Uncle Marv's IT Business Podcast (Products, stories, and tips for the MSP and IT Professional)

Gene Kim brings a channel-first perspective to Absolute Security’s move into the MSP space, after years of working as a reseller and service provider himself. He shares how Absolute grew from the “LoJack for laptops” days into a firmware-embedded platform already present in over 600 million devices worldwide, enabling location, geofencing, and security controls that don’t depend on the OS.

We dig into real-world concerns MSPs have today: increasing attacks targeting providers, management tools being turned against us, and the operational pain of agent drift and offline tools. Gene explains how Absolute can maintain integrity for EDR and RMM agents, auto-heal disabled services, and even restore devices that were wiped via tools like Intune—all delivered with MSP-friendly consumption-based licensing through Pax8. If you’re trying to improve uptime, reduce tickets, and differentiate your security story, this one will get you thinking differently about what “endpoint resilience” should look like.

=== Chapters

=== Guest: Gene Kim, Absolute Security

=== Companies / Vendors / Products / Books

=== SPONSORS: 

=== SHOW MUSIC: 

=== Connect with Uncle Marv

🌐 Website: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/
🎙 Host: Marvin Bee
🛒 Uncle Marv’s Amazon Store (gear & tools I recommend): https://amzn.to/3EiyKoZ
☕ Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/itbusinesspodcast

If you found value in this episode, share it with another MSP, IT provider, or tech entrepreneur. Your support helps keep practical, no-nonsense IT business conversations coming every week.

I share some summer MSP war stories—court reporters with broken Wi-Fi, a small airport’s noisy digital logger, and my go-to Windows commands for quick network checks—and then I get honest about vendor behavior that crosses the line.

From hidden billing and broken portals to reps calling my wife’s cell phone, I lay out what respectful partnership should actually look like in our channel.

=== Chapters

=== Companies / Vendors / Products / Books

=== SPONSORS: 

=== SHOW MUSIC: 

=== Connect with Uncle Marv

🌐 Website: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/
🎙 Host: Marvin Bee
🛒 Uncle Marv’s Amazon Store (gear & tools I recommend): https://amzn.to/3EiyKoZ
☕ Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/itbusinesspodcast

If you found value in this episode, share it with another MSP, IT provider, or tech entrepreneur. Your support helps keep practical, no-nonsense IT business conversations coming every week.

Kim Simmonds is back with me live from day three of Pax8 Beyond 2026, and we’re talking about what actually works when you mix AI, contracts, and MSPs. Cloud Contracts 365 uses AI where it makes sense—review and redlining—on top of contracts that are built the old‑fashioned way by lawyers who live in this world every day. We walk through how the platform leans on MSP-specific playbooks, machine learning, and LLMs to flag legal risk without letting the robot be the lawyer.

Kim shares some of the wild assumptions she hears at the booth, including MSPs asking if Cloud Contracts 365 can “guarantee” they’ll never be sued and folks who proudly fed Claude or Copilot a prompt and called it a contract. She breaks down real examples where AI‑drafted agreements quietly added “termination for convenience” language, turning what owners thought were three‑year commitments into 30‑day rolling terms that kill recurring revenue and spook buyers and investors. We also dig into how their templates are tuned for each U.S. state, how you can tap into U.S. counsel directly through the platform, and where integrations like Halo PSA make the legal workflow feel more like an MSP tool than a law firm visit.

=== Chapters

=== Guest: Kim Simmonds, Cloud Contracts 365 / Law 365

=== Companies / Vendors / Products / Books

=== SPONSORS: 

=== SHOW MUSIC: 

=== Connect with Uncle Marv

🌐 Website: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/
🎙 Host: Marvin Bee
🛒 Uncle Marv’s Amazon Store (gear & tools I recommend): https://amzn.to/3EiyKoZ
☕ Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/itbusinesspodcast

If you found value in this episode, share it with another MSP, IT provider, or tech entrepreneur. Your support helps keep practical, no-nonsense IT business conversations coming every week.

I’m catching up with Ryan Walsh at PAX8 Beyond to talk venue vibes, partner trust, and what their latest SMB Pulse Report reveals about real-world AI adoption, spend, and results for small businesses. We unpack why so many AI projects get stuck in pilot mode, what MSPs are missing, and how to move fast with secure agents that clients can actually trust.

This conversation starts with the shift from Denver to Salt Lake City and why the new convention center layout changes the feel of the entire event. Ryan and I talk about the opening ceremony, where the energy hit, where it dragged, and how seriously PAX8 takes survey data, direct partner conversations, and even the uncomfortable feedback when something doesn’t work.

We then dig into the SMB Pulse Report, which combines PAX8 marketplace data, partner insights, and external research to track how small businesses are adopting generative AI, where they’re spending, and why returns are lagging. The data shows strong adoption and increased spend, but also stalled pilots, low trust in agents, and a big gap between time saved and profit realized—exactly where MSPs can step in with security, governance, data quality, and tightly integrated workflows. We also talk about emerging AI-native competitors, the importance of owning the “last mile” to the customer, and why vendors and MSPs alike need to be customer zero so they can confidently deploy secure, reliable agents at scale.

=== Chapters

=== Guest: Ryan Walsh, Pax8

=== Companies / Vendors / Products / Books

=== SPONSORS: 

=== SHOW MUSIC: 

=== Connect with Uncle Marv

🌐 Website: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/
🎙 Host: Marvin Bee
🛒 Uncle Marv’s Amazon Store (gear & tools I recommend): https://amzn.to/3EiyKoZ
☕ Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/itbusinesspodcast

If you found value in this episode, share it with another MSP, IT provider, or tech entrepreneur. Your support helps keep practical, no-nonsense IT business conversations coming every week.

I’m talking with Evergreen co-founder Ramsey Sahyoun about their Berkshire-inspired, buy-and-hold approach to MSP acquisitions and what makes their decentralized model stand out in a crowded M&A market. We dig into how Evergreen evaluates deals, supports owners who stay or exit, and why AI-driven automation and ERP consulting are becoming real revenue engines.

Evergreen has quietly become one of the biggest players in MSP acquisitions, but they’re not running the typical private equity roll-up playbook. In this conversation, Ramsey walks me through how Evergreen aims to be a permanent home for MSPs, keeping brands, tech stacks, and local leadership in place while layering on support, peer groups, and vendor leverage to help each business grow. We talk through their Berkshire Hathaway inspiration, the first MSP deal with Wolf Consulting in Pittsburgh, and how they built trust in an industry they weren’t originally from.

=== Chapters

=== Guest: Ramsey Sahyoun, Evergreen Services Group

=== Companies / Vendors / Products / Books

=== SPONSORS: 

=== SHOW MUSIC: 

=== Connect with Uncle Marv

🌐 Website: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/
🎙 Host: Marvin Bee
🛒 Uncle Marv’s Amazon Store (gear & tools I recommend): https://amzn.to/3EiyKoZ
☕ Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/itbusinesspodcast

If you found value in this episode, share it with another MSP, IT provider, or tech entrepreneur. Your support helps keep practical, no-nonsense IT business conversations coming every week.

We’re on the floor at Pax8 Beyond in Salt Lake City with GTIA leaders Dan Wensley and MJ Shoer, talking about ChannelCon 2026 in San Diego and what’s changed since the CompTIA transition. They share how GTIA rebuilt from zero infrastructure, doubled IT service provider attendance year over year, and is leaning into education, research, and community to deliver “more value to more members.

We also dig into the new AI and innovation awards, the GTIA ISAO, and a major collaboration with Texas A&M to define standards for responsible, professional IT services. Dan and MJ explain why now is the time for MSPs to stop sitting on the sidelines, plug into a global trade association, and take advantage of millions of dollars in resources, threat intel, and free access to ChannelCon for just a few hundred bucks a year.

=== Chapter

=== Guest: Dan Wensley

=== Guest: MJ Shoer

Shout-outs

Companies / Vendors / Products / Events / Organizations

=== SPONSORS: 

=== SHOW MUSIC: 

=== Connect with Uncle Marv

🌐 Website: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/
🎙 Host: Marvin Bee
🛒 Uncle Marv’s Amazon Store (gear & tools I recommend): https://amzn.to/3EiyKoZ
☕ Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/itbusinesspodcast

If you found value in this episode, share it with another MSP, IT provider, or tech entrepreneur. Your support helps keep practical, no-nonsense IT business conversations coming every week.

Cynthia Schreiner joins me live at Pax8 Beyond to talk about her first year at Pax8, what makes their partner community feel different, and how she’s using AI and automation to transform event operations.

Catching up with Cynthia at Pax8 Beyond 2026 in Salt Lake City, we dig into her move into the Senior Manager of Channel Engagement role, what it’s been like working alongside channel heavy hitters, and why this first Beyond feels so energizing for partners. We get into the real value of MSP community, the stress and isolation that comes with running an IT services business, and how it changes when you’re in a room full of vendors and peers who actually understand what you do. Cynthia also shares how she shifted her mindset around AI: instead of waiting for “free time” to learn tools, she started attacking annoying tasks with Copilot and CoWork, building skills that now save her hours across 90+ events.

=== Chapters

=== Guest: Cynthia Schreiner, Pax8

=== Shout-outs

=== Companies / Vendors / Products / Books

=== SPONSORS: 

=== SHOW MUSIC: 

=== Connect with Uncle Marv

🌐 Website: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/
🎙 Host: Marvin Bee
🛒 Uncle Marv’s Amazon Store (gear & tools I recommend): https://amzn.to/3EiyKoZ
☕ Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/itbusinesspodcast

If you found value in this episode, share it with another MSP, IT provider, or tech entrepreneur. Your support helps keep practical, no-nonsense IT business conversations coming every week.

Gene Reich from Traceless joins me live at Pax8 Beyond to walk through a fresh way MSPs can protect identity, data, and high‑risk business communications from modern phishing and social engineering attacks. We talk tools, workflows, and the realities of building a security product that respects the MSP business model instead of competing with it.

This conversation starts with a simple question every MSP wrestles with: how do I really know who’s calling my helpdesk and how do I safely share passwords and sensitive details without leaving them in tickets, chat threads, or inboxes forever? From there, Gene breaks down how Traceless grew from that pain point into a broader mission of protecting business communication—beyond just email security—by layering identity verification, secure data exchange, and contextual AI on top of the tools we already use.

=== Chapters

=== Guest: Gene Reich, Traceless

=== Shout-outs

=== Companies / Vendors / Products / Events / Organizations

=== SPONSORS: 

=== SHOW MUSIC: 

=== Connect with Uncle Marv

🌐 Website: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/
🎙 Host: Marvin Bee
🛒 Uncle Marv’s Amazon Store (gear & tools I recommend): https://amzn.to/3EiyKoZ
☕ Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/itbusinesspodcast

If you found value in this episode, share it with another MSP, IT provider, or tech entrepreneur. Your support helps keep practical, no-nonsense IT business conversations coming every week.

David and I sit down on Radio Row at Pax8 Beyond 2026 to talk about the real-world impact of AI automation on MSP operations and service delivery. David shares how Pia moved from educating the market pre‑ChatGPT to now serving a much more AI‑aware MSP community, and why waiting on the sidelines is a risky growth strategy if you want to keep up with demand.

We walk through Pia’s Engage stack—PiaChat in Microsoft Teams and resolution‑driven smart forms that turn conversations and requests directly into completed tickets—plus a growing automation hub that lets vendors and MSPs publish and share proven runbooks. David explains how Pia’s out‑of‑the‑box automations free up level one techs, protect level twos from onboarding backlogs, and give MSPs room to focus on higher‑value projects instead of reinventing tools that already exist.

=== Chapters

=== Guest: David Schwartz, Pia

=== Shout-outs

=== Companies / Vendors / Products / Books

=== SPONSORS: 

=== SHOW MUSIC: 

=== Connect with Uncle Marv

🌐 Website: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/
🎙 Host: Marvin Bee
🛒 Uncle Marv’s Amazon Store (gear & tools I recommend): https://amzn.to/3EiyKoZ
☕ Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/itbusinesspodcast

If you found value in this episode, share it with another MSP, IT provider, or tech entrepreneur. Your support helps keep practical, no-nonsense IT business conversations coming every week.

Statehouses have been busy, and the Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity at UC Berkeley found that in 2025 alone, state governments passed 99 cybersecurity-related bills, creating 393 new statutory requirements. Most of these new laws hit public schools, state agencies, cyber insurance policyholders, and critical infrastructure, which means your client base is becoming more regulated even if MSPs aren’t named directly in the statutes. I walk through how this shows up in your day-to-day work as new documentation, governance, and compliance expectations that land on your plate, and how to use the referenced database as a cheat sheet for scoping projects and updating your service catalog.

We also unpack cybersecurity safe harbor laws, now on the books in states like Ohio, Connecticut, Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma (for hospitals), Tennessee, and Texas, where a written, framework-aligned security program can give you an affirmative legal defense after a breach. From there we head into Colorado’s digital right to repair fight, California’s proposal to tax downloaded software, the broader trend of states taxing software in more than 30 jurisdictions, and NSITSP’s work building a legislative toolkit, outreach guides, and model IT provider legislation that’s ready to use if regulators decide to come back for our industry.

=== Chapters

=== Companies / Vendors / Products / Books

=== SPONSORS: 

=== SHOW MUSIC: 

=== Connect with Uncle Marv

🌐 Website: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/
🎙 Host: Marvin Bee
🛒 Uncle Marv’s Amazon Store (gear & tools I recommend): https://amzn.to/3EiyKoZ
☕ Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/itbusinesspodcast

If you found value in this episode, share it with another MSP, IT provider, or tech entrepreneur. Your support helps keep practical, no-nonsense IT business conversations coming every week.