to operate.

ChannelE2E: If the platform is taking on more of the heavy lifting, where do partners still have room to differentiate and build services?

Karl Soderlund: One hundred percent. SASE is a journey, and that’s where partners still have plenty of room to differentiate. At its core, SASE is about moving networking and security services that were traditionally delivered on-premises into the cloud. For many companies, that is a major North Star goal, but it can also feel daunting.

What usually happens is that customers begin with one of five or six use cases. They may start with SD-WAN, security service edge, remote access, branch transformation, or another specific need. The challenge is that many vendors only address one or two of those use cases and still call it SASE. That creates confusion for partners and customers.

Our view is that partners need a platform that can support the full journey, while giving customers flexibility in how they start and expand. A customer may only need two use cases today and add more later. The partner still plays a key role in helping that customer understand where to begin, how to phase the rollout, and how to build the right services around it.

That’s what we mean by platform. The term has been overused, but for us it comes down to simplicity, flexibility, and meeting customers and partners where they are.

ChannelE2E: Managed SASE is a major opportunity for MSPs, but they still worry about margin compression, operational complexity, and losing control of the customer over time. How real are those concerns today?

Karl Soderlund: This is true when you look at some of their traditional managed services. If you’re looking at just managing transport or the cost of MPLS and legacy services they’ve historically run, those are absolutely becoming commoditized. They’re absolutely having margin compression. What we offer is the ability to layer on top of what they’re already offering from a traditional managed SASE standpoint. Partners can determine what is underneath the needs of their customers and how they can differentiate.

For MSSPs, this is not just a cross-sell or upsell opportunity within their existing customer base. It also gives them a way to open doors with new customers they may not have sold to before. Maybe that customer had a poor experience with a previous provider. Maybe they had no prior relationship at all. Either way, the technology gives MSSPs another reason to start that conversation.

We see ourselves as a revenue driver for MSSPs. Yes, we can help improve operational efficiency, but the bigger point is growth. We want to help partners expand their business, build their brand, and create new opportunities in the market.

That’s the part I really like about this technology: partners can test it for themselves. Bring it into the lab. Put it next to what they already use. Compare the kit and see how it performs.

Across the industry, we’ve said publicly that we win more than 70% of the POVs and POCs we participate in. From the MSSP side, I’d say that number is even higher because the technology was built from the ground up for service providers and managed services. It’s designed to work efficiently in that model. There are always areas where we can improve, and we’re always working to get better. But we feel strongly about where the technology stands in the market today.

ChannelE2E: Where are the main areas you still want to improve for partners?

Karl Soderlund: I always look at operational efficiency from a frictionless standpoint. This means giving partners more control and autonomy over running their business while leveraging our technology, and complementing what they’re doing instead of being fully engaged.

Many managed services portfolios are built up through acquisition, with multiple panes of glass, multiple systems, multiple renewal dates, and a lot of complexity. We’re trying to make it easier for partners to work with us and scale with us.

That also extends into go-to-market support. We look at how we can build marketing campaigns, create more demand, and bring more customers to their managed services. The goal is simple: help partners reduce complexity and drive growth.

ChannelE2E: Cato recently crossed $350 million in ARR with 43% year-over-year growth. That kind of scale can put strain on a partner program. Where are you feeling the most pressure?

Karl Soderlund: There is pressure about growth, investing and committing more to partners. For example, we rolled out a brand-new partner program last year that is dramatically more profitable than the program that was in place. I’ve rolled out incentives for the first time in both the forms of spiffs and rebates for achievement and acceleration that we’ve never done before.

There is more money in the Cato Networks partner program today than there has ever been in the history of the company. So there’s pressure to support our partners on their growth journey, and that’s what we’re seeing.

ChannelE2E: You mentioned spiffs and rebates. How does that incentive structure work in practice?

Karl Soderlund: Incentives matter because partners look at three things when they choose a technology vendor: the size of the market opportunity, whether the technology can address that market, and how they make money. Profitability is a major part of the decision.

When partners work with us, they can get paid in multiple ways. The first is the traditional front-end margin. We sell to the partner at one rate, they sell to the customer at another rate, and they keep the margin in between. That is the standard profitability model.

The second piece is the spiff, which is focused on partner sales and engineering teams. We look at both roles as equally important, so we compensate both. Our spiff is built around milestones. Partners can earn incentives when they discover the deal, when they move it to proof of value or secure the technical win, and again when the deal closes.

On any deal over $50,000, a salesperson can earn up to $1,250 if they hit all three milestones. Engineers are paid the same way because partner engineers play a major role in moving opportunities forward and helping customers see the value of the technology.

The third piece is the performance rebate, which acts more like back-end margin. It is not tied to one specific deal. It is tied to the partner’s overall performance. For example, if a partner has a $10 million target with us and reaches $12 million, they would receive a rebate on the overperformance. That additional margin goes back to the partner, and they can decide how to use it. They may invest in a lab, reward employees, or put it toward the bottom line.

The goal is to meet partners where they are and help improve their profitability. If we can bring strong technology, a profitable model, and an easier way to work together, we believe that gives partners a stronger reason to grow with us.

ChannelE2E: Looking ahead 12 months, what would you most want to say you accomplished at Cato?

Karl Soderlund: It’s hard to narrow it down to one thing, but for me, the priority is less about signing as many new partners as possible and more about expanding within the partners we’ve already targeted. We’ve been intentional about going after some of our competitors’ largest partners. If we continue to gain share within those partners, that should drive broader growth for the business.

That growth matters on a few levels. It can help the company move toward its revenue goals, but it also builds confidence inside the partner community. The more partners see the technology in action and experience success with it, the stronger the relationship becomes.

Right now, the challenge is not always losing a deal. It’s not being in the deal at all. If we can increase awareness, the ARR, bookings, and ACV should follow.