634 Uncle Marv Visits Kaseya - Leaves Without Incident

(0:10 - 1:02)
Hello friends, Uncle Marv here with another episode of the IT Business Podcast, powered by NetAlly. This is the show for IT professionals, managed service providers, any technician that is providing business support, and you need some tips and tricks on how to run your business better, smarter, and faster. I'm doing this show because yesterday I actually made a trip down to Miami to visit the corporate offices of Kaseya, and many of you seemed concerned for my well-being, so I figured I'd put out a little update and share some of the events that happened down there, explain why I was down there, and let you know that it was a good experience.

(1:03 - 1:46)
So the first question a lot of you probably have is, Marv, why would you go to Kaseya? And the simple answer is, they asked, and they provided lunch and did some other stuff, but they have been asking, I don't know, six months, eight months, maybe more for me to come down there. They're really right down the road, so there really wasn't a reason for me not to go. I'm sure that the original thought that I had was that they were going to try to do some full-court press on me and, you know, try to get me to convert and do all that stuff, but I'll say that did not happen, although it was more like a half-court press.

(1:47 - 2:08)
But the biggest news that I should probably announce is that I have not been acquired by Kaseya. So you can all rest assured that MB Systems, as the MSP, will continue on as it has. The IT Business Podcast will continue on as it has for the last several years.

(2:09 - 2:22)
So no changes there. I also did not have to do anything with signing of paperwork, didn't have to sign an NDA. They didn't tell me what I could and could not talk about after the meeting.

(2:23 - 2:42)
They didn't take my phone so that I couldn't record anything or anything like that, although I didn't. I mean, what am I going to record, you know, a bunch of people sitting around in pods taking phone calls? So none of that stuff happened. There was also no escape room.

(2:43 - 2:57)
So I wasn't locked in a room, didn't have any bright lights in my face, asking questions. In fact, I was in a very nice conference room overlooking the water. Their office is in a very nice location in downtown Miami.

(2:58 - 3:11)
Not one that I would like to go to all the time because I avoid Miami, but a very nice place, nonetheless. And I want to thank the people at Kaseya for having me. Everybody there.

(3:11 - 3:21)
And now, of course, they were all in their best behavior. Everybody waved and smiled and said hello, as they should when they're entertaining company. But it was a good visit.

(3:22 - 3:35)
So one of the things I wanted to say is that some of you were also, you know, making, of course, those comments that always are made. And yes, I know that. And when I chatted with them, I expressed to them what I've heard.

(3:36 - 3:46)
I've expressed to them my experience. For those of you that do not know, I actually use a couple of the Kaseya products. I was a Datto person way back when, IT Glue.

(3:48 - 4:01)
And I was with Open Mesh when Datto acquired them. So I'm in the Kaseya fold. Now, I told them things aren't as rosy as I would like for them to be.

(4:02 - 4:15)
But at the same time, they're not as bad as some people have pointed out in some of the social medias, Reddit, blah, blah, blah. So it was a good visit. Kind of open honesty on both sides, I think.

(4:16 - 4:30)
And I appreciated the meeting. Now for those of you out there who don't know who Kaseya is, where the hell have you been? Because Kaseya is one of the leading providers in our industry. They've been around since 2000.

(4:31 - 4:46)
And they've had some big announcements in recent weeks, especially the announcement of the Kaseya 365 and the pricing. So I did, of course, get the full presentations. Well, not full.

(4:46 - 4:53)
We kind of redacted some of the presentations. Because like I said, I've known Kaseya. I knew who they were.

(4:53 - 5:01)
I used some of their stuff. But I did, of course, get the rundown on some of the other stuff. We talked about the IT complete platform.

(5:01 - 5:23)
We talked about some of the security solutions, network management. And I will have to say that probably the biggest news that a lot of you have talked about has been the pricing. And I will say that the pricing obviously has a point.

(5:23 - 5:30)
Now, I did not ask him what the point is. I have my thoughts. I didn't really care because I'm not going to be making a change anytime soon.

(5:30 - 5:51)
But the starting price point is interesting. And one of the things that I believe in my mind, I did not confirm this while I was there, but Kaseya has always, in my mind, been something where you needed to be at a certain level. You needed to be a larger MSP to use Kaseya products.

(5:51 - 6:21)
But I will say this, the price point, the number of endpoints needed to get in are something that if you are a solo practitioner or a small MSP and you're looking at a starting place to get in, Kaseya might be the place for you to look at. Regardless of how you want to do your contracts, how do you want to do your agreements or whatever, the Kaseya platform, as far as I can tell, is doing okay. Now, I know some of you have some issues.

(6:22 - 6:30)
Some of you have some past history. Things did not go well. But I, myself, have not had those issues.

(6:30 - 6:39)
My products have worked. My billing has been okay. I did have one or two months where they forgot to bill me, but then they caught up.

(6:40 - 6:47)
Not a big deal in my book. But nonetheless, that's where Kaseya is. Their offices, like I said, are really nice.

(6:47 - 6:56)
Their main headquarters are downtown. I'm not going to say where, although you can find them. They're on Brickell Avenue.

(6:56 - 7:05)
It's a very nice location. And they've got space in two buildings that are right next to each other. So they've recently expanded.

(7:05 - 7:13)
They've taken over new space. I did walk by Fred's old office. I just did not see his new office.

(7:13 - 7:25)
So I don't know where that is. I did not see Fred while I was there. I did not see any of the super, super bigwigs, although I did see Nadir Merchant, who was there.

(7:25 - 7:41)
And I did an on-site interview with him, which I'm going to release right after I release this episode. So I was able to at least chat with somebody in Brass. I did meet the trinity of the people that are in my account management sphere.

(7:41 - 8:06)
So my direct account manager, his boss, and then his boss, who is, I think he's like a senior vice president or something like that, senior vice president of account management. So I did get to meet the trifecta people. We talked about, you know, going forward, what our relationship would be.

(8:07 - 8:27)
And for the most part, the only things I remember talking about is, yeah, I might consider moving over, but not now. I'm looking at, I did not take notes, by the way, because I'm not a nerd. So at the very, very end, I did jot down a few things.

(8:27 - 8:51)
So here's to let you know what my notes were. And I wrote, Kaseya, account manager, DattoCon, MSP500, Dan T., Gary Pica, VPN Remote, TruGrid, and Rich. So those were my notes.

(8:52 - 9:04)
I kind of know what I was hinting at with all of that. So those are the things that I took out of my Kaseya meeting. Oh, and they changed the pricing for their networking products.

(9:05 - 9:15)
So the managed switches, wireless access points, had a very nice discussion about those. And that VPN thing, I don't remember the name. And why don't I remember the name? Because I didn't take notes.

(9:17 - 9:32)
But that seemed like a very interesting option to look at as an alternative to the SonicWall VPN and TruGrid. But that's as far as I got. So like I said, not a very bad meeting.

(9:32 - 9:41)
No Kool-Aid or drugs. I didn't get patted down or anything on the way in or the way out. They did give me some swag.

(9:42 - 9:50)
I got a little backpack that I'll never use. I got a mug that I'll never use. And I get a very cool shirt that I'll never wear.

(9:51 - 9:57)
But it's too good to hang in the rafters. So I got to figure out what to do with that. So anyway, that was my visit.

(9:58 - 10:08)
Not a lot of news. But like I said, a lot of you were showing some concern, asking me to blink twice if I needed assistance or send up a flare. No need for that.

(10:08 - 10:24)
I marked myself safe when I got back on the Facebook and here at the main offices back to work. So that's going to do it, folks. I'll release the interview that I did with Nadir Merchant here in a little bit.

(10:24 - 10:28)
And I'll see you soon. And until then, Holla!