Analytics/Analysis

Reporting from the recent GTIA ChannelCon event in San Diego, we caught up with the spirited Coro team of Heather Harlos and Benjamin Morrell and Demetrios Georgiouto to help understand what’s up at Coros. They have been making big moves since friend of the family Joe Sykora arrived as CEO 17+ months ago.

Long-time SMB Nation member Phelim Rowe has emerged as a leading industry analyst and has grown his intellectual event model over the past several years. It’s serious business ‘cause he’s a dapper British dude across the pond who takes his body or work seriously and you will be dazed and amazed with his efforts. What stands out to me is his geo-targeting his event conent so he has West Coast SMEs in the MSP world for this event. Join me!

Harry Brelsford | CEO | SMB Nation & O365nation |
Hey, hey, Nation, Nation, back with our friend across the pond, Phelim Rowe. Phelim, always a pleasure. Thank you. You have an event coming up that we want to drive some attention to, but before we do that,

I gave my maintenance guy Jeremy my barely used HP ProLiant MicroServer (aka Home Server) from the old Windows server team days in Redmond. He asked me to keep my eyes open for CPU power.

We have a check-in with Mark Alayev, co-founder of Thread. A great summer listen! In the past - I've called this emerging small-medium business (SMB) in the Managed Services space as "one to watch." It's got an agressive internal and external culture charging ahead and this summer the pace tripled on a couple fronts including engineering producitivty and weekly feature releases. And while we do discuss the technology side, Mark waxes poetically on the philosphy side too. That's a rare quality in our space as so many founders in our space are myopically focused on product and never really elevate to a true industry leadership role. Let's rock! 

Jason Bystrak, Senior Vice President, Cloud & Advanced Solutions+ Business Unit, is a long-time friend of the SMB MSP family and we caught a hot moment at the recent D&H Next+ event in Austin. It was a thought leadership conference that was smaller by design. About 200 partners and senior executives from the different line card vendors that facilitated real conversation compared to larger MSP events that have become noise and get drunks. The best part for me? NO EXPO HALL – thank God. Made the even feel like an Executive MBA Saturday session.

Matt Linn, co-founder of Thread, discussed the company's rapid growth and recent activities since a capital raise four months ago. Thread is expanding its team and partner base, with a focus on R&D, particularly in voice AI and client intelligence. The company hosts weekly AI service unleashed community calls, attracting over 100 MSPs, which help shape product development through direct feedback. Linn emphasized the importance of value and investment in maintaining community engagement. Upcoming developments include agents to handle administrative tasks, allowing the team to focus on enhancing customer service experiences.