Now That's IT: Stories of MSP Success

Customer to CEO: Bente Roycroft on Transforming Accurate Network for Growth

• N-able • Season 2 • Episode 6

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From the pages of English literature to the scientific studies, to leading growth for an MSP. That's the narrative arc Bente Roycroft, CEO of Accurate Network Services, shares with us, painting a vivid picture of her transition from environmental consulting to leading a thriving IT business. Bente reveals how an appreciation for the written word set the stage for triumphs in hiring, HR, accounting, and strategic business planning. 

The chemistry between Bente and her business partner, Luke Williamson, is the sort of alchemy that every company dreams of. Their partnership at Accurate Networks is a dance of contrasting strengths, where Bente's meticulous growth strategies harmonize with Luke's expansive vision. Together, they've steered their ship through the tumultuous waters of the IT industry, transitioning from the unpredictable break-fix model to the stabilizing shores of managed services. Their story isn't just about business acumen; it's about a shared commitment to values and the deliberate steps they took towards cultivating a successful and symbiotic partnership.

Hosted by industry veterans, this podcast delves deep into the findings of the MSP Horizons Report, providing actionable insights to transform your IT business. Each episode features in-depth discussions with experts, thought leaders, and successful MSPs who share their experiences and strategies for navigating the ever-evolving landscape of managed services. Listen & Subscribe Wherever You Get Your Podcasts.

'Now that's it: Stories of MSP Success,' dives into the journeys of some of the trailblazers in our industry to find out how they used their passion for technology to help turn Managed Services into the thriving sector it is today.

Every episode is packed with the valuable insights, practical strategies, and inspiring anecdotes that lead our guests to the transformative moment when they knew….. Now, that's it.

This podcast provides educational information about issues that may be relevant to information technology service providers.

Nothing in the podcast should be construed as any recommendation or endorsement by N-able, or as legal or any other advice.

The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the podcast does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent.

Views and opinions expressed by N-able employees are those of the employees and do not necessarily reflect the view of N-able or its officers and directors.

The podcast may also contain forward-looking statements regarding future product plans, functionality, or development efforts that should not be interpreted as a commitment from N-able related to any deliverables or timeframe.

All content is based on information available at the time of recording, and N-able has no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

Speaker 1:

One, two, three, four. I was pretty discouraged with all things IT. At that point I'm like, ah, it's such an annoying part of the business, this is not one that I want to be involved in, and so. But then we got someone's business card, Luke Williamson. We would go out for coffee and everything would be like hey, can I bounce this idea off of you? And so by the time he actually had the direct conversation with me, I was already invested in the growth of Accurate.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to Now that's it stories of MSP success, where we dive into the journeys of some of the trailblazers in our industry to find out how they used their passion for technology to help turn managed services into the thriving sector.

Speaker 2:

It is today Benta Roycraft. She's the CEO of Accurate Network Services, a full-service IT provider based in Edmonton, alberta, canada. Welcome to the Now that's it podcast. You're trying to figure out what you wanted to do in life. Let's go back a few years, not that many. Could you have ever envisioned that you would be running a growing IT service provider?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, definitely not. That was not part of my plan at all. I really didn't know what I wanted to do. I hadn't considered anything in tech, for sure, but I love reading, and I loved reading then, and I love writing essays and everything like that, so yeah. So I decided I would just lean into the things that I enjoyed and I went in and I got an English degree.

Speaker 2:

That's great. So I assume everybody tells you when you're getting your degree you're gonna be a journalist or a copywriter, a teacher right. Yeah, so maybe that's the path, but you had a different opportunity coming out of out of college. You had an opportunity just to be part of a startup. Yeah you talked a little bit about that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it was. It was. It was pretty amazing. I moved to Alberta, which was, at the time, booming, so there was tons of work there, and I was offered this position to write reports technical reports for this small startup company. So there were three owners and myself and I was getting $20 a report and they took me about six hours to write. So it was a terrible, terrible return on time investment to write. So it was a terrible, terrible return on time investment, but I loved it and and I think that what I loved about it was just I was learning a ton about environmental consulting, which was not something that I had gone to school for at all, but I was able to write, I was able to think, I was able to learn, and the more exciting thing was that I was working with these three gritty scientist entrepreneurs and I was just put into this environment of a business and growing a business, and that was really exciting to me.

Speaker 2:

You're about a four-person startup, yeah, you and three other scientists, right. And then you guys start to grow pretty rapidly, right? Four to a hundred in just a couple of years.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So you had some opportunities to join, obviously part of that executive team, that leadership team and do some things that were again outside of your sort of scope of what you had done before. Talk a little bit about those opportunities.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So we got this contract and we were, well, we didn't have any employees, right. And so the first thing was, okay, well, we have this contract, we need to hire people. So I go to Google and I start Googling how to hire people. How do you hire people, what do you need to do, what are all the legalities and everything else? So we start interviewing and we start growing that way. So I dabble in HR and that was fun. And then, as we're growing people I think we had maybe 10 people Then we were like, oh, you know what, let's bring the accounting in-house and I'm the one that is doing all of these things because everyone else is out in the field.

Speaker 1:

So I took some accounting courses and that sort of thing and brought the accounting in-house. And so we're growing and growing and growing. And as we're growing, then I got to be part of this, the strategic planning and building the culture, and we had to move offices a couple of times and these types of things, and so you just get to see how, yeah, just how a business grows and how it runs and and all of the challenges that come with it. And it was, it was amazing, like I just loved it. I loved the. I loved how every stage of growth was just a new set of challenges and new things that you had to figure out and standardize, or whatever it is. You had to if you wanted to grow the business. You had to develop the efficiencies and the effectiveness and you had to organize it in such a way that was going to make it continue to grow and fuel that, and so that was really exciting to me. I loved it.

Speaker 2:

So something else that I think happened was you learned the importance of good IT support.

Speaker 1:

Yes, as you were helping grow. Yes.

Speaker 2:

Talk a little bit about that.

Speaker 1:

When we first started we had one individual doing our IT and it was fine, but we were as we were going. We did need extra help, so we knew we had outgrown him. But then we went through a series of really bad IT companies. You know the ones that they come in and they say that they can do all of these things and they're going to make everything perfect, and then it just it just reality isn't, isn't what they had, they had claimed it would be. So we had been looking and and I was pretty discouraged with all things IT. At that point I'm like, ah, it's such a an annoying part of the business, this is not one that I want to be involved in, and so, but then we got someone's business card, luke Williamson and so I gave him a call. He actually wasn't going to take my call because he was so busy, but he did, which is a massive blessing, because he came in and we just really hit it off, and so he was.

Speaker 1:

I think at the time he had one other employee, maybe two. They were running it from the back of his Volvo and so they would just drive around with all of his you know, their, their computers and and hardware and cables in the back and they would be doing Luke would be doing the sales calls and then he and Thomas together would be doing all of the support and the projects and all of the things. And so and at that point he was still pretty, you know he would give invoices where it would be blank and you could just fill in what you thought his service was worth. So that's when I met Luke and Accurate Networks, and so we definitely we hired them and Accurate was our service provider ever since.

Speaker 2:

And what was that like? Obviously, I heard you use the term, you know, partnership we hired them, and Accurate was our service provider ever since, and what was?

Speaker 1:

that like.

Speaker 2:

Obviously, I heard you use the term partnership. I mean it was very much a we're going to do this together, right.

Speaker 1:

Obviously, Luke had changed your mind on IT because you had such a bad experience prior.

Speaker 2:

What were some of the ways that he was able to do that in his team?

Speaker 1:

I think, the big thing that Luke and Accurate were able to do. They just listened. They understood what it was like to start growing a business, right? I mean, he was trying to do the same thing. He wanted to grow people, he wanted to grow systems, he wanted to provide quality service and he wanted to enjoy it while he was doing it. So he wanted to have good relationships with his customers, he wanted to have good relationships with his vendors, and that's what he was all about. And so it was not very long at all before we started inviting Luke and Accurate to our Christmas parties and to our summer events and those types of things, and they just became part of the team. And that's how we ran right up until we of the team, and that's that's how we ran right up until until we sold the company. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Let's talk about that 2014,. The consulting firm sells. You have a decision to make right it's the next career of your life. So what's going through your mind at the time?

Speaker 1:

I really loved growing that business. It was so much fun. And so I I was not. I wasn't keen to go and work for someone else and cause, after you've started, you know it's very hard to to to, to get into, to be an employee. I think that we would make terrible employees, but anyway. So I I wanted to go through the transition because the company was purchased and I wanted to see what an acquisition would be like on the, on the receiving end. So we had been acquired by a bigger company and so I was part of that transition plan.

Speaker 1:

And then I knew I wanted to exit, though, because it was also a much bigger company and it wasn't going to be the company for me. So I decided I would do a little bit of consulting and some of my own thing, and I was working with companies and not-for-profits on building up their strategic plans and executing those. Because because building that structure at this environmental consulting firm was was something that was so fulfilling to me and so I just wanted to do that on repeat. You know, kind of like a a fractional type type person. So so, yeah, so I started doing that, building some, building some, some plans with a couple of different companies, but Luke was very quick to to get me to come and work with him and as a consultant. So I started consulting with with Accurate Networks and joining some of their their quarterly planning sessions and all of that, and so that's that's where we ended up.

Speaker 2:

This is what I love about you is you had gone to school for english literature but, over the next um x number of years, you, you sort of became this strategist and you love that growth piece, you love the, the decisions that you had to make. And so when you, when you exit, you know like this is for me right, like those English literature days are beyond, they're beyond, but but I want to be part of something bigger, I want to help grow something else and and until I can find that, I'm going to go it alone and and help others, yeah, so Luke comes across, comes across you and says, hey look, we've had this relationship yeah why don't you come join our team?

Speaker 1:

yeah what are?

Speaker 2:

What are your initial thoughts? You obviously knew Luke, really well, you trusted him yeah. But again that whole.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, he was pretty subtle I mean it was. He says that he was wooing me for years. I don't know that.

Speaker 1:

I even recognize that at the time we would go out for coffee and everything would be like, hey, can I bounce this idea off of you? And so it was that sort of approach that he took to bringing me into Accurate. And so by the time he actually had the direct conversation with me, I was already invested in the growth of Accurate, and so you know. The other thing is, with Luke and any partnership, I think that knowing your partner, knowing the values and the vision that your partner has for the business and being aligned with them on that, that's the, that's the main thing, and I knew at that point, like I already knew, that Luke and I were going to be good, good partners, and so it wasn't, it wasn't too much of a jump for me to, to, to dive in.

Speaker 2:

So you came on part-time at the beginning from a consultant perspective, and even though you had this relationship with Luke, there was still a little bit of you vetting this and making sure this was a good fit For sure. That the culture was right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And that you were going to have the opportunity that I think he was believing. How long did that take for you to to see that, hey, I'm bought in. I'm going to take this thing forward.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think it was about. It was probably close to a year from the time that I started the consulting and the time that I actually bought in to Accurate and purchased shares. Like the transaction was done, so that that was probably about a year, but it was. You know, if you talk to Luke about it, he'll say that this was inevitable. It was going to happen, like he just knew it was going to happen and so it just occurred.

Speaker 2:

And yes, so I've had the pleasure of talking to so many MSPs across the world over the last couple of years. I myself was part of a very fast growing, rapidly growing MSP. You had this relationship with Luke, but Luke had this vision. He knew that he could only take the company so far. I've seen this in a handful of MSPs and I think number one. It's amazing. It's very humble for a founder to say I can only take us so far. I've got to let somebody else lead us. Talk a little bit about Luke himself and just like his personality and what that was like for him to say help us.

Speaker 1:

Luke is an incredible entrepreneur and one of the things that he has always done is surround himself with people that have skills that he doesn't, and he's very aware of that. He's an incredible visionary, and that is not one of my skills I am working on that. It's one of the things that I'm constantly working at more and more but he has this ability to just see things that he wants for himself or for the company and he'll go after it and he'll do it. So I think that when it comes to him as as an entrepreneur and as a person, he is like the yin to my yang.

Speaker 1:

He's the perfect all of the personality assessments. We are complete opposites. So you know it's. It's the perfect fit for running a business because he has all the visionary type qualities and I love building. So that that worked.

Speaker 2:

How do you keep the relationship healthy between you two? Because you are opposites. You're very structured and I've worked for people like Luke that are idea people and they throw ideas at you all the time. How do you keep that, that, that relationship, healthy and and obviously it not drive you crazy with all these ideas, right?

Speaker 1:

Well, it helps that we have the same. It's essential, actually, that we have the same values. I think that if we I had a short little stint where I, where I was in business with a partner that did not want to work the same, you know, didn't have the same values, you have to be in agreement with what type of quality you want out of your service and how you want to treat your employees and all of these things, and Luke and I are incredibly aligned on that, and so having the same vision and the values are critical to keeping the relationship steady Right.

Speaker 1:

The other thing, I think, is that we are we're very communicative. We talk all the time. When we do disagree on something or when we get frustrated with each other, then we've gotten to the point now where we'll say okay, so how long should we be mad at each other for this? Do you want to wait until, like, for an hour, or should we get over this by the end of the day? Or like, what's our plan here?

Speaker 1:

And so we're we're pretty open on that, which I think helps, because you need to resolve those those differences quickly they're, they're obviously going to come is a little different, and and we will we'll work to to make sure that we get there though.

Speaker 2:

That's great. One of the things I really like about you, benta, is that you're you. You're a very confident person and you obviously knew what you wanted early on and you chased that and you didn't settle for whatever. Talk a little bit about that shot of confidence that that happened when Luke said hey, I want you to come in and take over.

Speaker 1:

Oh man, I mean, that was huge. It was a massive opportunity for me and it continues to be a massive opportunity for me because we had this growing. You know, luke is coming to me and he's got this growing business. It's not like it's a failing business. He's coming to me with a growing business and I get to continue to to grow it. But the confidence grows, I think, with each, with each win. And so every time you do something and it works and you're like okay, I've got this, I can. You know I can do this thing, and so it is funny that you say that I'm a confident person.

Speaker 1:

I would not describe myself as confident at all, but I do think that it grows over time and you can cast ballots into your successes over time. I mean it was huge, it's a massive opportunity and I'm incredibly grateful for that. But the big thing is now. You have this thing. You have to do something with it. You've got to go after and figure out what success is going to look like.

Speaker 2:

I think everybody has those sort of moments of self-doubt and, wow, did I make the right decision? Was that right? We just had that loss. You know that failure and maybe this doesn't work. But I think you carry yourself very confidently because, number one, you have a successful MSP. You've continued to build that MSP and you know you were highly sought after from the founder. And what more could that give you? Right, I mean that's you know for you to be like yeah, I'm a person that's going to take a sport.

Speaker 1:

It's good, it's pretty good, yeah, it's fun. It's fun, that's great.

Speaker 2:

All right, so let's talk a little bit about what did Accurate look like when you came on board as CEO. You guys were about how big at the time.

Speaker 1:

We had about 15 people when. I came in and I believe we were at around $2 million in revenue at that point. Everybody was awesome. Like the people at Accurate are great. That was Luke's first things. Like I want people that, that our clients like talking to, and so they were very, very lovely techs. There was absolutely or very little there. I should say there was very little structure at that point, so it was a very flat organization. I remember he had this org chart on the wall and it was.

Speaker 1:

It was flat Like he wanted it to be known that it was a flat org and so, which was lovely, I mean, in theory, there's there's something pleasant about not having a lot of bureaucracy and everything. When you're scaling, though, I think, as a lot of owners know, you need to be able to drive efficiency and effectiveness, and the way you do that is by getting people focused. So we were able to split up some of the teams a little bit, so we drew a line in the sand between the projects people and the service desk, and then we were able to build it from there. So then, after that split, then we decided we would do pods of teams so that when the clients were calling in and they were getting the same people every time, they didn't feel like they were getting a new tech every time they called in, and so it's just building some of that structure into the team. But yeah, but it's certainly evolved.

Speaker 2:

Where do you get your ideas? Because obviously, being in the MSP space, it's not like there's a grocery store that you can go to down the street and say, well, what do the other things look like?

Speaker 1:

Right yeah.

Speaker 2:

Where do you get your ideas Like the, the, the, the pod idea? Maybe we would talk about that for a minute, because that is is absolutely a very popular trend that a lot of MSPs are starting to go down. I've seen several MSPs have actually been in their offices and seen what their pods look like. Talk to me about why that was so important to you to implement that.

Speaker 2:

And then how did you change that? Because you went from look, we're a one-to-many organization, which is what the book of MSPs said you should be doing to we're going to try to structure this so it's more customer service centric, said you should be doing to.

Speaker 1:

We're going to try to structure this so it's more customer service centric. Yeah, so we knew we had to do it, because what was happening is that the customers I mean number one is you have to listen to your customers. And so the customers were saying every time I call in, I get a different tech. You know that this it doesn't sound like it could be true, because you only have a handful of techs. With our 10 techs, it didn't seem like it was that many. But if you think from the client's perspective, for some of them it's only twice a month, but then they get a different tech every time. It could be a couple months before they get the same tech again. So that was number one is you listen to the clients. You're hearing this from multiple people. Every time we call them, we get someone different.

Speaker 1:

We knew we had to have something more personalized. So we are involved in a couple of organizations, well, like Enable and our vendors, where we're able to connect with other MSPs. That makes a massive difference. So we can hear okay, well, these guys tried this pod structure. It seems to be a good idea, and then you try it out, right?

Speaker 1:

I think so many of the things in business is trying something and it might fail. You have to put your best foot forward, but if you, you know this is one that absolutely worked, and and then you develop little cultures within your pods as well. So we have our, you know, kootenai and Yoho and our little national parks, and they love it right, like they, and they can brand it that way, and and the clients know who, who their teams are, and so you can put your own spin on it. To your question of how you come up with these ideas, it's surrounding yourself with other people, other MSPs, other vendors, other businesses. It doesn't even have to be in the same industry, but what are some of the things that they're doing and then see how you can apply it at Accurate and in our business.

Speaker 2:

Obviously you come through business transformation with. Robert and I and you were in a room with other MSPs and you weren't afraid to be a little vulnerable and share, like these are some of the bad things that we did, but this is some of the good stuff. And then you were also able to get that in return, right Like you had tons of ideas and tons of feedback and you made those connections. Talk about the importance of just those relationships that you build in the industry through events like what we're at today.

Speaker 1:

One of the reasons that I come to things like this is because you want to know what everyone is talking about, like what are the challenges that people are having, and you want to know if you're on the right, the right track or not.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes, if you are, it feels so lonely at times when you are running a business, because you are, you know you're either making a profit or not, but is profit the only thing that you should be caring about? Because what if the clients are, you know, talking about security, or they need some more help with their productivity tools or whatever? It is like you, you don't know if you're going down the right path or not, and there are people that have done this before, and there are people that are further along the journey than we are, and there are people that are coming up behind us, and it's a big space. I think that it's a competitive space, but it's also one where people are very willing to share their ideas, and so it's a cool industry to be part of, and so to be able to glean those ideas and the lessons and the things that didn't work from other people, it's huge.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, something else that was important to you was to sort of shift accurate from that break fix business to the MRR managed business. Talk a little bit about that process.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that was that was. That was tricky, as I imagine it is for any MSP. That used to be a block hour business. But yeah, you know, when you're, when you're really small, when it's just five people or 15, even it's it's okay to do the block hours and it it's you know. You know that you are, you're getting paid for the work that you do and and that's okay. When you have 50 employees, then you have a number of people who rely on this paycheck, and that is scary because you don't want them to miss their mortgage payments because we don't have enough work, and so you have to build some reliable, steady income for the business that can then easily flow to the staff.

Speaker 1:

And so we knew that we needed to do this to move from being reactionary for our customers to proactive for them. That was number one. But we also knew that, in order for us to retain good employees and the technical capabilities and wanted to grow their technical capabilities, which meant that we would have to pour into them when it was slower and get them their certs and get them to conferences like these, we knew that we were going to have to have a plan for that revenue. So how do you get the clients on board with this? That's number one. You have to be able to talk to your clients, have a plan for that, that revenue.

Speaker 1:

So how do you get the clients on board with this? That's, that's number one. Like, you have to be able to talk to your clients in a meaningful way and not just talk to them, but on the operational side, figure out how you're going to provide that value to them. So it can't just be that you're getting more money without any more value they. You have to figure out both pieces and you have to do it at the same time. So our first contract was the worst. It was a terrible contract. We totally I don't know it was a bad contract.

Speaker 2:

Talk a little bit about that. You don't have to bring up all the battle wounds, but talk about just some of the mistakes.

Speaker 1:

The client was on board with going to this fixed fee model, but we're kind of scared. So you go into the meeting and you try to take all of the risk off of the client so that they sign this thing. So then you end up with all of these clauses in this agreement which prevent you from actually doing any of the work without great friction along the way. That first MSA with that one client was just full of challenges from an operational perspective, but we got the sale, and so that's when you're like, okay, so this is fine, but this is not going to take us where we need to go. So we needed to become a little bit bolder where we said, okay, so this is what we're going to do. And we've had many iterations of the MSA since we started down that path. You have to see the value that you're providing to the clients and you have to be able to speak to that value in a way that is, you know it is good for them right.

Speaker 1:

It's not just a scheme to make more money and to make consistent money throughout the year. It's okay. We need to make sure that we're actually proactively monitoring their environment in a way that is meaningful to them, to prevent outages and to prevent, you know, these security threats and all of these things. So how do you operationalize that and sell it at the same time, or which comes first? You know like it's that dance, the whole, the whole way.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, fantastic. I mean I feel like every MSP has gone through some sort of a hiccup, whether it was a contract, or we priced this too low, or we included too much, didn't include enough. Can you talk a little bit about the types of customers that Accurate maybe had in the early days? Versus where you guys are today, is that different?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's a tough. That's so hard because the clients in the early days they loved, like we know them as people, right. So a lot of them actually, and we're we're, you know they were, they were smaller mom and pop shops but they got us off the ground. There are still some, for sure, that we, that we support in that break fix model. But if they, you know, as they grow, if they are growing, then we will. You know, we have the tough conversation where we've actually off-boarded a number of them and to another break-fix provider in Edmonton that wants to remain a break-fix IT service provider and so that's good, like I think that that's a good solution for them.

Speaker 1:

Um, but it's in those, in those off-boarding discussions. So a lot of them have said well, you know what, we'll go with your, with your MSP model, and and, and they'll go with the fixed, the fixed fee and so we keep it pretty low.

Speaker 1:

But, like it's, it's just a different target, right. So at the beginning you're saying yes to everyone, anyone that wants you. You're like, yes, we want to do business for you. Now we are a little bit more. We're certainly more selective. Where you know they need to be Microsoft shop, they need to want security, they need to, they need to be on board with the fixed fee model and and and care about that, right. So we're looking for potential evangelists is what we're saying for our services and we want to be a, we want to be a company that well, backing up a little bit like one of the things that things that I felt in the environmental consulting days is that IT was something that you talked about as a necessary evil that you just hated, right.

Speaker 2:

Yep.

Speaker 1:

And so now, when here at Accurate, then we want to be an IT services company worth talking about. But for the good things, right, we want to provide that awesome quality, we want to provide the customer care and really hearing them, that's what we're after. So then the target changes over time.

Speaker 2:

Defining that target is really hard. Benta right Like cause as you mentioned early on, it's pretty much anybody that has a that will write a check right. But as you mature which you guys definitely have the thing that I sort of hear you say is that you're going after people that value IT.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, right.

Speaker 2:

Like they realize we need help because we aren't the right people. We need to focus on this. This is what we're doing and you guys, as soon as you, can, become that trusted advisor that can give them the recommendations on what they need and do it in an affordable fashion not the cheapest, but in an affordable fashion. That's the partnership those are the successful ones right.

Speaker 1:

And that's hard to again shed some of those old clients, because these are relationships, these are how you built the business right, yeah, we have as much love for them on the way out as we do on the way in and we make sure that they are set up. And we still get calls from from a lot of them and I think that it's you know, we really care about them and so it's hard to say goodbye.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, so you were also involved. You guys were growing organically, but there was a right time when an M&A opportunity happened and you were involved in that first acquisition. Can you talk a little bit about that, why it was the right time and what that was like?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so we were supporting a customer who had an office in both Edmonton and Calgary, and so we were just supporting the Edmonton office. And then there was another MSP that was supporting the Calgary office and it was a big client. So we had worked with tech systems a number of times for this client, for different projects and that kind of thing, so we've been able to collaborate. So we knew who they were, what the owner was like and all of this. The owner of tech. He wanted to get out of the industry. He was ready for a change and so he reached out to us and asked if we could just have this conversation.

Speaker 1:

It wasn't actually dissimilar from me talking to Luke and joining Accurate. It was. We had very similar values. We had very similar wishes for our clients. We had a very similar definition of what quality service was. It was a good, a good culture fit for us to acquire tech and tech had. There were three people, three techs that were going to be coming over. One of them was Booker, who I know you've you've chatted with many times, and that was. It was a really great experience. It got us into the Calgary market. That was in 20, 2017, I want to say and or 2016 maybe, and we still have those three techs with us today. I think we have about 15 people in the Calgary office now, so it's definitely grown. It was an exciting experience to be part of.

Speaker 2:

I'd love to do more, but the culture and the opportunity, the opportunistic time and the client crossover there it definitely helped that's pretty special when you can acquire a group of individuals that very quickly become integrated and feel like they're part of the growth.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And they're not just the people that have to do what you're telling them to do yeah. I was part of an acquisition and I was part of the sort of leadership team going forward and it felt so important and we were very similar size, we were quite large at the time, but very similar size, but to be able to say, look, we don't have it all figured out, we want to hear your opinions on it.

Speaker 2:

And you guys did the same thing with those guys, like they had a, they had a skillset that they brought Booker, who, to your point, I know him pretty well, he's a unique individual and he brings a ton of skill, and so when you recognize that, that had to empower him to obviously build the rest of the team out.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely yeah, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2:

I don't know if you're a big movie buff, but your story reminds me of. There's this movie that Mark Wahlberg was in a couple of years ago called Rockstar. It was probably about 10, 15 years ago. He's a fan of this band in the movie and somehow the lead singer drops out and so he becomes the lead singer of this band as a fan, and so I kind of think of you in this. Obviously Luke's still around, still very involved, but you were the customer turned CEO. What can you think about those times when you were the customer? Now that you're CEO, how is that helping you today?

Speaker 1:

You know I'm going to have to watch that movie now.

Speaker 1:

I have not seen it, but I will when we're coming up with ideas, because so much of business is just talking about ideas and then trying them out and seeing what works. And I think that I am very similar to the vast majority of the key contact for our clients, and so if someone has an idea and they want to run something, they'll they will often run it by me because is it something that I would want to buy, cause if it is, maybe our clients will too right Like it makes it's very, it's very easy from that perspective to talk about things from the client's perspective. So I think that that we get that. We get that sort of discussion with my history there.

Speaker 1:

And I remember and I'm, you know, I'm not a technical person, I don't have the technical background, it's come. I've learned quite a bit over the last several years now. But but I know the frustration about not knowing how to do something with your computer or with your. You know something happens and you can't work, you know. And so that voice, I think, is very, very loud and accurate. Because of that it's like, no, our client, it's not our client's fault that they can't do this thing Like they. Just you know they can't work, they need help.

Speaker 2:

So yeah.

Speaker 1:

So I think that voice is very, is very loud because of that. But yeah.

Speaker 2:

So what would you tell young Benta, who just graduated with? Her literature degree what? What would you tell her about how to prepare for success in the future?

Speaker 1:

Oh man, I think the big thing for young Benta would be to just boldly go after the opportunities and and whatever, whatever you do, you just do it, do it as well as you can and do it as though something good is going to come out of it and and it always has. Like that's the thing. Like you work hard at something and doors open, you meet people and doors open, like this is the thing. Is I think that you, I think for for my journey, I think, has been a lot around working hard at the things that have come up and doing good work and connecting with the people that are going to that I can help. Like not looking for something to come out of it necessarily, but just connecting with people and good things come so boldly go.

Speaker 2:

I love it. So, benta, I think you've already made a name for yourself in your in your young career, but you know, when did you know that that was it?

Speaker 1:

Do I know? I know, but how did I know? I don't know when I knew. I think I think you know when you are where you need to be, and I see that there are wins, and I see that there are more wins than not, and I see that people that are employees are happier and they are bettering their lives, and I see that we are providing better and better service and value to our customers, and so so there's, there's something in in in your gut that you just know, like this is this is where I'm supposed to be, and it's a good thing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'm happy you are where you are. I think you have helped grow a very successful MSP into a more successful MSP. I'm so glad you're with us today and I really, really appreciate your time today. This was amazing. I wish you and the Accurate team the absolute best of luck. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1:

Thanks so much for having us.