With his company Olive and Goose, Ankur Kothari provides proof that you really can run an MSP from anywhere. From his not-quite-humble beginnings at Microsoft, he's built an impressive three-division IT company headquartered in Seattle but with an international clientele. And when he's not strategizing, he's enjoying the intellectual flavors of Barcelona, learning both Spanish and Catalan while connecting with the vibrant but quite different European startup community. Takeaways from the episode include:

Financial Modeling Service provides M&A and Intermediary services to IT companies. As a former IT company owner, Jeff Greenspan understands your business and will work with you to achieve an optimal result based on your specific needs. You can reach Jeff at [email protected] or through his contact form at https://financialmodelingservice.com/contact-us/. 

One way that MSPs increase their scope is by joining an affiliation group. There are many forms, and the levels and types of integration with other firms varies. In this episode, we interview Tim Conkle, whose company The 20 consists of both an MSP alliance with (currently) 170 members, and an MSP rollup that just completed their 37th acquisition. Tim is an interesting and passionate MSP, and this episode provides the opportunity to learn:

Financial Modeling Service provides M&A and Intermediary services to IT companies. As a former IT company owner, Jeff Greenspan understands your business and will work with you to achieve an optimal result based on your specific needs. You can reach Jeff at [email protected] or through his contact form at https://financialmodelingservice.com/contact-us/. 

There is incredible variety in the MSP space! Today's guest, Brian Strong, isn't buying and he isn't selling, he's just trying to run a top-notch MSP. Brian is the CEO of Ten Hats in Knoxville, TN, a company wholly owned by a large local healthcare provider. A significant pivot was required when he came on board, which presents an interesting opportunity to learn:  

Financial Modeling Service provides M&A and Intermediary services to IT companies. As a former IT company owner, Jeff Greenspan understands your business and will work with you to achieve an optimal result based on your specific needs. You can reach Jeff at [email protected] or through his contact form at https://financialmodelingservice.com/contact-us/. 

In this episode I've recorded and discuss the five key actions that you should take to be prepared for a sale regardless of the timing. These steps ensure that you will be able to optimize your exit, whatever that means for you. I've also broken down each step into its own short video and I'm publishing these on my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@FMS-Jeff (look under Playlists). In this episode we cover:  

Financial Modeling Service provides M&A and Intermediary services to IT companies. As a former IT company owner, Jeff Greenspan understands your business and will work with you to achieve an optimal result based on your specific needs. You can reach Jeff at [email protected] or through his contact form at https://financialmodelingservice.com/contact-us/. 

Today we take our second look at an AI-based technolgy available now for MSPs to work more efficiently. Our eleventh episode features Jeffrey Newton, CRO and recovering MSP, and James Farrow, CEO of Cyft. Cyft is focused on applying AI to make MSPs more profitable by solving unacknowledged problems within the four walls of the MSP. I was particularly impressed with their ease of implementation, but even more impressed with their long-term vision, which you will have to listen to! In this episode we cover:  

Financial Modeling Service provides M&A and Intermediary services to IT companies. As a former IT company owner, Jeff Greenspan understands your business and will work with you to achieve an optimal result based on your specific needs. You can reach Jeff at [email protected] or through his contact form at https://financialmodelingservice.com/contact-us/. 

Everyone's heard about artificial intelligence, and today we start looking at two AI-based technolgies that are available now for MSPs to work more efficiently. Our tenth episode features James Allen from Pia.ai. Pia was born when a large Australian IT firm started running tickets through a small language model, and it has evolved into a combination AI / automation tool that reads tickets and moves them forward as far as possible using automation. Pia currently supports over 60 different types of tickets. For our listeners, Pia is extending their Q3 50%-off onboarding / 25%-off platform fee offer through the end of November. You will learn about: 

Financial Modeling Service provides M&A and Intermediary services to IT companies. As a former IT company owner, Jeff Greenspan understands your business and will work with you to achieve an optimal result based on your specific needs. You can reach Jeff at [email protected] or through his contact form at https://financialmodelingservice.com/contact-us/. 

Our ninth episode features Paul Daigle from BizAdvisoryBoard. Paul is an 'old school' IT guy who started off in software development and morphed over time into an MSP. Early on he built many of the types of tools that MSPs use today, so he understands the needs of MSPs at a deep level! He's also acquired and divested numerous companies. BizAdvisoryBoard offers a free (and paid) tool for MSPs interested in their valuation and growth. Use coupon code 'FMSVal24' to get the free version and code 'FMSAcc24' to get 10% off the paid version.

You can reach Paul directly at [email protected], 407-461-0061.

In today's show, you will learn about: 

Financial Modeling Service provides M&A and Intermediary services to IT companies. As a former IT company owner, Jeff Greenspan understands your business and will work with you to achieve an optimal result based on your specific needs. You can reach Jeff at [email protected] or through his contact form at https://financialmodelingservice.com/contact-us/. 

Our eighth episode features Rob Scott from Monjur, plus two of his clients! Rob is an attorney with exceptional experience in computer law, and he's turned the table on the IT space by becoming an MSP for MSPs! As a business broker, the first thing I check with new clients is their service contract. With Monjur, I know that your contracts are always as good as they can possibly be. Beyond contracts, Monjur offers M&A representation and a full suite of corporate services.

You will learn about: 

Financial Modeling Service provides M&A and Intermediary services to IT companies. As a former IT company owner, Jeff Greenspan understands your business and will work with you to achieve an optimal result based on your specific needs. You can reach Jeff at [email protected] or through his contact form at https://financialmodelingservice.com/contact-us/. 

Josh Kotler is a veteran industy road warrior. He started a network integration firm, Datatrends Florida, in 1996, and joined Western Digitech as a minority partner two years later. Within 18 months they had added 22 people! He continued to grow the business thru 2019 when he sold to CompassMSP. After the integration was complete, Josh became the COO and then CEO of the company. As CEO, his focus on M&A resulted in four acquisitions within a year. Since leaving CompassMSP, Josh has been working with private equity to build yet another MSP! His depth and breadth will help you learn: 

Financial Modeling Service provides M&A and Intermediary services to IT companies. As a former IT company owner, Jeff Greenspan understands your business and will work with you to achieve an optimal result based on your specific needs. You can reach Jeff at [email protected] or through his contact form at https://financialmodelingservice.com/contact-us/. 

In my experieence it is rare to find an MSP owner as calm and thoughtful as Willis Cantey of Cantey Tech Consulting. When you hear Willis describe the amount of effort that went into both his quest for organic growth and his expansion through acquisition, you'll understand why he's been sucessful! In this, our 6th episode of 'From Startup to Sale: a podcast by MSPs for MSPs,' you will learn: 

Financial Modeling Service provides M&A and Intermediary services to IT companies. As a former IT company owner, Jeff Greenspan understands your business and will work with you to achieve an optimal result based on your specific needs. You can reach Jeff at [email protected] or through his contact form at https://financialmodelingservice.com/contact-us/.