Kevin O’Loughlin founded Irish MSP Nostra in 2006 with the aim of making a positive impact and demonstrating Ireland’s potential for global success. Initially, the focus was on cloud email services.
Today, Nostra has grown to deliver €50,000,000 in annual revenue and is growing at 30% year on year through strategic acquisitions and organic growth. And it’s on the way to becoming a market-leading full-service MSP.
An Interview With Kevin O’Loughlin
Why You Sometimes Need to Cannibalise Your Services
Sometimes the offerings you started out with in your business are no longer the right fit for your clients and the direction you want to go in. When that happens, you need to be brave and transform them into something new.
As Kevin says: “Netflix are a great example of this. They moved from sending DVDs through the post to a digital-only service. When new technologies come out, I look at them from the customer’s point of view. If we as their IT partner were to adopt it, would that be of benefit for them?
“What’s the best user experience for the client? For instance, we decided not to offer private cloud because we don’t think it’s as compliant as we’d like. And that’s why we stopped selling email servers in 2008. We knew that there were better, more secure options, M365 being one of them.”
Nostra’s Approach to Cybersecurity Offerings
The challenge with giving customers the right level of cybersecurity protection is that while they know they need it, they don’t have the knowledge to understand the risks they face and how to make sure they’re secure from threats. So Nostra has a straightforward approach:
“Our model simplifies the concept. We took several products that worked well together, packaged them up into a single solution and sold them as ‘security.’ The customers know that they’re protected and they don’t have to choose the tools themselves. It’s too much to ask them to pick antivirus, phishing protection and so on.
“They don’t understand that there are many layers to security and if they miss one out they’re exposing themselves to a threat. So our approach means they get all the layers and you give them as much information about their protection as they need. They trust that we’re keeping them safe and as their partner we’ve picked what’s right for their business.”
The Importance of Nurturing Vendor/Client Relationships
The key to strong relationships between vendors and clients, in Kevin’s opinion, is honesty. “I’ve been in a meeting with a customer when they’ve shown me a proposal for a solution from a vendor and I’ve told them I don’t think it fits with their business needs.
“It’s really important for me to be able to say, ‘If I were you, I’d hold off on investing in that now’ or recommend a better solution. Likewise, if they asked me to implement a solution that would be profitable for us but wouldn’t serve them in the long run, I’d turn it down.
“Again, it’s about being a trusted partner for them. Personally, I’m very direct with people; I don’t ever want business that we shouldn’t have. It’s all about the customer experience and them knowing that we have their best interests at heart.”
Choosing Cybersecurity Tools Without the Overwhelm
Whenever you’re on the hunt for a new tool for your managed service provider (MSP), ask yourself first: ‘What am I trying to achieve? Where do I want the business to be in ten years, or one year, from today? What do I need to do that?”
Kevin says that by approaching the decision that way, you can start to look for a solution that will fit your needs now and help you move to where you want to be. And depending on your goal, you’ll want a tool that may be quicker to deploy and run than another. And once you’ve done that, the second step is to go back to basics:
“Before you invest in something new, review your existing stack. Are you patching regularly? Have you got 2FA (two factor authentication) switched on everywhere? What’s your security score? Make sure all of those things are up to date and robust, and then look for a tool that will fit alongside today’s cybersecurity stack.”
Nostra’s Approach to Mergers and Acquisitions
Nostra have made several acquisitions in recent years, and Kevin says there are some criteria they use each time they consider acquiring a new MSP. “For instance, we wouldn’t buy a fully remote business, because it would be a challenge to get everyone together and get them to buy in to what you want to do.
“You’re buying tangible assets, and that’s the people as much as anything else. We want to preserve the culture, the relationships and the services they provide as much as possible, but we also want to work with those people to grow the business.
“We take the time to understand the business, integrate their solutions with ours, and then we work to enhance them. We look at ways to add tools that will better serve the customers and also let us scale. And we stay alert to opportunities that aren’t obvious at first but fit a new need over time. That’s worked well for us.”
Challenges and Red Flags in Mergers and Acquisitions
As with every other decision he makes in business, Kevin says that when it comes to M&As he considers things from the customer’s point of view: “Does this company have a tool that will fit in and be part of our solution? Will it help our customers?
“If the answer’s yes, then we’d look at acquiring the business. Because we want to acquire new skills that fit with our offerings only if they’re relevant to our existing clients. We won’t acquire something just for the sake of it, just because it’s a profitable business.
“And when it comes to red flags, the fist question to ask is, ‘Why does the owner want to sell? Is there actually a problem within the business?’ Before you make a decision, look at turnover of both staff and clients. If it’s high, there’s a problem with culture. And make sure you get on with the owner – if you don’t, you probably won’t get on with the staff either.”
How to Connect With Kevin O’Loughlin
- Nostra
- Follow Nostra on Instagram
- Follow Nostra on LinkedIn
- Connect with Kevin on LinkedIn
How to Connect With Me
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Mentioned in This Episode
- MSP community: IT Nation
- Cybersecurity and backup: Datto
- Cybersecurity software: Acronis
- IT management software: Kaseya
- Cybersecurity partner: Huntress
- Cybersecurity software: Webroot
- SOC as a Service: Enhanced (Formerly InSoc)
- MSP solutions: Barracuda
- PSA tool: Autotask
- Network security: SonicWall
- Cloud marketplace: Pax8
- Book: Rhonda Byrne: The Secret 10th Anniversary Edition
- Investor: Ray Dalio
- Author and speaker: Tony Robbins
- Investor: Warren Buffett
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Richard Tubb is one of the best-known experts within the global IT Managed Service Provider (MSP) community. He launched and sold his own MSP business before creating a leading MSP media and consultancy practice. Richard helps IT business owner’s take back control by freeing up their time and building a business that can run without them. He’s the author of the book “The IT Business Owner’s Survival Guide” and writer of the award-winning blog www.tubblog.co.uk
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