MSP Summit: MSP Workshops Focus on AI, EBITDA, More

CHANNEL PARTNERS CONFERENCE & EXPO/MSP SUMMIT — Day one of the MSP Summit, co-located with the Channel Partners Conference & Expo at the Venetian Las Vegas, saw no shortage of managed service provider content from experts deeply immersed in the MSP landscape. 

Kicking things off with a panel that featured Jim Tarantino, chief revenue officer at Coro Cybersecurity; Amy Roman, Amplify GTM's founder and CEO; Jason Rincker, CRO at Stronghold Data; and Jeff Newton, VP of sales & marketing at REDiTECH; the MSP Mentor workshops began with a panel discussion on creating a successful MSP growth strategy. 

The panel was moderated by Len DiCostanzo, CEO of MSP Toolkit who developed the MSP Workshops for the MSP Summit.

The panel said setting specific revenue targets in the geographies you want to target and the objectives you wish to reach, are paramount in that strategy. Communicating your value proposition is another key element the audience learned that could sweeten their growth prospects as MSPs. 

Furthermore, attendees learned that creating a strategy and road map, and ultimately measuring those efforts play into any potential MSP success. 

"If the strategy is built weak, it is not effective. You have to evaluate that strategy,[know] who is in the room and know those pain points and challenges," Amplify founder Amy Roman said to an audience in the conference session. 

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2024 MSP Summit Panelists Tackle M&A Head-On

Mergers and acquisitions expert Peter Kujawa took to the stage in a panel discussion about earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization (EBITDA).

As complex as it sounds, Kujawa says the concept is relatively simple, adding that everything his firm does gets tied to EBITDA, underscoring the importance of it. 

Assisting MSPs with their financial health is what Peter Kujawa does, helping them to understand the process of getting purchased and how they can reshape, trim and adjust to ensure they get acquired if the want to go down that path.  

He believes that EBITDA is "the gold standard" when going into a potential acquisition, telling MSP Summit audience members that if you're doing things like underpaying yourself to enhance your EBITDA, that will get unearthed. 

Financial expert and partner at Freeman Logan M&A Advisors, Mark Sadler, said it starts with net income; then one must bring in the rest of the acronym to understand their level of profitability and more.

"These are all non-operating expenses that indicate how well you run your business," he said.

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And Then There Was Generative AI

A topic that seems to have gained more momentum in its short time in our vocabulary, Canalys chief analyst Jay MaBain led a panel of artificial intelligence experts, lending insight into a territory in which we are merely starting to understand the benefits. 

McBain has spent a large part of his time in the early days of generative AI researching the topic from a partner perspective. Consequently, he had a lot of insight to lend MSP Summit attendees who were eager to hear his take on the topic he called "the $158 billion annual opportunity."

With such high dollar amounts thrown around, it seems that partners are set to make a metric ton of cash on it. McBain assumes that is not the case, adding "it will be free within a year," as generative AI will be something customers expect to be a part of their stacks. 

Where the opportunity lies is in efficiency and process improvement. That means things like process automation. And that means for members of the channel and their customers, there are dollars to be made in prereferral services and selling consulting services on how AI can improve various processes, McBain said.