Building & Buying: How S1 Technology Scaled Fast with Strategy, Culture, and Grit

Joshua: Welcome to Show Hunter. Welcome to show. Hello? Yeah. Hello, uh, we're here with Scott, myself and, and we're having a conversation with, uh, two of Scott's friends who, who brought you guys in, and we'd like to get to know you and for the audience members of, uh, the Deal podcast. So Jeremy, why don't you kind of start out letting us know who you are?

Jeremy Roth: So, uh, Jeremy Roth, uh, I was born and raised in Lafayette, Louisiana. Um, I am. Uh, the baby in the family. So I, I have two older brothers, um, and I have been married for 27 years. I have twin 16-year-old girls. Um, even my dog's a girl. Um, um, and, uh. Let's see. I went to high school, graduated high school. Um, started down the college path, quickly realized that it wasn't for me, um, and, uh, decided to start working.

So, um, picked up some crazy odd in jobs, moving houses, uh, doing AC work. Uh, those kind of things. Realized I needed to go back to school. Uh, so went back to school for a couple of years, um, and was hired, um. Uh, let's see, this was in 99. It was hired while I was in school and, uh, before I graduated, about six months before I graduated.

Um, and the company that hired me allowed me to go and finish my, my degree. I only got an associate's degree, so I wasn't a big school guy, so I was in and out really quick. But when I had my first opportunity to work, um. It was, uh, it was something I was interested in. It was in, uh, uh, networking, computer networking.

So I started off as, uh, a help desk guy and uh, which lasted about six months. And then the, um, the IT director left and went somewhere else. So I was promoted to the IT director from the help desk. Um, and, uh, had to learn a lot of things really quickly. Um, and, uh, I, I'm not sure, I'm sure I'm not. Sure. How long do you want me to go here?

Yeah, just keep going man. Okay. So yeah, you're good. I don't wanna take up everybody's time, but, um, so, um, got promoted to an IT director. This was back in the, you know, the two thousands. So YY 2K bug fix. Yeah. Um, did you 

fix Y 2K? Did you solve the issue? Yeah. Yeah. Very good. 

Yeah. Um, and then, um, let's see. Uh, I guess from that point I was kind of the IT director for.

In the next 10 years or so. Uh, and in 2009, I, uh, started Roth IT Services, which is A MSP, and, um, uh, picked up some jobs while I was working full-time for another company that I worked with Scott at. And, um, uh. Client base built up and built up and had twin daughters, and my wife has said, Hey, you have to pick one.

You can't do full-time job and the side work at the same time, you know? So, uh, I decided to go out on my own full-time. Then this was 2014, I believe. Um, hired my first employee, built that company up to about six employees. Um, and, uh, I guess around, uh. For 2018, that company was acquired by another bigger IT firm here in Lafayette.

Um, and I stayed there for about three years. Um, and then that's actually where I met Hunter and, um, I'll, I, we'll go into that later, I'm sure. But, uh, stayed here for three years, uh, left in 2021 right after COVID and we started S one Technology and, um, uh, been there since and. It's doing great. Life is good.

Yeah. Very cool. All right. So Hunter, you know, what's, what's part of your story and, and how'd you get wrapped in with, uh, Jeremy? 

Hunter: Yeah. Um. As you can see, I'm a lot younger than Jeremy, so my story's a lot shorter. Um, so I'm born and raised here. I went to LSU, uh, go Tigers, and I studied, uh, it's called ISDS, information Systems Decision Sciences.

I had this grand plan to go become a, uh, a management consultant. I was gonna go to New York. I was gonna be management consultant where I suit every day. Um. God's plan was that I met a very pretty girl, way prettier than me, and she said, we're moving back to Lafayette. So I graduated in my four years. We came back here, started working in an IT services company while going to business school at night.

And um. Learned a lot, man. Like up until that point I was working at Acadian Ambulance, kind of individual contributor. I was service desk guy, like I was fixing printers, fixing email. Uh, EMTs would call me in the middle of the night and I would fix their tablet. Like all kinds of different things. So learned a lot.

And then, um. I'm, uh, take all those experiences through school, start working at this IT services company here in Louisiana, and, um, kind of get really interested in cybersecurity and, uh, and that side of the business and the side of it. And, um, a couple of things happened in my life. Um, my wife's family were all entrepreneurs and so I'd always kinda looked up to entrepreneurs, thought they were aspirational, got to meet several successful ones.

I'm like, man, these people are smart, but like. I could be smart like that, like I could figure that out. And um, so I had some really good mentors that kind of pushed along. And in 2021, well. Upstream of that, Jeremy's business had been acquired by, uh, another company. He tried to hire me away from that company I was working for.

And um, I had a good gig at the time. I was like, man, I can't mess this up. I'm gonna, I'm gonna stay where I'm at. But I remember like really connecting with him and like a, a 45 minute lunch, like right after COVID. We just connected. And I think the thing about, about businesses, especially if you're gonna pick partners, like that, connection is super important.

It has to be quick, it has to be deep. Like you have to trust that person like a marriage. And so, um. In 2021, um, uh, in January, I started thinking like, man, there's, there's a lot of opportunity to, to help small meet medium, small, medium sized businesses with cyber, with IT support. And so the only person I knew that had done that successfully was Jeremy.

So I called Jeremy like, Hey man, mind you, at the time I'm 20. 3 22, 23. And Jeremy's like, he's older in his, in his career. So I'm like, that's the second time mentioned. I'll tell you what, hopefully he says yes. So I call him and um, and uh, can I swear on this podcast or no? What, 

which word are 

you gonna use?

Okay, I won't swear. No, I don't mind. Go for it. Go through 

them and I'll tell you when you're not allowed to say that. Okay. 

So I called Jeremy randomly. We, we just like, we kind of kept a cadence, like we'd go do lunch and stuff like that. And uh, a couple of things happened in my life where I'm like, man, this is kind of the time to go do this thing.

If we're go jump off and build something, let's do it now. Um, we didn't have kids at the time. We have kids now. And so, um. I called Jeremy outta the blue and I'm like, Jeremy, would you go start another MSP with me? MSP means managed service provider, managed it, cybersecurity service provider. And without missing a beat, Jeremy's like, fucking right, let's go.

So that's the one you were gonna say. I remember. Yeah. I remember thinking, I'm like, man, all right, let's go now we gotta go do 

it. Not the answer you wanted, Doug. Yeah, so, so 

we, we left our jobs on April Fool's Day and, uh. Worked from our, our living rooms, and that was about four years ago now. And now we've got about, I think 45 employees.

We do business in 30 plus states. We have an office here. We have an office in Anchorage, Alaska. Uh, we just closed on our second, second acquisition. Um, this year we made the Inc 5,000. We're the only IT service company in Louisiana to make that list. Um, so it's. We're boat up and, and we got a dream team going right now.

And in this story we haven't mentioned, we have a third partner named Damien Oye, who's kind of like the, the secret operational sauce to what we're doing. Um, so yeah, man, I think it's between the three of us and, and the team that we've built, it's, I, I don't know, I don't know where this boat stops, but it's, it's going, 

yeah, man.

I love your energy, Scott. So how, how do you loop in with these guys? Because, you know, coming from. Coming from your side of the table and, and your background, how do you know these, these gents? 

So I was thrown in a conference room slash office with Jeremy at the family business in 2007. Um, we had a. A rusty partition that separated our rotten wood desk.

And, uh, he was the IT manager. Um, a cousin of mine was on the other side. Um, also kind of doing some IT stuff, uh, and I was thrown in the middle, um, kind, kind of like, uh, hunter said. We, we just connected, I guess. Uh, from day one we became really good friends and spent. Four years in that conference room, uh, knocked down the, the partition wall, probably a weekend.

Um, and then yeah, off to the races. So he managed the IT department for the four years that I was with the company and then he left shortly after that. Um, and I always knew he'd do do something great. Didn't know when it would happen. Uh, and I met Hunter, obviously through Jeremy and we've uh, kind of bonded over our love for golf as well.

Um. Which is always fun. 

Yeah. So in this story, Jeremy, it seems like you're the kind of a, a nucleus that has attracted many forces to you when, when building something, um. What do you think, how do you approach things differently? 'cause you've acquired, you know, you're on your second acquisition, you've built a company, sold it.

You, you, your first company, you grew, sold it. Second company, you guys are now in 30 states, Inc. 5,000. Congrats to you guys. Good job, gents. Right? What do you think is the, for, you know, for a leader, what do you think that is that, uh, that, that attracts good talent to you? 

Um. You mentioned a second ago, you love his energy.

Yeah, I think it's, I think it's the energy. I think it's the passion for doing something you really like to do, you enjoy doing. And it just so happens that what we do impacts a lot of people and, and companies and businesses, you know, and I, I feel like, um, just, I don't know. I'm, I'm pretty, uh. I'm, I'm into whatever, whatever we're doing, I'm, I'm full speed ahead, you know?

Um, and the, it is just something that I've been doing for so long that it's just part of me now. It's part of my DNA, it's just, it's, you know, um, uh, so I don't know. I think it's maybe just my, I don't know. What would you think? I mean, I feel weird saying it about myself, you know? I don't know. Yeah. That's how awesome I am.

That's why it's 

kind of. Um, uh, so I'm answering this question on Jeremy's behalf. I'd say what Jeremy's really good at is like the, in terms of, of taking people and bringing 'em towards you. Like there's two different ways of doing it. Like you could go fishing or you could go hunting. I think Jeremy does a good job of hunting.

Like, the reason we connected is 'cause he literally hunted me to go like, Hey, let's go grab lunch Hunter. Like, I'd love for you to come work for me. And, um, and so in like when, whenever that was 2018, I, that was just a cold LinkedIn message that he sent to me and. I, I think without that energy, without that gumption, without that like straightforward, I'm gonna go get it kind of attitude like, that doesn't happen.

None of this happens. Um, so I would say, yeah, like he's very deliberate and like he, he really goes after whatever he wants and, uh, and I think that's attractive to people. Like that's what, this is the law of attraction to not just employees, but partners and vendors and acquisition targets and friends, everything.

Joshua: For sure. So we, we, we've gotta clear something up before you go, Scott. Okay. Yeah. How, how old is this guy Married? 27 years. He mentioned it twice. How old are you Dude? 

Jeremy Roth: I'll be 50 in December. Alright. Yeah. You look good man. Thank you. Thank 

not hitting on you. I'm just saying you look good. Yeah. Yeah. You look, you look good and vibrant.

So, Scott, you had a, you had a question for, 

Scott: yeah, I just wanted 

to add, 'cause Jeremy. I've gotten to know him really well. He, he will never say it. And I don't wanna compliment him on this show 'cause people may find out. But to me it's just being genuine and honest. Like people, they sense that there's a lot of bad actors out there who tell you what you want to hear.

Um, and it's not the truth. And I, I think just human nature is you people pick up on that and they wanna work in that environment. And both of these guys are. I don't work for them, but I know they're, they're straight shooters and like when you go to their office, everybody's happy and like they treat people well, which we've talked about prior.

How important just culture, um, and building that good culture iss. 

Joshua: Yeah. I appreciate you sharing that, Scott. The, one of the themes of our, the work that we do here right, is mergers and acquisitions. Right. As a, as a business. That started when, when was S one launched? 2018 ish. April, 2021. Okay. 2021. Yeah.

Hunter: That's when we, we met in 2018, and then we got together in, uh, got it. 2021 had to date for a while. And then finally 

the, the, the launch in 2021. And you guys have on your second acquisition, so you guys had this mindset of growth through acquisition. Kind of walk us through what that looked like and how you approach that versus just the growth by customer acquisition.

Mm-hmm. Like. Who, who wants to take that, that ball? 

I'll, I'll take that one. Um, all right, go for it. So we've grown, we, we've done two acquisitions so far. The first one was, um, seller note, really clean, sort of acquihire situation. The second one we just closed on, I think yesterday. And, um, that's a, that's more of a, a true acquisition cash up front.

Some, um, some, some additional deal terms on the back end of it. More seller notees. Um, we have grown organically. Much, much faster than as added by acquisition. Uh, on average, we've been growing about 85 to 95% a year for the last four years. And so at first we thought the law of small numbers is very easy to double year over year.

But then we, we double then we double, then we double, and. It keeps happening like that and that's without those acquisitions. So the organic growth is far more important for us. Um, we know that, uh, the organic growth is, is good 'cause one, it creates more enterprise value. Two, it creates good systems and behaviors.

Um, three, it's easier to like. To manipulate how the customer experience feels. 'cause we want that customer experience to feel the same as it did whenever it was just us three answering the phones. Um, so the organic growth is really what we overindex on. The AC acquisitions have been sort of opportunistic as they've come.

We're not working with the search group, we're not going out and seeking these things. We kind of wait for them to come to us at the moment. 

Joshua: Okay. When they do come to you, how do you know something is a potential target? Now you've got this like uncanny skill for, for acquiring talent and you know, how do you guys, when phone call comes or you guys are looking at something, how do you know that the opportunistic acquisition is there?

Jeremy Roth: Hmm. I think we both have things that we are looking for in, in businesses, but I know for me, um. The easiest ones are the ones that are most in line with how we run our business today, right? That, that, that's the easiest acquisitions is, um, finding, finding companies that are doing things the way that we're doing them and, um, uh, the hardest ones, which, which is, those are rare by the way, um, because everybody's runs their businesses differently.

Um, but I think the. I don't know. What would you, what would you say? 

Hunter: Um, 

Jeremy Roth: I think deals, like when we look at deals, it's all a risk conversation. And so to Jeremy's point, the ones that don't do things the way that we do 'em, we find to be the highest risk and so therefore get the lowest price. Um, but it's probably important to like.

Determine or like separate how we work versus how most of the legacy market has worked. So what we are is a managed IT services company. So let's say you've got a CP, A firm with 20 people. Rather than go hire an internal IT person, internal cybersecurity person, go procure all the tools. You hire a fractionalized service like us, and we charge a fraction of what you'd pay a full-time employee in that respect.

And so for us, everything is month recurring revenue based. We really over index on customer service, and it's a, it's a relationship that we plan to have for life. Um, they sign a 36 month agreement, so it's 36 months of, of month recurring revenue. But. We have to earn that renewal. We have to earn them being a customer for life.

And most of the industry that existed before us, our predecessors were built on sort of the fee for service model. We call it the break fix world. And so most of the businesses, and I guess the folks that listen to a podcast like this will understand most of the businesses that are 10, 15, 20 years old.

They were built on that legacy principle of fee for service break fix. They've tried to reorient themselves towards a managed recurring revenue model. Um. So that's just for context where Jeremy's coming from is those types of businesses are very difficult for us to fold in. So as a result, it's more risk.

We pay a lower price. And so that's a lot of words to answer your question of how do we look at 'em and how do we, uh, make sure they're a good fit? 

Joshua: Yeah, for sure. Scott, looks like you have something to, 

Scott: I just had a question. Um, so we've been talking about them looking to acquire. Um, I know managed service providers is like a.

Hot spot in the private equity world and obviously you're hitting the what Inc. Five. 5,000. Was it like, ha, has your phone and email been blowing up with people looking to acquire you guys? That's a great question. And what goes into that decision? 'cause we see it all the time. Like obviously, well, not y'all are young, we've determined Jeremy May be older, but when is the time?

Right. Apologize for that. I would've brought it up anyway. Um. When thinking about being acquired potentially in the future, like how do you to determine timing and like when that's the right choice? Um, because I know a lot of business owners struggle, you know, most of the ones that we deal with are forced in some regard because of either age or, you know, no secession, but you guys are.

Young and have a lot of gas in the tank. So how do you kind of evaluate that? 

Hunter: I'll, I'll take this 

one. 'cause I just answered, I just answered this to you earlier, is, um, right now we're stiff arming 'em. Like, Hey, thank you for the interest. Very nice of you. Like, we're happy, um, we're gonna keep doing this thing for as long as we possibly can.

Um, but like advice that I got and advice that Jeremy got at the beginning of the business was build a business to sell. Like all those good practices and principles that make you a valuable business, when you do try to pull the parachute, run a process, um, those are the things that make a business a good business.

So do 'em in the beginning. Track what matters, like hire good people, uh, replace yourself in the process. Um, be able to grow without the founders leading it. All those solid principles, like we, we've been doing those since the beginning because maybe at some point we will decide to sell, uh, or take on a capital partner and go acquire the rest of the market.

So. All of all of these things that, that you would do in the case of, um, maybe three years prior to selling a business, go do it and, and make your business really valuable. We try to do this from jump, but for now, I mean yeah. We're, we're, we're rocking and rolling, dude. Like Jeremy, Jeremy's the youngest 50-year-old I know.

Yeah. So we got some runway. Absolutely. Keep me young. 

Joshua: So, so Jeremy. You've been in, uh, the IT world for a long time, and you've seen evolutions, you've seen different business models, and the, the model that you guys have chose was to move away from that break, break fix world fee for service to more of a managed fee mo uh, reoccurring revenue model, which is looks great on for multiples and for, for these kind of things, like how did you go about making that decision?

How did, how did that evolve? 

Jeremy Roth: Oh, so 

when I first started my first business, uh, I had a discussion with a, a gentleman by the name of Paul Dipple and Paul Dipple runs or ran this program at the time, service leadership. And they focus on, um, MSPs and, uh, trends in the MSP world and things that work, things that don't work.

Uh, um, and he had a, th I had a 30 minute phone call with him, and that's what kind of changed everything. At that time, I was, look, I was just starting my business. Uh, I was just starting to grow quickly and, and I was. Looking at like good, better, best, uh, tiers for customers to pick, right? And he, he said, man, he said, why?

Why would you not give them the best solution? Why wouldn't you give the best solution to everyone? Why? Why would you allow someone to pick a, um, a subpar solution? No. And you know, it, you know, you knowing that they're picking a, um, a subpar solution. And I was like, he's like, you need to offer everyone the same thing and it needs to be the best package you can put together.

So from that point on, we only did it that way. We only had one solutions. We didn't do a bronze, silver, gold, uh, you know, tier one, two, and three. You know, this is free, that's this much. And if you call in three times that you get a bill. We didn't do any of that. It's, you pay us a flat rate per month and we do everything for you.

We do all the security, the support, everything. So we are your IT department and uh, I think. That's the, that's, I, I believe that that's the right way to do it, you know? Um, and you're just setting them up for success, the companies that you're helping, you know, uh, if I, if I onboarded a customer and, and allowed them to not pick email security for an option because it might save them $10 a user per month or something that then I have to worry about them getting hacked and, and them dragging me into it, you know?

So it's better to just provide the best solution you can provide and the support that goes along with that, you know? 

Joshua: For sure. Let's talk about. And, uh, you guys are working together. Let's talk about roles, responsibilities, and, and how that works. Like how did you guys, uh, approach that? You guys don't have to give specific details on money or splits or anything like that or, but just kind of give us an overview of how did you, when you started the company, how did you divvy up roles, responsibility, and reward?

How did you approach that conversation? Hmm. 

Hunter: We did, we did like put some, some thought into it. There was like this, uh, it was like probably an an inordinate amount of, of effort into it when it really could have been as simple as if we just landed where we landed. But there's just like, there's this Y Combinator, um.

Uh, equity split calculator thing. Yeah. Yeah. We went through this whole thing and like we ended up exactly where, where we thought we were gonna be, where Jeremy and I are equals, and we have this, this partner that came in that's, that's a little bit less than us, but still a, a good partner. Um, and then in terms of like who was gonna do what, we never had a like a conversation around like, Hey, you're gonna sell, you're gonna do it.

We just all did everything. Like we all answered the phones, we all went on sales calls. We all tried to hire people. We all went to try to find office space, like. We're all doing the marketing, like it was kind of a, a, we're all just wearing all the hats as best we could, and that's, that seemed to work for us.

Jeremy Roth: Yeah. Yeah. 

I think it's, I think it's what, it's, what it's morphed into is, um. Hunter and I are, are both really doing all the sales, you know, uh, we have some guys that are going out, pulling on handles, getting leads, we're doing the sales, and then man, when we have the opportunity to bring Damien in, he's like the secret weapon that just closes everything.

I mean, he's, he's so good. Uh, so, but he's, he's helping with the sales. He's doing a lot of the operations. Um, I, I don't know. We, you and I kind of really just do whatever needs to be done. That's kind of how we, we. We really look at it, you know, if there's all these things that need to be done, we're just grabbing 'em and doing them.

Hunter: It's probably best expressed in like, like the feeling that, so there's this feeling and, and if you've had like a really good partner, you understand this, um, maybe in like your marriage, you feel like this, but if there's something that I can't get to and I can hand it to Jeremy, I know that Jeremy's gonna do the exact same thing that I would do.

And if Jeremy has something that he can't get to, he knows that I'm gonna make the exact same decision he would make. And like, without any sort of communication, like no telepathy is there, it's just like. We run on EOS and so on. The vision traction organizer, like we have our goals stated very clearly, and if, if we're working on something together and we think about something like differently, it's both, it's two different thoughts that both those thoughts feel like they're the best way to get to the, the, the, the tenure goal, the 10 year target.

So it's like a really good forcing function for that. But I think even if we didn't have EOS. We just, we think about things a lot of the same way, which in a service business is important. There's a lot of situations where if you've been in the service business, it's like the customer is, maybe they're right, maybe they're, maybe it's close to, like maybe you're right, but you let it go the customer's way.

Um, you, you go into the red for a month 'cause that's what's, that's right. For the customer. And we just, we think the same way about those things. So in a lot of ways, like. If I get hit by a bus, Jeremy could do what I do. If Jeremy hits by a bus, I could do some of what he does. And we just think about things the same way.

Jeremy Roth: And, and it's, and it's, and it's rare to have, not only just Hunter and I at that same level, but it's rare, rare to have a third. Our third partner thinks the exact same way. So it's, and we, and we test this all the time by saying, what, what were you thinking? And he says, and I say, and Damien says, and it's like, we're all aligned.

It's, it's, it's really amazing, man. It's, it's a, it's a good feeling to have. 

Joshua: Yeah. It's like that movie Stepbrothers did. We just become best friends, right? So plus Hunter, I think if you got hit by bus, you'd break the bus. Man, you look really strong. Oh yeah. Thank you, man. Yeah, you're welcome. Goty, you've been flirting 

with both of us.

You've been working out. All right. Yeah. I gotta get 

got good compliments where compliments are due. Scott, you know, to you I, I, I see you thinking he didn't say that 

about me. You noticed that, Scott. 

You look good, man. Thank you. Scratch golfer. Yeah, I say that once the podcast, right? 

Sometimes. Yeah. You do.

Yeah. 

Scott, what are your thoughts in, in, in terms of. You know, we're, we're having these conversations 2025 at the time of recording. Let's, let's fast forward, you know, three to four, five years when these gents are ready to sell and they come to us to help represent them. You know, like what are your thoughts in terms of, uh, where, where's value found in, you know, this kind of business?

Where could they, where could they, uh, find larger multiples? Where could they start building, like they said, build to sell? What, what are some of the things that these private equity groups or these larger buyers look for in an MSP? 

Scott: Yeah, I think they beat us to that, to be honest, which is rare to see, especially in, you know, what was a startup not too long ago, um, selling or, or, you know, executing with the goal of potentially whether you sell or not being sellable.

Um, many companies don't ever get to that point, um, and it's too late to become sellable once you're ready to sell, usually. It takes time to implement the processes and, um, you know, they've done an incredible job from the outside of building a team. So it's not dependent on, you know, if Jeremy and Hunter go on vacation for two months, like s one's not gonna close.

Um, the things that make companies easily transferable to new owners is, I mean, that's, that's, that's everything. Um, and as far as multiples go, just in general, the higher your EBITDA gets, the higher the multiples become. Um. That's not a a a hundred percent fact, but generally speaking that, that that's how it works.

Um, yeah, I think these guys are doing all the right things that you should be doing, uh, to make your company sellable down the road. 

Joshua: So. Do either of you had something to add to that or could I pop on the next one? 'cause I No, that'd be very manary. 

Golly. Yeah. Appreciate that. Thanks. Jeremy paid me a lot.

Yeah, we're, we're in the, we're in the south. That's 

what you're supposed to do, right? Uh, you mentioned EOS it's a, it's an operating system of, of how you build leadership. So when we talk about visionary integrator and those, those roles, within that, how does that divvy up with the, the team? 'cause you got three people kind of leading.

Hunter: What do you think? If you had to after meeting us for 25 minutes for sure. 

Integrator, right? No, no, 

no. Visionary 

man. 

Joshua: You talked, you, you said a lot of the keywords of an integrator, the systems, the process, the, but I could, I could see the, the sales side of that too, so that I'm, I'm, I'm, I read that really wrong.

So yeah, why don't you just fill me in 'cause I got that, I nailed it right in the wrong direction. 

Hunter: Yeah. Um, well that's a good compliment. I've never been told that before. Um. I think so it's like if you've read Traction, visionary Integrator, you've got one person that comes up with a lot of bad ideas and then one person that says, Hey, one of those was really good and the other 99 were terrible.

And Jeremy's like tremendous at that. Um, 'cause all day long you could, you could look at our text messages. I'm like, Hey guys, what do you think about this? What do you think about this? What do you think about this? And then Jeremy and Damien are like, they ignore most of them and then they're like. Oh, that one's good.

Let's do that. And so that's like, uh, I couldn't turn that off if I tried. 'cause like this where we are right now. Like if I'm walking somewhere, driving somewhere, like doing anything by myself, I'm listening to something that's trying and I'm trying to improve. 'cause like I'm the young person in the room, most times I walk into somewhere.

And so if I am not continually trying to like sharpen my edge, then someone's gonna come behind us and beat us. And, uh, I don't know. I think that's. And maybe that's why like we talk about process and systems quite a bit. Um, I say that Damien is probably a really good integrator as well. Um, Damien is, uh, Damien is hyper-technical but also has high business acumen, which is very difficult to find.

And so it's, uh, it's like a EOS is good for a lot of people. I think in our case, like the visionary integrator doesn't perfectly fit 'cause we all kind of do a lot of the same stuff. Um, 

yeah. 

Joshua: Yeah. So I think a lot of times, you know, a visionary kind of drives the, the, the, the growth, the, the great at sales, great at the acquisition, the integrator is the one who, you know, puts, makes it valuable, right?

Great. That stir up dust and then the integrator goes, oh, I could build that into a, a clay or whatever in, you know, metaphor I'm trying to create in my brain. But, you know, as a. As the said integrator of this, lots of ideas come and you said, Ooh, that's a good idea. Talk to us, give us some, give us some ideas on how to.

Help manage the idea flow and maximize the idea flow in a healthy way for the company. I was a 

curious, you answer, 

right? So I said that nice, right? No, that was good. Okay, cool. Okay. 

It was good. Okay. So wait, say this again. 

I don't know if I could say this elegant as I, but All right. So I'm a visionary.

Yeah. Ideas all day. Idea journal. My wife doesn't want hear another idea until I, you know, bring another couple commas home. Right. With the, with the integrator. You know, the, sometimes there's this like beautiful push pull relationship between visionary and integrator. You're hearing ideas, you're hearing these things, and for every idea of visionary shares, there's a thousand things that an integrator things about that they have to do to, to Absolutely.

So walk us through your brain and then also how to, how to make it a synergistic thing instead of a, instead of a, a, a tug man. That's because I think you've done that well. 

Jeremy Roth: It's a scary place to be in my brain. Um, uh, I, I don't know, man. I, I, I'm, but you're right. I mean, I, I think of whenever someone, whenever we're having discussions, I'm just trying to think of some examples here, but whenever we're having discussions with customers, like sitting down with a prospect and we're asking 'em questions and they're explaining their business to us and how it, how it functions.

The whole time they're talking, I'm thinking of all the things I'm gonna do to make that business better. I mean, from the beginning, like, so I, I, I, I dissect everything and then I apply what experience of. Experiences I've had and, and I leverage the technology to make all that, to make the things that I'm thinking happen, right?

And, and I do that with everything. It's just how my mind's broken, you know? Um, it's just, uh, it just works out that way. I don't know. 

I

Hunter: think a, a good, I'm, I'm answering for Jeremy again, but Jeremy's really good at like, so let's say this latest acquisition that we did. I found like a, we interviewed a guy.

The guy said, Hey man, I heard this guy's looking to sell. Like, I heard y'all looking to buy. You should talk to him. We talked to him and, um, and I, I called the guy, we have a conversation. We, we do lunch and like we leave and I'm thinking like, like brand integration, like very high. And Jeremy's like, okay, we gotta go.

QuickBooks has to do this. ConnectWise has to do this. Like, he's, he's like very. It's his brain will immediately go to the rocks in the pond, which like my brain can't do that very well. Right? Which is like why we work so well together. 

That's, it's so cool. Do you got, you got something Scott? Nothing. Okay, cool.

I'll bring it back to me. All right, so we, we talk about a little bit about skill sets and, you know, you all have a ownership mentality, which I think is rare, especially for a. The highly technical and great at sales and great at the highly technical. So that, that's a superstar, it sounds like. But I, I think, you know, we could talk about skill sets, we could talk about visionary integrator.

One of the, the, the things that I'm trying to dig into more is how we're wired. You said how your brain was actually broken, which is interesting, if we could talk about that. But where in the business realm do you find joy? What gives you, what gives you life, like as you're doing a sales process or a business process.

So let's start with you. 

Okay. 

Jeremy, where do you find joy in the workplace? Um, 

Jeremy Roth: I have the most fun hearing about challenges that, that customers have in their business and coming up with solutions for those challenges. Um, making them more, you know, profitable, making them more competitive. Um. I think that's where I have the most fun at.

'cause the onboarding, the support, security, everybody does that and, and our team does that flaw. I mean, they do a really good job of that. Probably better than I can be, but, but I, I like getting into the business side and, and, and making changes that have an impact, a direct impact that you can see in results from sales or revenue or, uh, you know, turnover, whatever it is.

Um, operations, you know? Mm-hmm. That's, that's what I enjoy doing, 

man. 

Joshua: Hunter, where do you find your joy? 

Hunter: Um, I had, I had like a light bulb moment last week. Um. We were sitting with a customer and they were like, yeah, I don't know, like this business, like I might be interested in selling it. And like I got really excited in that moment because I knew somebody that'd be willing to buy that business.

And it made me realize like, okay, I thought I loved sales. What I love is solutions to problems, to what Jeremy's talking about. 'cause that lit me up the same way as getting a new customer lit me up and there's nothing for me to gain by connecting two people and saying, Hey. You who's an off market buyer and you who's an off market seller are gonna connect over lunch and y'all are probably gonna transact with one another.

That got me so excited. So that, that's a lot of joy. But then I think another thing too is as we've grown, like we've got 40 plus employees, seeing those people have joy at the, at, at the jobs that they're doing. Like the, the folks that we hire, they love the technology. If they don't love the technology, then they don't work with us.

And so to see that, they get to solve hard problems for our customers with technology that they love giving them joy. Brings a lot of joy for me. Probably for Jeremy too. And, and Damien, I would say same. 

Joshua: Yeah. You guys have, uh, these pins on your shirts or on your, on your sports coats? Tell, tell me about the, uh, the pins.

Let's start with you. What, what does that pin, what does it mean? 

Hunter: Oh yeah. This is just our logo. Um, this is just the S one technology logo, which I probably worth talking about. Yeah. And look, mine's gonna be a lot more lame than Jeremy's is, but, um, s one stands for security first, and it's a layered. Uh, there's layers to the logo as well, which is a layered security approach, a layered support approach.

Um, to make sure what do you mean by 

layered? 

So, layer, so in, in cybersecurity you've got layers. Um, if you've got any folks listening that are manufacturing or oil and gas, there's the OSHA slide that's famous for, there's the layers of Swiss cheese where when you lay those Swiss cheese layers on top of one another.

The holes that, that go all the way through, they, they get blocked. So very similar principle in cybersecurity and in IT support that one layer allows for holes, multiple layers, block those holes. So that's our logo. Jeremy's pen's cooler than mine though. 

Joshua: Well, I thought, I thought S one actually stood for Scott.

Like I thought that was in honor of 

Scott. One handicapped. Yeah. Oh, nice. Perfect. 

Alright, so what, what about you? What's, what's a pin? 

Jeremy Roth: Uh, I actually just got this this past weekend at a Axer retreat. Um, which is like a, a men's only, um, Catholic retreat. Um, and they give out some pens and some bracelets and things and, uh, I don't know.

I just, I feel closer to God wearing it. So decide to wear it. 

Joshua: Yeah. Got it. Will we talk about men's retreats and, you know. There's, uh, you talked about EOS, which also has its own community. Um, there's a lot of communities and, and you even gave a shout out to, you know, Paul Dipple, right? There's, there's good coaches, there's good systems, there's good communities.

What, for other MSP providers out there, or maybe, uh, people who are acquiring those, what are some communities that are really beneficial to, um, to the MSP world that you guys thought is valuable? 

Hunter: So we've, we've looked at a couple of these peer groups and, um, and they're really valuable. Like, um, you go and you index yourself against other, um, competitive MSPs in your world.

Um, we've not joined one. Um. We've found it a little bit difficult, and look, maybe one of 'em is listening and they're like, Hey, I'm the one for you. But we found that we're a young company growing really quickly, and so when they put us in the, the ones with the 30-year-old large businesses, we're sort of facing different challenges and they put 'em with the ones where they're.

Smaller than us, then we're facing different challenges. And so we're in like this very strange, like muddy middle of, of where we are with our peers. So we're not currently in one, but there are good ones, like true peer service leadership, TPG, um, we are both in, in, um, business groups called Vistage. Each of us we're in Vistage CE groups, um, which are valuable, but it's not, um, in, it's, it's industry agnostic in that regard.

Joshua: Yeah. So as we, as we're moving towards the future, what's the. What's a big win for you, hunter? 

What would be a big win or what has been a big win? 

Yeah, either. Think this is one of those kind of questions. You could, you could take it wherever you want, 

man. 

Hunter: I think the would be is a lot more fun to talk about.

Okay. Um, so I think right now we're probably at 2,500, maybe 25 to 2,800 managed users. Uh, our goal is 10,000 managed users. Um, if we get to that number, that'd be a big win for me. Uh, for Jeremy as well. It's on our VTO and uh, it really opens the aperture in terms of what we get to do with the business.

You guys talked about multiples, um, maybe not to sell, but maybe to take on a strategic partner. And, uh, and go do a lot of acquisition. There's a lot of fragmentation in our market. A lot of like one to 3 million, uh, top line a RR companies in our world that could very easily be scooped up for three to five times ebitda.

And, um, if we had unlimited capital, we go buy 'em all, but we don't at the moment. 

Hmm. 

Joshua: Okay. Interesting. What about you, Jeremy? 

Jeremy Roth: Geez. Um, a big win that I could think of just right off would be to have a building big enough that we can grow into instead of, I keep having to move. We've moved literally three times now in the past three, three years.

Yeah. Um, poor planning. It's, yeah, it's, uh, so growing too fast. Mm-hmm. Yeah. 

Joshua: We just interviewed a, uh, commercial broker this morning, so, you know, part of the deal ecosystem. We'll make an introduction there. Uh, so as we. Kind of round out, uh, Scott, you know, do you have any, uh, questions for these gens as we're, as we're kind of round up?

No, far away. Alright. So as we're rounding out the, towards the end of the, the conversation, there's probably a question that we should have asked you guys about when it comes to deal making, when it comes to building and growing and buying businesses. What question do you wish I would've asked you? Let's start with Jeremy.

Oh, geez. 

Let's start with Hunter. Let's no, start with Jeremy. Let's start with Jeremy. Let's start with Hunter. Alright, Jeremy, go for it buddy. 

Jeremy Roth: What question do I wish you would've asked me about deal making anything? What question do you wish I would've asked you? Um, I don't know. I think you did a pretty good job.

Appreciate that. Uh, I told you all about my life. I told you about my work history, where, where we've been, where we've come from, um, uh. Yeah, maybe what we like to do for fun. 

Joshua: What do you like to do for fun? That's a good question, right? Yeah. 

Jeremy Roth: Um, I, I like to be in the woods. I like to hunt. Um, uh, I like to play soccer, although my body doesn't like it much anymore.

Yeah. But I enjoy sports. Uh, you know, I try to stay active. Uh, I enjoy spending time with my girls, including my wife. Um, and, uh, yeah, I just, I just, I like doing things. I don't like sitting still and. Staring at the wall, watching tv, uh, or spending all day on a Sunday or Saturday watching football all day.

I mean, I have to watch LSU and, and maybe the Saints, but, uh, but other than that, man, I like to be in the woods. 

Yeah. What's your, tell us about your, uh, hunting rifle. Do you rifle or, yeah, crossbo. Okay. Deer hunt. Okay. Got it. Rifle. So tell us about the, the rifle of choice. 

Uh, uh, well, I have a Savage 3 0 8, um, and it's nothing special, but it, it'll, it'll put 'em down, you know?

Yeah. Um, but, uh, although I haven't had many opportunities the last couple of years, uh, pigs. Yeah. But dear, not so much. Yeah. How? Hunting 

is fun. Uh, hunter, what about you, man? 

Hunter: Um, a question I wish you would've asked us for sure. 'cause I have a good one. Um, how do you do business with S one? Will you send us an email and you go to the website and, uh, who the salesman is and, um, and oh, another good question that you could have asked is, uh, what are the, what are the good types of businesses we're looking to acquire?

Um, companies that are doing, um, thank you for asking. You're welcome. Companies that are doing between a million in a RR and 5 million in a RR, um, within our kind of like Southeast Gulf coast geo. Um, we're, we're hot and ready to acquire 'em. So, uh, if you're out there, we're here ready. Alright, so 

let's get more specific on the, your ideal target one to 5 million a RR for, for people who might be new deal makers.

What is a ARR 

Oh, annual recurring revenue. 

Okay, and why is that an important metric that, that you guys are looking at? Why do you use that? Me? 

I

 mean, it really 

could be top line revenue. It's just if it was a RR insinuates that all of that annual recurring revenue is generated by month recurring revenue, which is what we like, contractually obligated month recurring revenue.

Um, if they're doing 5 million in top line and 60% of it is recurring revenue, that's good too. The price will reflect that. Um, so yeah, it's, that's why, I mean, you've got regular revenue and you've got annual recurring revenue. Um, and I think the ones that are the best for us are ones that are. True MSPs like we are.

Um, quickly the, the three different versions of MSPs is MSP 1.0 is break fix. MSP 2.0 is managed services, and MSP 3.0 is managed services with software development, AI analytics capabilities that make businesses better. That's where we live. Um, so if there's businesses that are in that, like MSP 1.5 to 2.5 range, like call S one technology.

Yeah. Hot and ready. 

Joshua: Copy that. So. With the last question that I usually ask, where could people go to connect with you and, and maybe do a deal, maybe have some type of strategic relationship, maybe sell you their company? Where could people go to do that? 

Hunter: Oh, we're big on LinkedIn. Um. We've built our brand on LinkedIn.

We get a lot of inbound on LinkedIn. So if you send us a LinkedIn message to the company or to Jeremy or I, we'll see it and we can connect. 

Joshua: Yeah, copy that. And what we'll do is we'll put the, uh, your all's contact information in the, the show notes so as people are listening and they go, actually I have a 1.5, uh, MSP, I'm using your, your all's terminology, you.

3 million a RR that might be a perfect target for you. So if you are in the audience and, and you have that, reach out to our guests and, and say, let's, let's talk. The, the mission and purpose of putting this show together is to educate for sure. As we learn, we wanna share that knowledge, but also, you know, we learn so much from our guests.

And from the community in our audience. So please share things that you're learning about, deals, about acquisitions and mergers and, and all of this, this beautiful landscape. And, um, if you have a deal that you'd like to talk about, please hit the contact button and, and, and send a note to us. But, um, Jeremy Hunter, thanks for coming on the show.

We're super grateful for you guys and, uh, everybody out there grateful for you listening in. We'll see you all on the next episode. Cheers to 

everyone.