Selling Your Legacy: The Chaos, Strategy, and Reward Behind a Multi-Million Dollar Acquisition

Speaker A: Welcome to the Channel CEO, where we dive into the business and entrepreneurship world with the top minds in the IT channel industry. Join Kevin Lancaster, CEO of Channel Program and fellow IT channel CEOs as they share their journeys to success, revealing strategies, insights and valuable lessons along the way. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a seasoned professional, or simply curious about successful companies, this podcast is for you. Explore the challenges, triumphs and pitfalls faced by these remarkable individuals who built thriving tech businesses. Join us each week on the Channel's CEO. Subscribe now to unlock the secrets of building a successful business. Let's join the conversation now.

Speaker B: All right, Mr. Michael Crean, I said, uh, earlier that I don't often read bios, uh, when I bring guests on, but I'm compelled to read your bio. Got a condensed version here. So, Michael Crane, a US army combat veteran, founded Solutions Granted, is now the Senior Vice President of Managed Services at Sonic Wall. There's gonna be a lot to dig into there, I'm sure, but he's an experienced leader in networking, infrastructure and cyber resilience, deeply involved in information security, managed security services. King is dedicated to MSPs, MSSPs, borrowers, building solutions that Dr. And compliance for thousands of customers worldwide. Known for his problem solving skills and strategies to increase revenue in competitive markets. I don't know, it's just. It's a cool, cool bio, man. And, uh, yeah, cool background.

Speaker C: I feel like I gotta pay somebody more. Whoever wrote that.

Speaker B: Yeah, well, you know, they've got, uh, one that's about twice as long. I was like, oh, my gosh. But it's even, it's even more impressive. So, but well done. But thanks for, thanks for hopping on, man. I appreciate it.

Speaker C: Thanks for having me. I mean, you could have started off with like. You didn't have to put the mister on there. It's always like when somebody says, mister's like, wait, am I in trouble? Did I do something wrong?

Speaker B: Uh, just, you know, just, just trying to. I don't know. I don't know what I'm trying to do. But, uh, you know, it was, uh, this morning I was thinking, man, you know, I got the, uh, podcast coming up and, uh, uh, I don't know, I had a, uh, flashback to, uh, having lunch out in Tyson's Corner. A bunch of early dinner. I can't remember. Early dinner out in Tyson's Corner. Gosh, maybe this, this time last year, something like that.

Speaker C: Yeah. Not too far off from this time. It was. Yeah.

Speaker B: Yeah. So you're, you're, you know, waste or probably neck Deep in uh, in all things due diligence and acquisition and, and all that fun stuff. So I um, guess the big news over the last, I uh, guess four or five months now is that uh, you know, you've been acquired. Solutions Grant has been acquired and now part of, ah, a pretty, pretty kick butt organization called Sonic Law.

Speaker C: It's been six months now, is it?

Speaker B: Six months. Wow. So take us through, you know, we'll do a journey back in time. But again this is, this is so timely and topical. But you built a, you've won a heck of an impressive, you know, organization. Um, and I think you had probably no shortage of suitors coming after you, uh, because of just, you know, what you've done and just quality of revenue and all that stuff. But uh, what was that, what was that process like for you? What was, what was kind of the, you know, all right, you're ready to be acquired, you know, and you've got all these, you know, different groups coming at you. How do you, how do you stay organized? How do you stay on top of your day job? I mean, take us through like what that, that period was like for you.

Speaker C: Well, I think first and foremost it was incredibly chaotic. Um, and you know, you're trying to, at least for me, I was trying to compartmentalize the best way I could. Like there's a logical side of this because this is a business transaction, but then there's also the emotional side of this. You know, this is a 22 year journey for me. This wasn't like, I just, it wasn't a uh, startup or I got a bunch of venture capital or a bunch of private equity money and then I went out there and built something with the idea that I was going to turn it and sell it. It was never, it was never really the journey. And to be honest, like early on in the journey I was talking to a gentleman by the name of Leor Samuelson and he was one of the, he worked for Coopers and Lybrand securities way back when. Former Israeli special forces. He was asking me the questions like, well, what are you going to do with this business? Like, I don't know, I'm just going to keep picking it up and putting it down is what I'm going to do. He's like, no, no, what is your exit strategy? What is your end? Like, um, the only thing I could think is like, how cool would it be if one of my kids decided want to do this? And like, and I know this well, probably this is not a PG show. So he called me a dumbass. And that one really hit home on me. It's like, wait, I'm doing the right things for the right reason, for the right people, at the right price and I'm gaining success and like, why would I be this so called dumbass if I wanted this to be a generational business? And his explanation to me is like, look, what did you start with in your pocket? He says basically you had lent in your pocket when you started this.

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker C: He's like, if you build it to something, that someone finds other value in it and they want to come up with a truckload of cash. He says, you run with it like you stole it. So. Because then if you decide you want to do it all over again, well now starting with something is a whole lot easier than starting with nothing. And that really stuck with me. So it was always in the back of my mind, probably about five, six years into the journey that the day would come. I just didn't know when or who or why. And again, trying to separate the logic from the emotion because I mean, think about it like you have a kid and Kevin, you've got kids. Mhm. Like, you know, and to see them go off to college while you're really proud and you're happy and you're ready for them to experience that part of life, like there's a loss involved there. Like I can tell you, like when my oldest daughter went off to college, I literally cried leaving her at college. Wow. I mean, but it was, it wasn't, it wasn't that I was that upset or you know, that sad. It was just that, uh, you know, seeing her going on to the next, next phase of her life, but also then realizing like the loss that I was going to experience. And so the business was a lot like that. I mean, there was probably two weeks before the acquisition. We were probably maybe somewhere in that timeframe. We're at it nation down in Florida. And I was out one morning, I was walking around the lake because we couldn't get into the hotel. So we were staying at one of the townhomes across the way. And I'm out there walking around and literally like, um, I'm thinking about the last 22 years and the employees and the change that's about to happen and where it's coming. And I started cr and I'm like, man, what the heck is wrong with me? I don't know if you ever saw that movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs where the police officer starts to get a tear and he says, get back. Yeah, it's kind of what I felt like. It's okay, buttercup. Suck it up. You know, what are you doing? And get that tear back in your eye. But, yeah, it definitely felt, um, very emotional.

Speaker B: Ah, it's interesting, you know, as, uh, we just started college tours with my oldest, you know, I kind of. I don't know, I was trying to forward, you know, project or look or whatever. I'm. I'm like, yeah, that's gonna be tough. It's gonna be tough when the first one goes, but then when the second one goes and, you know, then you're really, like, stuck.

Speaker C: Well, what are you gonna do?

Speaker B: What do you do with yourself? You work more or, you know, I don't know that it's going to be interesting transition, but. So let's, let's take a step back, right? So, you know, you're an army guy through and through, right? Uh, you. When, uh, you decided to hang up the boots, you know, you stepped out and said, hey, I'm going to start a cyber security company. Is it as easy as that, or.

Speaker C: Uh, it actually didn't happen in that succession. So I got out, thought I was going to go do law enforcement. It's like, sure, why not? That's what I want to do. These three retired army colonels at a government contracting company here in the Washington, D.C. area somehow found me security clearance, bring me in for an interview. What do you know about computers? Like, about that much, you know, very much. Like, hey, I can turn it on and surf the web, but if you give me a chance, I can probably learn anything that you want me to learn. They made me an offer that was far more money than I was going to make in law enforcement. And I took it immediately. Did that for a few years, found out that I got bored really fast. Um, you know, as a government contractor, it's not. It's not great. I mean, you're sitting in a cubicle, you're doing the same thing over and over again. You want growth, you want to do more. And some of the organizations that you work with, they just want you to do the same thing because they need a body in that seat because that's how they get paid. Didn't work for me. So I decided, screw this, I'm leaving. I'm going out of the commercial market space. I found my first civilian job outside of the government world as the operations supervisor at PSINet at one of their data centers. Wow. And it worked for me because, like, I had all this leadership experience. It Worked well for me. And that was another one where I didn't, I didn't really qualify for the job because they wanted somebody who had UNIX experience. And I'm um, a bit cocky if you know this about me. And so one of the things was like, yeah, I could spell Unix. I was like, but if you give me 24 hours, I'll show you a learning curve like you've never seen before. So give me 24 hours and I'll go educate myself and come back. And they took the challenge and I came back and they gave me the job. So, you know, it's. But that's part of like the military, like the military teaches. You don't have to have all of the answers, but you do need to know how you can go get the answers or where you can get them from or, you know, that idea. Go use your available resources, the people, you know, the manuals, whatever it may be. Then I found myself on unemployment because the dot com failure happened. And that's where the journey of solutions granted started because I was on an employment needed to feed my kids. And also the devil's playground runs pretty tight in my hands, so I needed to find something to do so that I didn't find myself in trouble.

Speaker B: Wow. So there's some. The ultimate motivation, I guess at that point. But yeah, you hadn't heard PSINet in years. I know they were headquartered. They were headquartered in Annapolis, right? Originally.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker B: Yeah. And then I know they, they kind of surround the beltway right around the same times of like groups like Digex and um. Yeah, that's uh. Man, he took me back.

Speaker C: Um, that just means we're old.

Speaker B: Yeah. Seriously. Uh, so, uh, all right, so you kind of have your back up against the wall and then you get this thing started. And what was kind of the first, you know, kind of the first days early acquisition, you know, customer acquisition, you know, is it just. Was it the epitome of the hustle and just get out there and try to shake the trees or did it take a while to start to build a kind of a stable recurring model or.

Speaker C: Well, definitely. So the very first client was a friend of mine who actually became my cfo. She was working at a collection agency and said, hey, we need some help with this network and computers and can you help us? Like that was the first client. The second client was one of the venture capital companies that their full time IT guy was leaving and said, can you just do this part time for us? The third client became one of the guys that worked at the venture capital company said, can you go talk to a friend of mine who owns this high end textile cleaning company? Like they were doing like the textile cleaning at the White House and a bunch of the McMansions in McLean, you know, if you're familiar with that area in Virginia. And so I went in there and I talked to them. Um, and it was a day later they're calling, said, hey, well we don't want to do it with anybody else, we want to do it with you. And I had three clients, no idea what I was doing. Probably called my mom that night, said, hey, I think I'm running a business. I'm not sure what I'm doing with this, but I'm just going to keep walking through the door and see where it goes. And it was a lot of word of mouth. Like my business really grew from the fact that I was doing the right thing for people. Um, and I was really moving into that MSSP space before MSPs were popular. I hated the VAR business. Like just selling something for the sake of selling it didn't feel, wasn't attractive to me. I wanted to be able to do something that felt like I was putting some value in there. And that was around that time where VARs were trying to figure out what this transition to MSP meant. Um, so just kept getting referrals, people kept talking about me, kept responding to me, started bringing on some employees. And then I figured out one day that I was a terrible msp. Like I was a horrible msp. I didn't. And the majority of it was about me because I didn't like what I was doing. I m. Didn't have passion for it. I didn't really enjoy it, uh, more so it was like, it was a lot of the. Why are you calling me at 10 o' clock on a Friday night? Because you can't print. Because that little blinky light's telling you you're out of toner and somehow that's my emergency. Not the thing you really want to tell somebody, but absolutely I'm on the verge of telling everybody that, like you're obviously too stupid for this thing. Let's go ahead and box it up and send it home. Put you back on paper and pen. Uh, needed to find something that I could feel passionate purpose for. And it was around that time, probably around 2000, maybe 2008, 2009. Saw this full page article about Sonicwall. I was getting my oil changed. It was in this magazine. Talked about Sonic wall and this wireless built in box. They were doing triple DES encryption on top of their 802 11. And back then, like, people were just starting to get to the point where they were doing wpa, you know, so like, wait, military background? I know a little bit about encryption. It's like, okay, well, wait, how's that possible? Is this even real? Or is this just another marketing fluff and stuff? So I decided to buy my first Sonic Wall and probably spent five or six hours setting it up because I refused to read the manual. I was like, no, no, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna beat this one to death or it's gonna beat me to death and we're gonna figure it out together. And then when I finally got it working, I blew it away and started over again to see if I could really get there and probably spent a good weekend just doing that over and over again. And then what I did is instead of selling it as trying to make a product sell, I turned it into a employee optimization cell. And so they had content filtering in the boxes. And so I went to, uh, my clients at a time like, hey, I can give you this firewall. I'm going to give you two at my cost. I don't need to make any money on this. But what I want you to understand about is we're going to drive employee productivity with this. We're going to stop them from doing all of the things that you don't want them to do. And instead of catching them and having a tough conversation, let's just stop them. And it resonated. And then you started to see that, you know, you could really take technology and make it more than a technology conversation and turn it into some employee productivity conversation. And that really, really resonated. And then I didn't have to answer the stupid conversations of, uh, I can't print, I forgot my password. You know. And that felt really good. And that where that went is in 2010, we became the North American partner of the year because we said, no more MSP business. We're not doing this anymore. We're going to become a firewall management monitoring company.

Speaker B: Wow.

Speaker C: And that started my sonic wall journey 18 years ago to now being acquired by SonicWall.

Speaker B: Wow. How about that? That's pretty. It's pretty wild. So, you know, along the way, right, it's not just Sonic Wall, but you had, you built great relationships with some technology vendors and kind of brought them in underneath this, this kind of managed security service, you know, offering, right? Um, what was the most kind of how hands on were you in Kind of the selecting of the technology, I imagine. You know, knowing your personality, you're probably, you know, pretty, pretty deep

Speaker C: a little bit. You know what the catalyst was. So again, I think the military does a good job of teaching you not to be afraid. And if you are afraid, well, harness the fear and go get it done anyhow. You don't really have a choice. Um, some of that comes to a lot of the military. It's true life and death. We're not just talking about saving livelihoods, we're talking about saving lives. And so what really m, what really messed m with me, but messed with me in a way that I couldn't foresee was in. So 2010, we became the North American partner of the year for SonicWall. 2011 Dell acquire SonicWall and that hit me like a ton of bricks. Like, okay, what does this mean for me? Like, I was an all in. All my eggs were in one basket. One vendor doing nothing other. We were doing wireless, we were doing, you know, backups, we were doing email security, we're doing firewalls, everything that Sonicwall doing their endpoint protection. And about a year into that Dell ownership, like my world got turned upside down. Like I was revenue wasn't getting the leads because obviously Dell has what, 100,000 salespeople like, so why do people need me? And they were just going direct and we all know Dell kind of likes to go direct as much as they say they like their channel. Um, so it forced me to get out of my own way and not allow it to be a blockbuster moment. It was a change or be changed moment and I was going to do the changing because I didn't want something to enforce their change on me. So the first thing we did is we picked up mimecast as M an email security product. Um, and then it was about nine years ago, we picked up Silence because I hated the Endpoint space. Like everybody in the Endpoint space as far as I was concerned, sucked. They were terrible. They were not good at it. It was all just a horrible mess. Configure it the best way you can. It's just, it's still going to lose. Um, started with Silence and that really started to revolutionize who we were as a company. And it changed our perception of us and changed MSP's perception of us. Because now we were taking this enterprise tool and we were packaging it down for MSPs in the SMB space and giving them something that wasn't really being done by anybody else. Uh, uh, yeah, super hands on. When it's come to picking the technology not as much today, um, because now what I've realized is that there was a period of time in there where I was the inhibiting factor to the growth of the company because I was trying to do everything and be everything for everyone. And I had all these really brilliant people that were working with me and I wasn't letting them do their job. I wasn't being a CEO is what I wasn't being. I was still a technician. I was still wrapped up into the speeds and the feeds and clicking and configuring and doing all of those things. And I was stopping us from being the best version of us that we could be. It was my fault.

Speaker B: Wow, there's so many nuggets in there. You know, it's funny, I think we have very, you know, you know, aside from being in and around the beltway, uh, for most of our careers, I think there's a lot of parallels between, you know, when running uh, Windvale and you know, we were kind of in this bar space going against, against like the DLTS and the MXs and the Carousofts. But we had a couple really interesting inflection points where we had um, some technologies that we'd brought into agencies. We were running massive enterprise wide contracts. And then we had, number one, there was a, uh, technology out of Florida called Numara. They had a uh, itsm m it tracking software called TrackIt. And it was kind of like an entry level type of solution. But we had, I think between our federal and state and local government customers, we had probably four or five hundred customers. But you know, ah, just like a drop of a hat. Newmark gets bought by bmc. The stuff that we were doing with Gideon, they get bought by Symantec, right? And then, I mean over a period of gosh, maybe a year, you know, some of our big technologies that we are working with and we're creating velocity with and you obviously know government sales cycles are not, you know, they're not short. You put all this time and effort and energy and then you know, you have the wool pull out from beneath you when these guys get acquired and then you're, you're stuck with, you know, you're back to zero. You're. Who are these guys? Um, yeah, that's a tough thing, but the ability to pivot, you know, I think, um, you know there's, that's an art and a science and sounds like you did, did it pretty darn well. Um, so you're, you're, you're Moving, you know, you know, pretty fast. You get into, you know, call, uh, it 2000, you know, 19, 20, 20. You have this explosion of endpoints. You know, because of the pandemic, you've got security becoming really, you know, um, a household topic in every msp. I mean, you know, how. What kind of impact did, did the pandemic and, and kind of that kind of the convergence of pandemic and remote and security did. What kind of impact did that have on, on the, the business at that time? Or did it have any impact?

Speaker C: It definitely did. We grew up, we grew significantly through the pandemic. I think the good part was, is we had positioned ourselves prior to the pandemic. You know, that was probably 2,000, maybe 20, 17, we decided that. Or, uh, maybe 18, I don't know, we decided, hey, like, if we're really going to commit to this channel, well, then we've got to build a channel name. And how are we going to build a channel name? Because we kept getting referrals, we kept getting MSP saying, hey, talk to my buddy here, talk to my buddy over there. But it wasn't happening fast and I wanted it to happen faster. So we decided that we were going to take a half a year and do the ASCII circuit. So we came in at a half a year and, you know, Jay Ryersey was there with what he was doing with Carver. And so we came in as the new kids on the block and came in super disruptive, like with price points, just trying to beat Jay. And, you know, Jay gave me some great advice and he did it in a very friendly manner. It wasn't a, hey, you're screwing it up and you're doing this wrong. He's like, but, you know, don't make this a race to the bottom. He's like, that's not good for anybody. And he was right. I was trying to make it a race to the bottom because I thought, well, I'm going to win on Price Point because he's got the name, so how can I be disruptive? And I took that to heart. And while I was still trying to, you know, beat him in every way possible, I learned a lot from him in that business because I think he was at least as far as I could tell. And when I'm going back like that first master managed security services provider that had built a really great name in the channel for MSPS and doing it the right way, there was a lot that I emulated about him and his business and how he was doing things. And then he got acquired by Continuum, which. Then it was like it was Greenfield for me at that point in time, because, you know, it's like, anytime a big company acquires anybody, there's lots of love, but then there's some hate. It's always going to happen. So there was a windfall that happened to us that, you know, there was partners. Like, nope, I'm not working with Continuum. Um, I hate Continuum. Like, just like the same people. Like, we lost partners when we were acquired by Sonicwell. There's people out there that 10 years ago, during the Dell ownership, had a bad experience and they hang on to it and they're still angry, they're still bitter, and they're still upset, they're still frustrated because it was such a bad experience for them. So the same thing happened to us. Um, but because we had gotten into that ASCII circuit just at the right time before the pandemic hit, we started to build a name. And so then that word of mouth really started to move. And Kevin, you know, you know, this. You've done it before with, you know, ID Agent. So, you know, it's that idea that I almost think that sometimes MSPs need to see you three or four times in three or four different cities, in three or four different ways, before they really believed you to be legitimate. Like, I can't tell you the number of MSPs that would see us at three or four ASCII shows, or they'd see us at a smaller show, and then all of a sudden they show up at It Nation and we're there. Or they'd show up somewhere else, like, oh, well, now I guess you're for real, so we should do some business with you. Like, I'm for real, because I dropped $120,000 to be at this place. So, um, again, I continue to call this my story of dumb luck. You know, I. I don't know how to say, I mean, why it happened or how it happened, and just kept trying to move it forward in a way that felt good to me and to my company and to my employees.

Speaker B: Yeah, look, I. I used to say the same thing. Dumb lock. And then, uh, you know, people beat me over the head saying, you know, you make your luck, you make your lock. And. Yeah, I mean, I think, uh, I think similarly, I think, uh, with ID Agent and with where you guys were, we. We benefited from, you know, the right market at the right time. Right. And you had. You also had, you know, prior to, you know, Jay, with Carver and then you had the, um, you know, continuum. Uh, you had a couple others that were trying to really define the marketplace. And it often happens, right? You have the, the first handful that go out there and you know, they spend the millions of dollars, uh, creating the marketplace. Then typically, you know, a couple of, you know, a couple of folks come in and, and they, you know, they, they eat their lunch and it's funny, I was having a conversation, ah, with Danny over threat locker, um, where they're actually pretty interesting example of somebody that, especially in this space, they defined kind of this, um, you know, zero trust. But you would, you would assume that they were kind of flamed out. But they've done a pretty good job of, of growing and, you know, creating a category. But I think, you know, I think, yeah, you guys benefited just as much as ID agent benefited. You know, I think we benefited more from the fact that experian spent like $37 million one year and they advertised Dark Web on the Super Bowl. And I think, you know, people are like, oh, I heard that, I've heard that term. So that's our, that's our dumb luck. But, um, but yeah, anyway, so you guys, you know, moving fast, moving fast. And then you said it was like an 18 year journey to get to the point where, you know, it just made sense for, you know, this kind of marriage with Sonic Wall. Um, yeah, I guess. Did you have others, uh, in mind? Others kind of courting you and you know, potential opportunities and then, you know, what really was it about Sonicwall that just put it over the top, never mind the existing 18 year relationship. But what was it?

Speaker C: Um, so yeah, we did have others, you know, they're happening. And it had been probably for the past 15 months where, you know, every month, every other month somebody was reaching out, somebody wanted to talk private equity, venture capital, you know, interested in. And I wasn't ready. Like, I got really good at giving people the Heisman, you know, no thanks. I appreciate, I'm enjoying the journey. No desire, no want, you know, and then it's probably about six months before it got real with Sonicwall. I started entertaining the conversations because, like, well, there's something for me to learn here. Either I'm going to learn something that I don't want, or I'm going to learn something that I do want. I'm going to be able to carry that forward. So when the time comes, I'm going to know the better question to ask and how to express what I really want out of something. And uh, you know, it was probably eight years ago, um, somebody had asked me the question, what is your exit strategy? What are you gonna do? And I flippantly had said something about, well, you know, if Sonicbull wants to acquire me one day, I'd do that. And you know, I think you have to be really careful what you put out into the universe. I'm not a big believer in that sometimes, but man, did it come true this time. And what for me is, I can't discount the 18 years of that relationship because there is such a familiarity that we had in working with them. We had been behind the scenes for so long, you know, being a member of their partner advisory council, having some of my guys on their technical advisory board, having great influence and relationships and being a part of something that was much bigger than us and also growing our business with them. Uh, and they made the right offer. There was, there were certain things that were kind of non negotiable for me. One, I wanted to continue to work. I wasn't ready to retire. I didn't want to ride off into the sunset. I didn't want to take whatever my money was and you know, go have fun for the rest of my life. I wasn't done with my journey. I wanted to continue to support msps. I wanted to grow it bigger, stronger, faster. Feels like it's a $6 million man commercial for anybody that remembers that TV show. But that was really one of my non negotiables is I wanted to be in charge of something and I wanted to work with people that I could respect. And I had a long history with Bob Van Kirk, you know, before he was CEO and during that years of journey that he was working at Sonicwall. And I really respect him like he is. There are some people that you look at in life that cross your path, that you appreciate them for their business acumen. There's other people that you look and you respect them for who they are in their community. And then there's those rare people that you find that they're just good people. You just want to be around them because the things that they say, you know, are true. And Bob is just a good person. And so that idea is like, well, if I could sell my company and I could directly report to him. Because look, after you're the guy or gal for 22 years and you're not answering to anybody, that's a tough transition. Like there was a couple things. It's like, one, am I going to be a good employee? And two, is HR going to have me on Speed dial. Because I really hope. I mean, those are the two things. Like, can I, can I get past that for the first six months? Well, I haven't been called into HR's office yet, and it's been six months. And I think I'm being a good employee, but I'm being a really good employee because I've got a fantastic boss. He gives me all the rope in the world that he lets me go do what I need to do, how I want to do it, the way I want to do it. He hasn't put any cuffs on me and said, we're not doing that. And so as long as I'm doing the right things and being successful and hitting the numbers that we need to hit and, you know, I, if I had the opportunity to do it all over again, and six months was day one today, I'd still sell the Sonicwell today. Um, and if I was at the end of my 24 mandatory m commit that I'm on board for this, I'd stay.

Speaker B: Wow.

Speaker C: I mean, I probably wouldn't want to travel quite as much because I'm telling you, traveling every week right now has been a bit of a pain. But beyond that, one thing, which will slow down eventually, sure. But, yeah, it's. I have no regrets. Zero regrets. And that's a hard thing to say.

Speaker B: It is, yeah. Because if you think about the percentage of these, uh, acquisitions that go south for whatever reason, most often it's, you know, personality conflicts. And then, you know, that the CEO gets in there and they're like, oh, maybe I want to work for the rest of, you know, the next two years, or, you know, whatever the conflict is, the fact that you kind of made it through it and, you know, you're bringing up, uh, bring up his name. Um, remember I was having a conversation with Michelle right before I interviewed, and, uh, she said, let me warn you, he's very genuine.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker B: And, uh, so it's funny you kind of described in the same way because, uh, uh, on the interview I got the thinking, him and I, we kind of talked similarly about some of the old school technologies. And, um, you know, just, uh, yeah, it was, it was really easy to connect with him. So I can see he'd be, uh, a pretty good leader to, uh, to work under. If that's your first boss and you know, 20 something years, that's not a bad one, I guess.

Speaker C: No, I, I feel very, very pleased and honored that that's my first one because, uh, man, I've heard some horror stories. They're out there sometimes thinks way less before he speaks. So I have, I've not found myself in trouble yet.

Speaker B: That's good. Six months in, you're doing just fine. Um, all right, so let's, so let's, let's kind of look forward. Um, you know, obviously there was, you know, a couple different motivations for, for being acquired by, by Sonic Wall. Um, but you know, I imagine part of that is, you know, what is the one in one you look like, you know, a year from now, two years from now, three years from now.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker B: Especially because you have to remain, you know, interested and passionate and want to, you know, show up and have an impact. Right. You're not ready to kind of step aside. So, so strategically what was, what was the outcome, uh, that you're looking for? And then what is, you know, what does this combination look like? Where's this go from a platform standpoint moving forward?

Speaker C: So I mean for me, knowing that I had never taken any funding from anybody and I was completely self funded and growing it, we'd gotten to over a thousand msps, quarter of a million devices out there. We had a really good fast hard run. But how do you get to the next level without some sort of infusion of cash or strategic alliance? And so it just made sense. You go from being solutions, granted with a thousand ish MSPs that we're supporting to Sonic will have in 17,000 partners in their channel. So there's a force multiplier there immediately going, um, from an organization that I was heavily engineered, heavily tech focused, having three salespeople, that's what we had when we were acquired, three full time salespeople. So now there's 300 plus salespeople SonicWall. So there's another force multiplier, um, and now having global reach. So we had taken our time to be the best of the best that we could be in North America and really staying focused there. Well what's happening now is that, you know, we've done in the first 90 days we've launched three new MDR offerings. So now it's no longer just silence, now it's the Sentinel One. We have an MDR offering for Sentinel One, we have an MDR offering for Windows Defender and we have an MDR offering for capture client which is Sonicwall technology. Wow. We've kept our soul, if you will. And that was we're still a cost per seat per month with no annual commits and no minimums. And that was important to me in part of this journey because that's what I thought that the channel really wanted, because that's what I would always want. And sonicwell leadership agreed. And so we continue to do that. Um, we're getting ready to launch another MDR offering in July. But more important than that is we're going to maintain our security operations center 24 hours a day, seven days a week still here in North America, but we're going to open up a second one in July in emea. Wow. Which is great because we do have global partners. You know, we've got a ton of partners in Europe, went over there, meeting with them in Ireland and London and Germany and a lot of desire to do more with SonicWall. And so now getting the investment to go build out another SOC team to run that 24 hours a day, seven days a week over there for data residency and data governance, that's a big deal. So you go from November to what will be July, so call it eight months, nine months. And we've launched more MDR offerings with another one to come. We're keeping our open ecosystem. So while we are sonicwell and we build some fantastic and amazing firewalls, we'll still do SOC services around Checkpoint and Fortinet and Palo Alto and watchguard, Meraki and pfsense and the major players in the space, which is kind of unheard of when you think about most firewall manufacturers like do my stuff or don't do anything at all.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker C: So, uh, we're breaking that mold to keep that open ecosystem and then we're going to take the show on the road and go global. To me that's kind of cool. Like just getting to build something that now we were big. We're about to be gigantic.

Speaker B: Yeah. Wow. Your tam, just from the diversification of the MDR to, you know, now this uh, you know, being able to. Your residence in Emea is uh, I mean that's, I'm trying to even like calculate. How would you calculate the expansion of your TAM there? It's just that's, that's massive. Right. And yeah, there's a lot to be said for the fact that, you know, a uh, company like SonicWall, you know, is leaning in with you on this kind of month to month approach. Uh, because, you know, maybe their contemporaries or peers or what have you, you know, I think many of them would, would push uh, for, you know, something a lot different. Call it three year deals.

Speaker C: Sure. There's a few people out there that do that quite anymore.

Speaker B: Yeah. Uh, but you know, so that is a testament to, I guess, uh, their commitment in acquiring you guys and. And, uh, giving you guys that, you know, that backing. So you're getting. Not only, you know, you're. You're kind of keeping almost like the status quo, you're getting additional resource, but then you're broadening, you know, your. Your reach, you know, from a technology standpoint and obviously geographically. So that's. Yeah, it's, uh. I think that's the definition of success, at least for the first six months. It's pretty damn good.

Speaker C: And we're not done, like, once we, like, going overseas. Like, there's the amount of conversations that we've had with attorneys about things that you can and can't do over there that you would just normally do here, like what really. You can't do that there. So it's been a huge learning curve for the team and for myself and just understanding the actions that take place when you start to play in a global market. Um, but we're not going to finish there. Like, we're hoping that, you know, and by all accounts, there's going to be things that we do wrong, because no matter how many times you've done it, like, you can go up to the plate and hit that ball a thousand times, and then you could go on a cold streak and it could just happen, and you. But you'll get back to it. So we're gonna figure out kind of where we bump our heads along the way, and then we'll immediately figure out how we're gonna address the market in apj, you know, that'll be our next one, and we hope to get that done before the end of the year. So it's, uh, it's an aggressive plan, but getting the backing and the support that we need, it's. It's fun.

Speaker B: So I guess my question is, when am I ever going to get to go to a Caps game with you, then? I mean, if you're always on the road and, you know, you know, I

Speaker C: don't know, but I mean, I still, like, I kept my season tickets because I am so adamant about seeing Ovechkin break that goal. Like, I hope he can. I can. I hope he starts the season hot next year or later this year. Um, but I've got the tickets. I've got to see it. And, you know, and it's also the, uh. The 50th anniversary. Yeah, the 24, 25 season is their 50th anniversary, so, like, can't miss that. Holy cow.

Speaker B: 74 to 20, man. Yeah, you're right. Oh, my goodness.

Speaker C: Wow.

Speaker B: Long time on that note, sir, I really appreciate, uh, you taking time and, and um, if people want to find out more about, uh, what you're up to and solutions, granted. Now part of Sonic Wall, what's the best way to get a hold of you or, or the organization?

Speaker C: Well, I mean, you can still go to www.solutionsgranted.com. that website still exists. It's still operational and functional. You can also go to www.sonicwall.com. um, a lot of our services have been transitioned in there. If you happen to be a SonicWell partner today, reach out to your channel account manager or whoever you work with over there and just tell them that you're interested. Or you could always email me like, I'll do my best to get back to you. I'm a little bit slower than I used to be because I feel like I'm getting a few more emails than I'm quite accustomed to. But, you know, give us a call, send us an email, follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter or Facebook or whatever craziness Lisa Compton has out there going on on the social media side, because she's always got something happening. Just, um, it always just starts with one conversation. And it's just about where you're at in your journey, what you're looking to accomplish. And you don't have to do everything the way that we're doing it, but maybe there's just one piece that you're not doing that we can augment. And if that's the only thing you ever do with us, cool. You know, it doesn't have to be everything. One thing is all that matters.

Speaker B: That's awesome.

Speaker A: And I.

Speaker B: Look, I think, uh, one thing that makes for really, really good organizations in this space, the channel. You know, there's, obviously it's the technology and the people, but I think it's the, the willingness of the CEO to get out and interact with, uh, the community. You've done a hell of a job of that. I think there are a handful of companies and we can all name them maybe about 10 or 12 out there that CEOs. They did. They leaned into getting out and meeting the customers, picking up the phone, not dodging, not hiding behind that problem. Uh, and, uh, you certainly did that. And so, uh, uh, I'm extremely happy for the outcome and sounds like it's a fantastic partnership between you and Sonicwall. And so well done, sir. Well done.

Speaker C: Yeah, I couldn't be happier. I feel very blessed.

Speaker B: Awesome. Well, on that note, well, thank you very much and, uh, we'll have some links in the show notes and see you on the next episode.

Speaker C: I know. Thanks, Kevin.

Speaker B: You got it.

Speaker C: Thanks. Take care.

Speaker A: That'll do it for us. Thanks for tuning in to the Channel CEO. Remember to visit channelprogram.com for more insights and resources for your businesses. Don't forget to like and subscribe. And if you loved this content, please share it with a friend. Until next time, keep reaching for success.