Hey channel insiders, welcome back to channel insider partner POV. I'm your host Katie Bavoso and my guest today is a familiar face in the channel community, MSP and vendor channel chief veteran Juan Fernandez. One recently founded MSP Owners Group, a self-funded rollup managed service provider business aiming to empower the employees and owners of the businesses it acquires. Juan currently serves as MSP OG's chief encouragement officer and wants to do exactly that, encourage his team through the next phase in the evolution of the managed services industry, which he refers to as MSP 5.0.
Welcome, Juan. It's great to see you. It's so good to be here and thanks for having me. You know, I I always enjoy our time together and you know, we didn't do our slapper clap challenge yet. So, there's that. Do you should we get one in right now? Should we do a quick clap? One, two, three. I'll sync it up. I'll sync it up in post. Perfect. Well, one, it's always a pleasure to get to talk to you. As the audience now knows, you're so much fun, but you are also so dialed into the community.
So, I always like to message you or talk to you when we see each other in person to be like, "What's going on? What do I need to know that you might know under the rug, under the covers there?" So, I want to start out by talking about something that is so exciting in your world specifically. You have recently founded what is now called MSP Owners Group. This is huge news and I'd like to start out by you telling our audience a little of what this is. you are what I'm going to call a rollup MSP group.
So, we're seeing that MSPs are going to roll up to MSP owners group. Talk to me about, like I said, a little definition of how you see the company and why did you decide to start MSP owners group? You know, one of the things and one of the challenges and again to your point, I love this place that we call home, right? This this the MSP community as we know it is is a place that I've always called home. I found myself at home here and I wanted to make sure that we made this place a little bit better and I've focused on that over the years to try to figure out how do we make it better like you know helping out others you know trying to educate others and trying to help them grow and scale their businesses and find some of the successes and really what we looked at here with MSP owners group was I said I just don't see enough of this bridge right over the next few years the challenge that we're going to face is huge right there's a lot of technology coming our way that could change the way we do our business and the way that we deliver things in the future.
And so I just didn't see enough of the exits that were available and success mechanics that were available that were being defined by others in a way that made people feel like they could stay. And I I see a lot of folks that were, you know, they were cashing out on their business and then they'd leave. And and I thought to myself, why? There's so much knowledge that's leaving this industry. Like I've stayed around for a long time and in certain cases people maybe think too long.
Uh but I've focused a lot on giving back and I wanted to and I've just been asking folks why did you leave? Where did you go? Like oh well you know things happen Juan and you know maybe I don't feel the best about what happened and I don't really know if I could tell that story. I'm not like you. Like I can't talk about you know failure and I don't see it as a failure but I don't see it as one of my greatest successes. And so that bothered me and so I thought well how do we solve this problem?
And that's really where we started thinking about there could be a different way. Like there doesn't necessarily need to be a take a check and leave it notion. You know, there could be a place where we try to empower this next future and stick around and try to help the folks that are here figure out how to get to the other side of the bridge of the future. It's why we did what we did and that's why I'm doing what I'm doing. And you know, there's been some great folks that jumped on the the mission with us here and and and saw it similar way and we're really excited about it.
Yeah. You mentioned some great folks, so I'll dive in right there. I know that you have recently acquired two acquisitions so far, I should say. Chicago based Prodigy Tech and Houstonbased Cool Technology Group. And since I've already mentioned Prodigy Tech, I should also point out that CEO of that particular MSP is another well-known face in the ecosystem, Paco Lebron. We know him, we love him, we go way back, the two, the three of us at this point.
He has signed on to be CEO of MSPOG. And I have to tell you, for the audience's sake, you guys go way back in the to the point where he talks to me when you're not in the room. He says wonderful things to me about you, Juan. Whenever I have a question and I go to him, he's just like, I got a guy for that. And his name is Juan Fernandez. He does that all the time. So, I know the relationship and the friendship is very genuine. But what about him was the right fit to take on this new venture because this is a fantastic opportunity not only for him but for you as well.
What makes him the guy the guy in the chair for this operation? You know I say there's two different trains of thought right there's transactional leadership and there is cultural leadership and we you know etched in the mast of our ship of this journey that we're on is the definition of success and the definition is a leader that empowers another leader or creates another leader. That's the transaction. But the transitional effect is is that that leader also creates and empower another leader.
And so when I think about, you know, if I would just come out here and said, "Yeah, I'm starting the MSP owners group and I'm taking the helm." They would have said, "Okay, cool, Juan." But the beauty of allowing Paco to take this role is me doing exactly what I said I'm going to do, right? I'm actually going to build and empower and and create another leader in front of everybody. And that's really where and even Paco was like, "Why me?" And I said, "See, that's the part that you don't get.
It's not if I was a transactional leader, I would have probably picked somebody else that knew how to do this job." And even in the CRN article, I mentioned he has enough support around him that's going to empower him to be successful. And that's really what we're predicated upon is trying to empower those people that maybe would not have seen those opportunities for what I consider success and be able to see the top of the mountain. Like you sometimes you need folks to help you get there.
And that's really where I saw the opportunity. And again, you know, him wanted to be a part of it early on. And I asked him, I said, "Hey, what would you think about leading this?" And he's like, "I've never done it before." And I said, "Well, you know, neither have I. I always said that too when I ran and built companies. I never did it before. So, congratulations. This is what we're thinking. And he was a little taken aback. And uh I said, he said, "Why me?" I said, "Because I'm just doing the thing that I said we're going to do.
This is the same thing we're going to do for everyone else here. You're going through it just like everyone else will go through it. So, you're the best person for it." So, he was kind of shocked by it, but at the same token, I know that we have the opportunity to make them successful. And, you know, we've done this a number of times in the past. I've built a lot of companies and I've empowered people that to be honest my first IT company some of the folks that ran it um didn't even come from the industry and you know talking to some of the staff you know they said you know one you know we're you know concerned that our jobs may not be preserved and this that and the other I said you know again back to what we're focused on is empowering the next generation and the generation after that you know one of the things for us the definition of success is that one day you'll run the business and they just looked at me like, "I don't know how to do that." And it's like, "That's okay.
We'll teach you how." I said, "Your disadvantage is your advantage because you do. You're so easy to train. You don't know how you don't have any bad habits I have to untrain." And they just kind of looked at me like, "That sounds exciting." And I'm like, "And it should." And this is why we vouch that we're creating a cultureled company because I need them to stick around. I need everybody here to teach and show and and help others on so we can preserve this thing we we call a community and this is what we're trying to do to make a little bit of a difference.
Well, I know that when it comes to Paco and if again for those who say, "Hey, that's a familiar name out there in the community." Host of MSP Unplugged, host and organizer of TechCon Unplugged, very very big on focusing on how to train and just educate generally other MSPs from the bottom up. somebody who goes today, hey, I've taken out an LLC and we're ready to go to start making money and serving customers. So, I know he's very big on that, but you you used another word about culture and the right culture that you're trying to build over at MSPOG, which by the way, I need to point this out.
MSPOG, you said that that wasn't that wasn't intentional. Are you sure? It wasn't intentional. It was It's so cool. You know, I I I have a lot of brands, right? I have the MSP owners handbook. I have the MSP owners process. I have I have all these different things, but this particular one, everybody's really like stuck on its acronym. And I'm like, but I have all these other ones. And like, no one talked about those. This is the one that everyone's like, dude.
And I'm like, okay, yes, I get it. But it's the owner. Ride the wave of how fun that is. I think I serendipitously. I think that is so fun for you. So definitely right on that. But sorry to digress from my question. I brought up culture and you talk a lot about how important culture is for you, how important it is to really have that also instilled in the members of the team that you're building. So you're all about not sacrificing culture, but also giving room for owners to exit.
So can you kind of walk me through what that road map is when you acquire another MSP? Because it's not just like here's a check and there's the door. What is the ultimate plan for them? Yeah. You know, the the biggest thing is is I need I want, you know, my conversation with them. It's not about where how you enter. It's not even how you exit. It's what we do to make an a difference, right? And and really honestly, at the end of the day, I'm not looking for people that just want to come in here and just sell their business and then leave.
There's so many good people that helped us create these wonderful companies. And like our journey and our path is to try to help those employees find this interlacing of the future together. Right? So like was you know we start to think about the new technologies that are available to us, new methodologies and the way we do business and you know these new strategies around what I call business operations as a service like how are we interlacing people?
And that's where we're going to spend a lot of our time on focusing on on preserving our culture and making sure that we're making those positive impacts and being able to illustrate those openly and being very transparent about it. Cuz I feel like one of the things that I've done my whole career is is try to explain what I'm doing in a methodology that allows others to do the same thing to help raise that tide. So from owners that are looking to exit, my ask is that they stay around as long as possible because it's not about the money because yes, we are going to grow them.
Yes, we are going to get them to that place. Yes, they're going to see multiple exits. Yes, they're going to have more money than they know what to do with. But what do you do with it after you get it is always the question and that's where do we reinvest? Do we do other things? What do we do? like and that's where we have an autonomy to create these new u ecosystems of things and be able to deliver a whole new array of opportunity for the employees that we have and have uh invested their time and effort in the businesses that we've built.
So yes, there's a number of ways that they can be successful. My job is to try to find like every way that they can be successful with us, but not just them, but the employees and then have them stick around to enjoy it. Like that's the true test is to make sure that they get to feel like they were completely fulfilled in their career and the company that they ultimately built because there's nothing worse than building a company and then having to leave and feel bad about it.
And I hear so many stories about this. It's like I made sacrifices on the backs of my team. And that that's that's that's a lot. There's there's an emotional side of selling that I talked about when I exited mine and I don't think a lot of people take stock in the impacts that it makes you know from the people that you know your family like you have a husband you have children you have a mother a father you have cousins you have grandkids or you have all these things when you own a business you're a an example and when you exit that business you're an example and how you talk about that business is an example to not just your employees but to your entire lineage.
It's there's huge impacts that that's made and so many people don't know that. And so for us, we just wanted to be like, hey, look, I got created a great company. I stayed around for many years. We built thousands of, you know, opportunities and jobs and just enjoyed my life. And that's really the example that we're trying to not just make internally, but externally. I love that. I love that you mentioned, yeah, you'll have more money than you'll know what to do with, but it's really about how did you get there? what did you leave behind?
Um, so that part of the story is something that I think resonates with a lot of us. I want to continue going over differentiators for from MSP to maybe some other competing rollup groups out there and platforms out there. You did touch on this already, but your employees get equity in the company, which is not something I hear spoken about as often as I would like to. The the word co-op immediately comes to mind. I don't know if that's correct, but talk to me about how you landed on that decision, why you wanted to do that, and what exactly does that mean for each of the employees that you have now and will have in the future?
You know, the thing about it is is that I like to create what we call goalpost, right? And when you think about a goalpost, you want to create opportunities for your team to win. And when you think about winning, you think about what's in it for me and how does this really truly impact my life? And you know one of the things that I always wish is that you know people wouldn't invest in me in a way that I invested in them right I gave more than my blood sweat equity and many corporations that I built over the years and none of them ever and again you got to think about the word you know that why it is and and the way it runs but even in the case that you had SMBs or smallmedium businesses that had the autonomy that had 100% control of their business not a lot of them took time to think about how do I actually, you know, really reward these employees.
And so taking stock on some of the things that I wish I would have seen early on in my young career and even in some of the, you know, these organizations that I see, so many of them, the first thing they do is cut out the bottom, right? And and they basically they acquire a company, they cut out the bottom, the staff they don't need, the overlays, they're gone, right? And that's not a a great feeling, right? And so when we looked at it, we said, "They're great people.
They cared about this company. Like why are we doing this to them?" And so can't we look at it a different way? Can't we give them, you know, the things that they wish they wanted someday? Maybe ownership in the company cuz like they didn't just come here just because they had nothing better to do, right? Like nobody goes to work because they feel like I just don't have anything to do and I really need to do this just cuz I need to pay bills. like you find the passion in it and you align yourself with the organization that you feel like maybe one day you might be successful doing and it's why you see a lot of people that exit certain businesses they go to start the same thing well if you created that autonomy to allow them to grow within your organization I talk about this as an employee success program I said it during the pandemic I said give me a raise of hands how many of you dealing with challenges with hiring employees right now how many of you dealing with losing employees right now do you know what that's called I don't see myself being successful with you like that's why they're leaving.
They don't see themselves weathering this storm with you. And that's that's a dangerous place to be as an organization. So if I just look at what it takes to empower people, again, that's why I picked the title and shifted the model to the chief encouragement officer. If I just figure out how to encourage employees and give them the thing, it's not that far off. It's the, you know, we hear it all the time. find people that are smarter than you and they'll build a process and then they'll operate technology.
People process technology. And I I found over the years that that's wrong. It's actually if you just shift it a little bit and you say if I build a process that empower people to create technology, it actually creates a great culture and it creates a great company. And it's just a little bit of a shift. It's just because the way we've been taught that it's just a little bit off. And so when you do those things, you can create goalposts and you can just drive. these teams will just run for you because it's like this is mine.
This is one day this will be mine and that's where the investment comes from and then the truth has to be there, right? And that's where we have to do the say and and and deliver on those things to allow them to obtain those opportunities. So, we're real focused on that and um everything that we're doing is all aligned with that. So even from the time that they're in here, you know, we have a new employees that'll be coming into the fold that we are actually giving leadership training to from day one.
You know, we have a lot of different things that we're doing internally that are actually empowering them so that they actually have the skills that they need to actually potentially do the thing or find their areas of selfworth and leadership within our organization. And potentially, you know, if they rise to the occasion and push themselves, they could even run one. So that's our job. And you also uh like I said, you've got a a few companies that have already already rolled up.
So you've got two under your belt right now. So those who are listening and are thinking this might be the right fit for me. Is there a set of criteria that they need to meet those MSP businesses in order to consider themselves eligible to be able to roll up under MSPOG? No, there's not. And that's the difference. That's that's where it it's more about do you care enough about your company and your your employees to want to empower them in a way that's meaningful because I know so many of us that you know you may have just gotten to a point in your life you're like look I'm just done want I don't want any more of this I I don't feel like I want to stick around.
I don't want to you know I want to go I just I'm done here. That's okay. That's where you know there's other platforms out there that are looking for what they call add-ons. you know, or if you want to just, you know, sell off your company and you want to do that, hey, by all means, there's nothing wrong with that. I get it. Like, we get to that point sometimes. But if you know, you're struggling and you need some help and you need a friend, you're more than welcome to call us.
Like, not I'm saying not we will bring everybody in, but we are going to build transparently. So, if you want to look and see some other different way of doing something, you're more than welcome to come in and take a look at what we're doing. By all means, there is no evido threshold. There's no revenue threshold. There's no years on business threshold. There's nothing. It's just we're selecting companies that are looking to grow because we want to create a great place to be and live.
And ultimately, at the end of the day, it's it's a vote by committee. So, we have kind of what we call an 8 hour test. It's if we can sit down with you without getting irritated, upset, or angry at each other is whether or not that's the first check box, right? because we're trying to build a community and we want to make sure that during these tough times over the next few years that we're going to get through it together and that's really what we're focused on is just trying to make sure that we have the right people at the table that care about this place we call home.
I'm wondering I hear about your your eight hour test. I'm like oh is this can you apply that for marriages too? That seems like something that you add that in there. Okay, let's just This is very true. I mean, when you think about a relationship, it's like if you don't pass this, right, it's the psychology of relationships, right? It's just more along the lines of are we going to work well together or not? Like, that's the biggest thing. And I really need the folks that are focused on the preservation of this place that we call home versus the ones that are just visiting.
Yeah. Um, by all means, I I love everybody here and I get that there's a lot of initiatives and there's life situations that lead you down certain paths that maybe you need to make a certain decision, but for those that feel like they want to stick around, this is probably the place for you. And uh, we're really open to exploring all the opportunities with anybody that's interested. Well, for one, for those who don't know you, you have a lot of experience as a Channel Chief veteran.
You've you've played that role many times in your career. uh whether you you you knew it or not, whether it was official or not, you've been very ingrained in this community. It's been over on the vendor side that you have had a lot of that experience. So coming over to the technically MSP side of the house, the partner side of the house, how do you think the experience you've had over the last several years being on the vendor side is going to impact the way you lead?
Is there anything in particular that you will do or maybe more importantly that you won't do having had that experience now that you're over on this side of the fence? You know, I think when I jumped over to the vendor side of the house after I exited my MSP and started investing in SAS companies, my intent was to try to make the vendor community a little bit better in their approach to the way that they interacted with the consumer, which is the MSP.
I saw a lot of interesting nuances during my time as an MSP and then again on the other side understanding the investor side and then also bringing products to market. It doesn't necessarily change anything. It just we just it chewed up a lot of things for me in terms of the way we approach each other and the way that we need to work on and being serious about like what is our intention here. Like this whole, you know, let me be your friend for a little while just long enough to extract some coins BS.
Like that's that's not that's not how that works, right? Like I think now it's actually just more than anything just really double clicked on really what intentionality means as a word in terms of the way that we work together and the way that at some point I guarantee I'll be seen as a vendor/MSP slash investor slash all these other things. I promise you that will happen. But it's just about making sure that we're focused on each other's success.
That's the biggest thing. And I I didn't see a ton of that on the other side. And I and that's where I tried to go over there and try to help with some of the brands and again some of the ones that I trusted and felt like they had a good opportunity that I got in front of and brought them to market because they had good good leadership and they had great folks back there. But I will say, you know, as far as one of the biggest things is again back to focusing on culture and focusing on what this channel I feel needs.
And that's just really more intentionality on what we're serious about doing. And that again back to the beginning is making a difference, right? and trying to make it a little bit better. You have this really interesting concept of MSP 5.0. What is that and how does this play into your your leadership journey and your founding journey of MSPOG? Yeah, that's really to be honest with you, the more I talked about that in the last years, you know, I started looking at the analysts and all the different reports about where we're at and I've been paying attention to the trends in this space for a long time trying to understand the true need, right?
Like even in the chances when I wrote the MSP owners handbook, you know, there was a number of books that I was going to write first, but I saw that the industry was at a certain place that I felt like this could be the one that was going to make the impact. When we wrote Sassy Edition, like I was going to write the sales edition, but I was like, "Okay, well, they really need to pivot to this right now." Like, let's help them where they need help.
This is the exact same moment again. And the only reason that I did it is cuz I started talking about the future cuz I didn't see enough. 3.0 is great, but I feel like 3.0 is where we're standing. like it's not talking about the future of where we're going. And so I was just like, wait, hold on a second. Like 2025 is like probably one of the most important times of our life. There was so many fives that lined up. Um and I was like, okay, well, this is the worst thing I'm going to say, and I know probably everyone's going to hate it, is that, you know, the five year, what's your fiveyear plan?
Like, we've heard this so many times. And it's like, oh god, not that again. Like where do you see yourself in five years? Yes, we heard it. You know, like all of us have this like little tick when we hear it. We're like, if I ever hear that question again, I'm literally going to freak out. But serious is a heart attack. Because I asked this question and I I asked, "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" And this is the most important five-year question you're ever going to ask yourself in this industry because here's the second question.
What do you do when what you do isn't what you do anymore? Now, this will be the first time I asked that question. And the reason why is because 5 years from now, 2030, what you do today will not be what you do today. And that's why it's important to understand this 5-year plan, where you're going. And the bridge that it's going to take to get us there is not 5 years. It's actually less than that. So when I start talking about MSP 5.0 and this business operations as a service methodology, it's very different world that we live in very quickly, right?
You look at the adoption of chat GPT and where we're at. Like look at the fastest growing technology like that that ramp period is no longer the same as it was when we moved from service provider to managed service provider. That took forever for the remote technologies to be placed in our hands and then for us to develop ways of transacting business around that. Like we went from break fix to managed services and it took you know between five to seven years.
That ain't going to be the case this year. This is this time it's going to shift so much faster. you can already feel the sand under our feet being removed. And that's where I was like, I don't know if we're going to make it. And so my initial reaction was when I created that session was MSP5.0h. It's like, oh, right. And it's like Yeah. Yeah. Like, okay, well, are you guys seeing this, you guys? and I started talking about it and so many people were like, dude, I wasn't even looking at that.
And that really was what made me double click on, okay, I need to hurry up and help because I got to build a bridge to where we're going next. And that's why it's got to happen fast because otherwise this place we call home again is going to be disrupted in a way that I don't think we're ready for. And so that's why I did what I did and that's why I'm doing what I'm doing. And again, you look at some of the events like you look at PAX 8's event and beyond.
You look some of the things that are coming out and you listen to the things that are being said about the new things that are happening and many of us in this space right now at least service providers aren't ready for that future. And so we need to try to set the example and try to illustrate what's possible because so many people are asking how are we going to get there? And it's like that is a challenge. everyone knows it's coming. We just don't know how to go there.
And so this is what we're doing. Um trying to help. And that MSP 5.0 um idea, if you will, or the arrival of which in time that we get to it, we wanted to just try to help walk through that journey really quickly, make a lot of mistakes really fast, and share openly because what's happened again is that I don't see enough people that are already starting to try down this path sharing about it because they're they're doing the same thing we did before. they're hiding it and not sharing with each other what like how are we doing this?
And so I saw this years and years and years ago when I first started my MSP and everyone thought I was weird because I was sharing what I was doing while I was building it and they're like why is this guy being so weird? Why is he telling us what he's doing? Like do you think we're going to tell you? And I'm like dude I'm telling you like this is going to be commoditized in a few years. Like why do you think I even care? Like I'm already growing six times faster than you. like I'm telling you what I'm doing so maybe you can like figure it out.
And I see it again. It's happening again where everyone's trying to contain all of the things that they're doing and not sharing with the community like, "Hey, here's the ways that we're actually taking and activating this technology." And so we said, "All right, I'm going to break the mold again. We're going to build transparently. We're going to start building in front of everyone and we're going to make a bunch of mistakes and who knows if it's going to work or not." So here we go.
My favorite phrase is the best way to do it is just to do it. So, I agree with you. Mistakes are going to happen, things are going to happen, but the only way to find out is to actually put one foot in front of the other and get started, which I think you've done. Now, Juan, I know that you're self-funded at this time. MSPOG is self-funded. Does that mean the door is completely closed on private equity, or do you think that could be an option somewhere in the future, near or distant?
I'm not going to say anything. you not roll out any investment opportunities on any aspects in terms of the different things that we do over the future. I mean we have a number of things that we're going to ready to announce and do but I would say that you know we are trying to maintain employee shareholder value initially and that's our primary thesis is that we're really looking forward to delivering value to the folks that are here more than you know anything else because we want to make the decisions internally and you know as far as you know taking on existing or outside investments sometimes that changes things and so for us.
I'm not ruling it out. I'm not saying that that's not possible and I'm fully transparent. At some point there may be, you know, that that bridge that we may have to cross, which I don't know when it might be, but right now we uh we're really focused on our the investments that we have that we've made internally and focusing on on just kind of stepping quietly around any other types of investment. So, you mentioned that the industry is changing and we're going in a direction where, as you already said and so eloquently described, in 5 years, what you do is not really going to be what you do anymore as an MSP.
And that obviously gets my mind going about AI. We've had this conversation. We've talked about your feelings towards it. In your opinion, how should channel providers be approaching artificial intelligence? Are they seeing it for what it is? Are they operating within it how they should? What do you think? You know, and that's the crazy part about what it is, right? It's that it's so many things. And and I had somebody recently I was talking to where they were saying, "Look, I'm really getting into this." And I said, "Okay, let me ask you a question.
Do you have somebody that's willing to buy that?" And they said, "No." I said, "So, I get where you're going with it, but like who is it aimed at? Why are you doing it? What's the point?" like and kind of run me through your thought process here because I'm trying to understand why you would build something that nobody wants, right? Like you have no I no thoughts well because I think they're going to want it. Okay, I love that. But like have you done any have you asked any of your customers if they want this?
Like just because you can do something mean doesn't mean you should do something just because it's possible, right? And it was just an interesting conversation. He goes, "Yeah, I guess I didn't think of it that And I'm like again my stent inside of being an investor and then also working with SAS companies kind of helped me think through some of the challenges of you know why would I do something especially anything you do needs to equal success very quickly and so what success is it delivering and how is it actually bringing value to your business?
Can you make money at it? I've always asked this question you know if it doesn't make dollars does it make sense? you know, and so a lot of MSPs are like, well, I can do this thing. And I'm like, but why? Like, do you ever stop to ask yourself why? Like, why would you do that? So, I would say AI is the same thing. Just because we can do something doesn't necessarily mean we should. Um, but when I think about the future, I I do realize that this tool is going to be very effective in delivering very nuanced business outcomes.
And I am excited about it. I will say that I am concerned that we are building things that are not aligned with the preservation of human capital and that's one of the challenges I think that we need to focus on is how do we interlace this with aligning people for success in the future and that's where we're looking at it from is how am I empowering the people with these tools versus trying to figure out other ways and so that's a much bigger conversation and to be honest with you the easier one is to just say Well, I'm going to create a thing and I'm going to sell it and make a couple million dollars and be happy.
And that's where I my biggest fear is is that we're building a lot of things for the wrong reasons. And that's where my caution is to those that are out there like think about the world that we live in and is it making it better or is it going to make it worse? And that's really where we're we're double clicking on is like every move we make is like okay even if we take this one thing we have to make something better like and we have to figure out how to make people connect with it.
So we're looking at it very differently and I guarantee not everyone's going to look at it that way. That's just human nature but that's what we're trying to do. Speaking of AI, are there any technology trends that you're following closely or maybe avoiding? No, I don't know that there's any major technology trends. I will say that I mean if you think about everything that we do like let's just every single thing that a business needs to operate can be automated now.
I mean at this point I mean the amount of effort that you put into it will be whether or not it's good or bad cuz everyone says oh well if you know you go pick something up it's not as good as it should be. We weren't as good as we should have been with the beginning either. That's why cyber security became as a big eye opening moment for us the years later right? So, it's not going to be as good as it should be out of the box, but what you're doing with it and how you're using it and I think that the ways that you're implementing it should be the things that you're the most focused on because, you know, I am paying attention to a number of different things.
You know, things that are basically making our lives so much easier and so much better. In the case of some of the stuff that we were talking about, one of the most ridiculous suggestions actually might be something we do, which is I really wish you'd make me a coffee. And it's like that's actually really easy to do, but like we shouldn't do it, but why not? Like it's almost like why? We could just send some code over to the Kurig that's plugged in and just send a note back saying, "Yeah, it's ready." Like it just be funny to do, right?
Because that's possible. Do my dishes, please. Oh, I'm sick of doing dishes. That might take a little bit more effort in the future, but the coffee thing. We got to talk about this more. That I have ideas. We got to start. We got to call somebody about this and get a copyright. Okay, so back on over to talking more about MSP owners group. Paco's gotten a lot of shine. I'm so excited for him. But I also want to give some shine over to Christopher Cool from Cool Tech Group, technology group. talk to me about what he's doing now that he's rolled up to MSPOG and become a part of the team.
Yeah, you know, Chris brings such a a wealth of knowledge and he's such a wonderful spirit. He's just such a gracious and wonderful person to be around and and I just really am excited about him being part of our team. He actually is going to head up uh some of our financing leasing arm of the company. So we are looking at, you know, how we actually do things and help customers, you know, overcome some of the financial burdens and challenges of doing business.
And so he's actually going to be heading that division up and that particular entity. And so we're really excited for that. But he still will be over his business, but at the same token overseeing these other components. So it's an exciting time for him. He's really pumped. And uh if you ever get a few minutes to talk to him, he's just such a bright and wonderful spirit. And I would encourage anybody that is interested in just really, you know, having a great day to to spend five minutes with Chris.
He's just awesome. Well, now he knows I'm coming. So, we I'm going to go find him. Going to talk to him as well, for sure. He's he's a he's a he is a vibe and I love it. And we all have our specialties, but my gosh, you can't leave him not feeling just energized. So, he's just a a great person to be on the team, and we're excited to have him. Now the financing and leasing arm of MSPOG that you mentioned is that for the folks that roll up to you or can anybody access the services that that will provide?
Yeah, initially right now it's actually the company internal, right? So right now we're actually spinning it up internally. In the future, there might be an opportunity for us to have a channel offering that does, you know, maybe have itself the ability to provide services externally, but initially it's uh an internal. You know, one of the things I say all the time is you win and lose in the locker room. You don't lose on the film. And one of the things that we want to do is make sure that anything that we're doing is tried, true, and perfected before we actually make it available to anybody else.
But our intention is is at some point this might be something that the channel might take advantage of. But again, it's not a it right now. It's just an internal thing that we're building out. We're still in day one. We got to build out from there. Talk to us on day 100. We do. Yes. Exactly. So, what's next for MSP owners group in 2025? Juan, I know that there's still a lot to to get off the ground and keep moving forward with, but do you have any more plans to make additional acquisitions this year?
Oh, yeah. Yeah, we have a lot of folks that are really interested and again thanks to everybody that's reached out to us in support and again thanks to you for allowing us to tell our story about why this is a really great feel-good movement for us. I mean all of us are smiling ear to ear just because you know we get to feel good about it. Number two, our customers are excited about it. like this has actually had farreaching extents into which this is actually uh this little tiny ripple in the lake uh we initially thought would become but it's it's really been overwhelming to hear the support and the number of MSPs the sheer volume that of folks that sign up on the MSP-g website to get more information has been crazy uh I knew it was needed I just didn't know it was that needed and so we are open to having a lot more conversations We have probably more than we can consume.
So, please be patient with us. We are planning on making additional announcements this year. I can't say how many, but I will promise there will be many wonderful folks joining us on this journey. And again, we're just really happy to be able to try to make a little bit of a difference. But just know that these folks that are coming to us, like the whole point of this is just to amplify that community spirit. So, if they can be of value to any way, in any shape or form, please feel free to reach out to any of them, anybody, any MSP that's out there.
We don't we're not trying to buy you out. We're not trying to take your customers. We're just trying to make this place a little bit better. So, please, if you need any help, just hit us up. Like, that's what we're all about. And tell us where we can hit you up, so to speak. How can we reach out to you? Yeah, 100%. So, you can come to the website, msp-og.com. If you want to learn and find out more information, please, by all means, hit me up on LinkedIn.
Feel free to hit up Paco, hit up Chris, and as we announce all of our additional wonderful employees cuz they're going to give them their day in the sun, too. Feel free to reach out to any of us. We're happy to talk about it. All of us are really excited about what we're doing. And, you know, we can share any information or give you any any thoughts about what we're doing or even as we start to match your eyes and, you know, come in and have you see what we're doing, we're all about that.
So, please feel free to ping us anywhere we're at. Juan, I always love getting to talk to you, but I'm so excited to be able to talk to you about this new venture that you're on. I wish you the best of luck and please email me every time that you have a new milestone. I'll be watching. Yes. Thanks so much to Juan for joining me and thank you for watching or listening. You can check out every episode of Channel Insider Partner POV on channelinsider.com or watch us on YouTube at youtube.com/ channelinsider_news and trends.
You can also listen to us as a podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts from. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow to never miss an episode. Once again, I'm Katie Baboso, and I'll see you next time.
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