April 24, 2025 • 28 mins
When John McCoy walked away from a high-paying corporate job, he wasn’t chasing freedom—he was answering a calling. In this episode, John shares how his commitment to helping others led him to launch MidSolv, an MSP rooted in community and built on trust. But it wasn’t until he caught a ransomware attack in real time that his purpose fully crystallized: protecting clients from the threats they didn’t see coming.
From mandating a security upgrade for every customer—before they even asked—to shifting his entire client base to fully managed services, John’s story is one of bold leadership, cybersecurity-first thinking, and values-driven growth.
Whether you're an MSP owner rethinking your tech stack or an IT leader navigating risk and resilience, this episode offers a masterclass in leading with conviction—and securing what matters most.
Learn more about Manage My Security.
Let us help you unlock your business's full potential.
N-able Business Transformation is Expert led and Peer informed.These valuable executive programs are tailored to provide effective guidance and a faster path to a scalable and successful business.
Book a Call with Chris Massey now to learn what Business Transformation can do for you!
'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.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
One, two, three, four .
I either had to sacrifice myfamily or sacrifice this big
check and paycheck.
And I just said I really can'tdo that.
Called my company I was oncontract to them called my
account manager and he said well, if you don't take this
opportunity, we'll consider thata voluntary termination.
So by lunch I was unemployedand heading home to start my MSP
(00:24):
.
I was logging into one of mycustomers' servers to do some
maintenance on their server on aSaturday morning and I noticed
that there were some files beingencrypted.
So I had caught a ransomwareissue in the act.
And at that moment I just youknow, I saw that, as I can't let
this happen to my customers,this changes the landscape of
(00:48):
what ransomware is and, just youknow, sent an email out to all
my customers and said this iswhat we need to do and here's
what it's going to cost.
And it's happening January 1.
Let me know if you havequestions.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Welcome to Now that's it Stories of MSP Success,
where we dive into the journeysof some of the trailblazers in
our industry to find out howthey used their passion for
technology to help turn managedservices into the thriving
sector it is today.
Welcome, john McCoy, owner ofMidSolve, an MSP that I'd love
for you to tell me a little bitabout.
(01:23):
Welcome to the Now that's itpodcast.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Well, thanks, chris.
I've been in business I don'tknow going on 23 years now.
I service a small community innortheast Indiana.
We do all different kinds ofcustomers, no specialty.
We kind of work with anybodythat needs service.
(01:46):
Got lots of I don't.
I got probably a hundredcustomers, 120 customers that we
take care of that's great, butyou didn't always start off as
an entrepreneur, did you?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
you were.
You had a successful corporatecareer early on, right?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
I did.
What was that all?
about so I actually lived herein Phoenix for a long time and
worked for a large softwaredevelopment firm.
You know the software projectengineer or a software project
manager working for companieslike Visa and American Express,
doing you know big softwaredevelopment stuff, ended up
(02:22):
having our first son and movedto Indiana to raise our kids,
which is where my wife's fromLived in the community we're in
now in Angola, indiana, and Istayed with the company I just
transferred to their Lansingbranch, lansing Michigan.
They put me on a contract inGrand Rapids for a large grocery
(02:43):
chain that's in Grand Rapids,great company, led a team of
developers to help redo theirwarehousing software.
Great time, made great money.
Got to work there two days aweek, work at home two days a
week.
It was phenomenal, just aphenomenal job or career at the
time.
Job or career at the time.
(03:09):
But I, while I was doing that,I was living and working two
hours from you know, from whereI was working, and I had kind of
two sets of friends, two setsof you know people that I was
interacting with.
My wife and I were gettinginvolved at church, we were
meeting people in our communityand and I just really felt that
that separation of where I wasliving and where I was working
uh was not good like I justcouldn't have the uh couldn't
(03:32):
build the relationships that Ineeded to being that far away.
I did that for five years, umand uh and came to a came to a
pretty interesting decision atthe end of that five years.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
So obviously not an easy thing to do, right, leave
something pretty stable tosomething that you're not really
sure what it's going to looklike, but that inspiration there
was that fuel.
That said, what's important tome is being part of something
local, right, a community,definitely, definitely Awesome.
And so you leave as a projectmanager, or you're a project
(04:10):
manager there for a while, andnow you're selling backup and
cybersecurity, help sort ofconnect those dots.
What did that newentrepreneurship look like?
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Well, it was kind of interesting.
So, as I was working in GrandRapids, I just really felt this
call to work in the community Iwas living in, and so I started
kind of working on how do I dothat?
This community was small, theydidn't really have, didn't have
a need for a software projectmanager, didn't have a need for
my skills, and so I just kind oflooked at what might be
(04:41):
something I could do.
Lots of companies, lots ofsmall businesses.
I thought I can service theseguys.
I can make a business of this.
Did lots of prep work.
I figured out what I had tocharge an hour, what I had to do
, all the things to get readyfor it.
But pulling that trigger justto let go of that six-figure
income and kind of make the leapwas pretty difficult, and so I
(05:05):
kind of needed a little more ofa push to get there, which came
at the end of that five years.
I got invited to be on the nextbig software development
project.
The leader of the projectcalled me in her office, said
hey, I want you to be on thisteam, I want you to.
You know this is going to bemulti-years.
Actually I think it was a 10year project.
(05:26):
We'd love to have you on here,but you need to be here five
days a week.
And you know I it was clear tome that I couldn't.
I either had to sacrifice myfamily or sacrifice this big
check and paycheck.
And I just said I really can'tdo that.
I've called my company I was oncontract to them, called my
account manager and he said well, if you don't take this, don't
(05:47):
take this opportunity, we'llconsider that a voluntary
termination.
So by lunch I was unemployedand heading home to start my MSP
.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Wow, so obviously stressful.
But in the end you had to knowI mean, it was on your mind for
a while.
You had to know you're makingthe right decision.
I'm not saying that therearen't people that would
sacrifice their families fortheir careers, but as long as
I've known you, you've alwaysbeen a family man and I couldn't
see that ever seriously comingacross your mind.
(06:18):
Right yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
I spent a lot of time .
I'm a man of faith and I spenta lot of time in prayer over
those years just trying todecide what to do, and I had a
really clear sense from the Lordthat this was he was going to
prosper a business that I builtand I didn't know what that was
going to look like.
But I just started doing it.
I went to some companies,really thought I'd do great with
(06:41):
manufacturing firms, but Ifound out quickly that the
manufacturers in my area eithercouldn't afford me or had IT in
Detroit or Chicago or somewhereelse.
So I actually got my firstbreak from a good friend of mine
from church that had a verysuccessful HR business in town
and he said hey I need your helpand we kind of worked together
(07:04):
I helped him build his business,he helped me build mine and
kind of got MidSolve launched.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Wow, so you did something early on.
That, I think, is prettyfantastic.
It's not uncommon today, butyou led with security and backup
.
I think every MSP hopes to leadwith security and backup today,
but you were doing that earlyon.
Why?
Speaker 1 (07:24):
to lead with security and backup today, but you were
doing that early on.
Why so?
As I approached companies,small businesses in my community
, I really got this theme ofwhat they were all missing.
So all of them either had nosecurity, no antivirus, or what
they had was outdated.
They had no idea what was goingon with their backups.
They either had no backups orthey had backups but had no idea
(07:46):
whether they actually worked ornot, just with a theme, you
know.
And they weren't doing patching, they weren't doing you know
any, any basic maintenance andand anybody that was working for
them any IT companies, computercompanies were doing a really
poor job of it at the time, andso I just led with that.
I said you know, these are thethings you need and we'll help
(08:08):
you figure out the rest.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
What were some of those early challenges when you
started MintSolve?
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Finding customers was a big one.
I've never advertised, I'vealways grown via word of mouth
and, you know, really stood onmy reputation and in my
community and so just gettingthose referrals and bringing
people on, bringing the right,getting the right software stack
, getting the right tool stack,was huge and I've actually been
(08:39):
with Enable for 18 yearsprobably.
You know, I started long, longago, found it to be a great
product and you guys just keepadding great stuff, so I keep my
.
Almost my entire stack isenabled Awesome.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
So early days, mid-solve I think it's probably
30, 70, time and materials,project work, break-fix type
stuff what sort of prompted ashift towards true managed
services?
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Well, that's kind of interesting.
I actually tried doing truemanaged services quite a few
years ago, probably 15 years ago, and it just didn't sell well
in my community.
So I kind of did a bit of ahybrid of that.
I kind of made a base, you knowkind of service stack that
everybody gets.
I have one product, everybodygets it, and then would do time
(09:33):
and materials on top of that.
And quite honestly I've donethat up until January of this
year.
I took the leap and moved allof my customers to full managed
services two months ago.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
And what's that process been like?
How's that been for your morale?
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Uh, I haven't had much sleep in the last three
months, but I actually wentreally, really smooth.
It was a lot of work.
Um, I uh.
So far, I've moved probably ahundred customers over and I
lost one in the process.
Um and again it.
One thing I've learned throughall of this is is this is a
relationship business, and so Ispend a lot of time building
(10:14):
relationships, and this reallytaught me.
This process taught me just toto trust that relationship.
Like you know, it's importantthere.
My customers are counting on meto guide them in the right
direction and even if that costsmore money, they're still.
They still want that service.
You know that's what they'recounting on me for.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Awesome.
So you talk a little bit about,you know, one level of service.
This is what we offer.
You take it or leave it, how's?
Speaker 1 (10:46):
that worked for you and how's that worked for your
customers.
So having one product like thatreally separates the customers
that appreciate and understandwhat IT managed services are and
the customers that just wantyou know backup or just want
antivirus or you know that kindof stuff.
(11:07):
And for me I just feel like ifit's good for one customer, it's
good.
I don't have different levelsof customers.
I need to provide a highservice, high level service for
everybody.
So typically once I explainthat, talk through that with the
customers that are a littleless comfortable with it, they
come around you.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Most MSPs know more than what their customers you
know, think they know, and sofor you to be able to offer this
(11:46):
sort of baseline your MVP um,you know it, it is what's best
for them.
And I think what you had to domentally was say there's going
to be some clients Thankfullyit's only been one to this point
but there's going to be somecustomers that maybe don't want
that, and that's okay.
Like for me, this is who myideal client is and they fit
(12:07):
into this mold, they're going totake that, and so that had to
be a pretty big jump for youguys.
That was.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
that was really hard because, again, I'm a
relationship guy so I reallyno-transcript with us over the
(12:42):
next few years as things changeand evolve.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
So I'm sure every MSP goes through their sort of
growth and maturity and theycome through points in their
careers where it's scary.
Something scary happens, andfor you it was sort of 2020,
right.
I think there was an incidentand I would love to hear what
(13:07):
you're willing to share aboutthat.
I know you acted very swiftlyand I'd love to be able to hear
about that.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Well, in actually September 2019, about that.
Well, in actually September2019, I was logging into one of
my customers' servers to do somemaintenance on their server on
a Saturday morning and I noticedthat there were some files
being encrypted.
So I had caught a ransomwareissue in the act and I was able
to act quickly shut the serverdown, contact the customer you
(13:37):
know all of those things.
We were able to remediate it,get their server back up and
going.
Honestly, I think they weredown half of the day Monday at
most and they were back inbusiness thanks to Cove Data
Protect and you know all thegreat, you know stack that we
had in place and being able toact quickly.
But the particular ransomwarewas LockBit and September of
(14:00):
2019, as I was researching howto you know how to handle this,
I found that LockBit had kind ofchanged the game a little bit.
They not only were encryptingthe data, but they were also
exfiltrating that data out ofthe network and you know,
posting it on the dark web.
And at that moment I just, youknow, I saw that, as I can't let
(14:21):
this happen to my customers.
This changes the landscape ofwhat ransomware is and in
January of 2020, I moved all ofmy customers to EDR with a 24-7
SOC, so put them into MDRimmediately.
Just, you know, sent an emailout to all my customers and said
(14:42):
this is what we need to do andhere's what it's gonna cost.
And it's happening January 1let me know if you have
questions.
And it was a big leap, but itwas the, it was the right thing
to do at the time and, you know,I just couldn't let that happen
to my customers, for sure.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
So you were obviously lucky, john.
You caught this in the act andquickly offer something new that
you knew you were going to helpyour customers and then pass
that cost down to the customersNot a significant cost, but
again more than what they hadsigned up for initially with you
.
Than what they had signed upfor initially with you, um, were
(15:20):
you prepared to?
Um incur that cost your own ifthey pushed back on you because
it was so important, or or how?
What was going through yourmind?
How are you thinking throughthat?
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Uh, quite honestly, I implemented it before I told
him about it.
Um, so, yes, I was a hundredpercent ready, ready to incur
that cost because it was theright thing to do.
Um, and, honestly, after that,finding out about lock bid, I
couldn't sleep very well.
So, uh, having 24 seven sock inplace really allowed me to take
(15:47):
a breath and, and you know,kind of look at the situation
and push this out the way itneeded to be pushed out.
But yeah, I was, I was willingto lose some customers over it
and I was willing to pay for itfor them until they figured out
that it was the right thing todo.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
But I think the interesting thing was that you
knew you needed something.
You obviously realized veryquickly that at your size it was
going to be hard to do withyour team and you had to find a
partner that was going to beable to provide these 24 by 7,
365 resources.
And so you were able to do that.
That's great.
Let's talk a little bit about.
(16:22):
You know we're at an event thisweek business transformation.
Right, you've been an earlyadvocate and an early fan of
what we've done with businesstransformation.
Can you just talk a little bitabout this community and how
this has helped you work on thebusiness?
Speaker 1 (16:36):
just talk a little bit about this community and and
how this has helped you work onthe business.
So the first businesstransformation that I went to
was, I think, um, two octobersago.
It was the getting to twomillion uh, which not quite
there yet getting there, but um,they won.
That was.
That was a an amazingly greatuse of my time and resources.
(16:57):
So I walked away from thatevent going.
I will go to every one of these.
That makes sense because it's agreat use of my time, great use
of my resources.
The other thing I walked awayfrom that with is a peer group.
I got put into a peer groupwhich has been game changing for
me.
I love meeting with my peergroup.
I love being able to bouncestuff off of them.
(17:17):
And just another interestingstory about my peer group I had
an employee leave middle of lastyear, pretty short notice, and
I happened to have a peer groupmeeting that Friday that he gave
me his resignation and I justthrew out a message to all of
them as we were like hey, whatdo you guys do to hire?
And you know I got lots ofresponses back, you know.
(17:40):
But the other responses I gotback is I had guys in my peer
group go.
Hey, I've got capacity.
If you need help, desk callsanswered, let me know, We'll
help you out.
And I mean, it's just thecommunity.
That part of the community islike it's just a game.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
And I'm sure there's exceptions, but the general
majority of folks want to helpeach other.
Ori you know Ori, he alwaysuses this term MSPs helping MSPs
, and that's what I like to say.
The BT community is as well.
Specifically, this group is sotight and you're in a peer group
, which is one of the bestthings you can do to grow your
(18:21):
business.
Right For you to have thistight knit group, that monthly,
and then you still interact inbetween and something like that.
You never expect someone to say, here, help us out in a pinch
while you get through this, butthat's your family, right.
I mean, you guys have builtthat relationship.
That's pretty incredible.
That's great.
So let's talk a little bitabout MidSolve, as you guys have
(18:43):
evolved.
So you've sort of recentlytransitioned to user-based
pricing, right, which issomething that we've talked
about in the BT programs for thelast few years now, and you've
adopted some new tools Halo,EnableMDR.
Can you share sort of therationale behind why you did
that and sort of the impact onthe business?
Speaker 1 (19:06):
So a couple of things .
I knew I was outgrowing the PSAthat I was in and had some
changes in my SOC situation thatI knew were happening and ended
up going to Empower.
I was already looking at Haloprior to that a little bit, but
I was like, ah, that's a downthe road thing.
(19:26):
That's a down the road thinghad something happen with the
current PSA where I, just afterbeing at Enable, I just said I'm
pulling the trigger on this.
This is going to happen.
Same thing with the MDR Enable.
Mdr was already usingSentinel-1, loved the product
and knew I needed a new full MDRsolution and was looking at MDR
(19:49):
prior to Empower as well,thanks to my great account rep
at Enable.
He keeps me pretty wellinformed and so, at Enable, I
took one of my team membersthere and at the conference we
just both were like we got to dothis.
You know this, this is we gotto do it.
And so we pulled the trigger.
Uh, pretty much as soon as wegot back, uh, worked out the
(20:10):
numbers and um had a?
Uh, a staff transition duringthat time in June and I did not
want my new, another uh, youknow, another full God moment.
I had a replacement staffperson.
The Monday after the one thatquit put in his resignation, the
(20:30):
guy I would have picked out ofmy community to be on my team
sent me an email and said, hey,do you have any positions I
might like to work for you.
But anyway, I brought him onand really did not want to teach
him two PSAs.
So I went to Halo and said, hey, can we implement this in 30
days?
Like we need to push throughthis.
And uh, they were able to dothat.
(20:50):
His first day is when we cutover to Halo.
It's, needless to say, the last.
The second half of last yearwas exciting, yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
I bet I remember you going through there and you had
you always have this smile onyour face and you're such a
positive guy, but you had aglimmer in your eye where I
could tell there was some ounceof stress that you were hiding
deep down.
So well done.
Way to keep a keep a keep asmile on your face.
Talk a little bit aboutcompliance, john.
I know that's been asignificant focus we're going to
(21:23):
talk about it this week, butcan you explain why it's
important on you know, havingsort of a story around
compliance to help your clients?
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Yeah.
So compliance is.
You know, I feel like the wayour industry is going, honestly,
the way business is going,compliance is going to get more
and more necessary and we reallyneed to be leading in that.
The area that I'm doing a lotof compliance in right now is
WISP for accountants.
Accountants at the beginning ofthis year had to have a written
(21:53):
information security policy,which is basically a compliance
right.
It's of some sort, and the WISPcan be based on lots of
different frameworks.
We tend to use FTC safeguards,but it's a process, it's some
documentation, it's someevidence, it's the whole
compliance process and they'rebeing required to do it.
They don't want to do it, Imean, they don't have the time
(22:14):
to do it.
So they've come to me as theirIT provider and said, hey, can
you help us with this?
So right now I've got I meanI've got six clients that I'm
doing compliance as a service,for One of them is a single
accountant that works out of herhouse, but she sees the value
in it and said, hey, can you dothis for me?
(22:36):
So compliance is going to get tobe more and more important.
We just felt like this issomething we need to get on the
front end of the last BT sessionthat we went to, there were a
number of speakers talking abouthey, we need to be leading in
this conversation.
I really took that to heart andjust started calling my
accountants.
Hey, we need to do your WISP,let's get on this.
Here's the pricing.
Let's get this done and it'sbeen great.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
By the way, I love that about you because you know
you guys are not a huge MSP, butyou have taken that to heart,
to your point, and you've saidwell, we're not too small Like
we should be doing this as well.
What advice would you give toother MSPs, maybe a little bit
smaller, that are just to reallyget out, to get started in
compliance?
Speaker 1 (23:22):
So I would say get whatever help you need, get
whatever tools you need.
I'm going to put in a shamelessplug.
I work with a guy that doescompliance quite a bit, cj.
He's been to the businesstransformation sessions with me.
We are in the process of kindof putting together a business
(23:42):
to help MSPs with this processof cybersecurity and compliance
ManagerSecuritycom.
But we just see the value indoing whatever we can to help
get there so we can providetools, we can provide consulting
, we can provide the help to dothat and as an especially the
(24:03):
small MSP anytime that I couldbring someone in or bring a
product in or a tool in thatcould help me get where I needed
to go without me having to puta ton of effort into it was
hugely beneficial.
You know I'm going to catch upeventually, but if I need this
now, I want, you know, I wantsomething that that's ready,
ready to go like plug and play.
Give me a plug and play, I'llpay the money for it.
(24:24):
Let's, let's get moving soawesome.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
So just a couple more questions, john.
Talk about how.
How do you plan to continueproviding more value to your
clients, right and sort ofstaying ahead of of the trends
that the industry is is facing?
Speaker 1 (24:42):
That's been an interesting part of moving to
user-based pricing and moving tofull managed service.
I didn't personally didn't seethe value in it completely prior
to doing this, and at thispoint I really see that moving
to this model one frees mycompany up to move resources
(25:04):
around and do exactly that Be onthe front edge of things, get
out in front of things, add whatI need to add, add staff, add
those kinds of things.
But also for my customers, itallows them to fully put their
trust in us and what we're doingand know that the fees that
they're paying are going tocover what they need to be
covered.
And then we're just going tostay on the front end of it and
(25:25):
we're going to let them knowwhat that is and help bring them
along as it is.
So it's been a huge transition.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Awesome.
So one last question for you,john.
Uh, we call this the now that'sit podcast, and so I love to
ask every one of my guests whendid you know?
Now that's it.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Uh, I thought about this quite a bit.
Honestly, the answer came to meright away and I thought well,
that doesn't make a whole lot ofsense.
So, as I said, when Itransitioned from working in
Grand Rapids and moving toAngola, or working in Angola, I
really felt the Lord calling meto be an influence in my
community.
About midway through last year,as I'm kind of in the throes of
(26:06):
all of this change in mybusiness, kind of a little
overwhelmed by it, right, like,what am I doing?
I had a moment where the Lordreally said I've got you right
where I want you, and made merealize that I'm on our hospital
ward.
I'm actually the board chair ofour hospital, local hospital.
I'm on my elder team.
(26:28):
At my church I helped bringfiber to our community.
On another board, I've beenasked to be on our community
foundation transition onto ourcommunity foundation board.
So it really was a that's whenI knew.
Now, that's it.
I'm doing exactly what I needto be, doing right where I need
to be.
And all of the chaos that'swhen I knew.
No, that's it.
I'm doing exactly what I needto be, doing right where I need
to be, and all of the chaosthat's going on around me is all
(26:48):
part of it.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Good John, that's amazing.
You're a real inspiration.
It's always a pleasure havingconversation with you.
As I mentioned earlier, Ialways love seeing your smiling
face and you're such a positive,optimistic guy.
Thank you so very much forbeing here.
I wish you and CJ and the restof MidSolve the best of luck in
the future, and thank you somuch.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Great Thanks, chris, this was fun.
One, two, three, four .
I either had to sacrifice myfamily or sacrifice this big
check and paycheck.
And I just said I really can'tdo that.
Called my company I was oncontract to them called my
account manager and he said well, if you don't take this
opportunity, we'll consider thata voluntary termination.
So by lunch I was unemployedand heading home to start my MSP
(00:24):
.
I was logging into one of mycustomers' servers to do some
maintenance on their server on aSaturday morning and I noticed
that there were some files beingencrypted.
So I had caught a ransomwareissue in the act.
And at that moment I just youknow, I saw that, as I can't let
this happen to my customers,this changes the landscape of
(00:48):
what ransomware is and, just youknow, sent an email out to all
my customers and said this iswhat we need to do and here's
what it's going to cost.
And it's happening January 1.
Let me know if you havequestions.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Welcome to Now that's it Stories of MSP Success,
where we dive into the journeysof some of the trailblazers in
our industry to find out howthey used their passion for
technology to help turn managedservices into the thriving
sector it is today.
Welcome, john McCoy, owner ofMidSolve, an MSP that I'd love
for you to tell me a little bitabout.
(01:23):
Welcome to the Now that's itpodcast.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Well, thanks, chris.
I've been in business I don'tknow going on 23 years now.
I service a small community innortheast Indiana.
We do all different kinds ofcustomers, no specialty.
We kind of work with anybodythat needs service.
(01:46):
Got lots of I don't.
I got probably a hundredcustomers, 120 customers that we
take care of that's great, butyou didn't always start off as
an entrepreneur, did you?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
you were.
You had a successful corporatecareer early on, right?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
I did.
What was that all?
about so I actually lived herein Phoenix for a long time and
worked for a large softwaredevelopment firm.
You know the software projectengineer or a software project
manager working for companieslike Visa and American Express,
doing you know big softwaredevelopment stuff, ended up
(02:22):
having our first son and movedto Indiana to raise our kids,
which is where my wife's fromLived in the community we're in
now in Angola, indiana, and Istayed with the company I just
transferred to their Lansingbranch, lansing Michigan.
They put me on a contract inGrand Rapids for a large grocery
(02:43):
chain that's in Grand Rapids,great company, led a team of
developers to help redo theirwarehousing software.
Great time, made great money.
Got to work there two days aweek, work at home two days a
week.
It was phenomenal, just aphenomenal job or career at the
time.
Job or career at the time.
(03:09):
But I, while I was doing that,I was living and working two
hours from you know, from whereI was working, and I had kind of
two sets of friends, two setsof you know people that I was
interacting with.
My wife and I were gettinginvolved at church, we were
meeting people in our communityand and I just really felt that
that separation of where I wasliving and where I was working
uh was not good like I justcouldn't have the uh couldn't
(03:32):
build the relationships that Ineeded to being that far away.
I did that for five years, umand uh and came to a came to a
pretty interesting decision atthe end of that five years.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
So obviously not an easy thing to do, right, leave
something pretty stable tosomething that you're not really
sure what it's going to looklike, but that inspiration there
was that fuel.
That said, what's important tome is being part of something
local, right, a community,definitely, definitely Awesome.
And so you leave as a projectmanager, or you're a project
(04:10):
manager there for a while, andnow you're selling backup and
cybersecurity, help sort ofconnect those dots.
What did that newentrepreneurship look like?
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Well, it was kind of interesting.
So, as I was working in GrandRapids, I just really felt this
call to work in the community Iwas living in, and so I started
kind of working on how do I dothat?
This community was small, theydidn't really have, didn't have
a need for a software projectmanager, didn't have a need for
my skills, and so I just kind oflooked at what might be
(04:41):
something I could do.
Lots of companies, lots ofsmall businesses.
I thought I can service theseguys.
I can make a business of this.
Did lots of prep work.
I figured out what I had tocharge an hour, what I had to do
, all the things to get readyfor it.
But pulling that trigger justto let go of that six-figure
income and kind of make the leapwas pretty difficult, and so I
(05:05):
kind of needed a little more ofa push to get there, which came
at the end of that five years.
I got invited to be on the nextbig software development
project.
The leader of the projectcalled me in her office, said
hey, I want you to be on thisteam, I want you to.
You know this is going to bemulti-years.
Actually I think it was a 10year project.
(05:26):
We'd love to have you on here,but you need to be here five
days a week.
And you know I it was clear tome that I couldn't.
I either had to sacrifice myfamily or sacrifice this big
check and paycheck.
And I just said I really can'tdo that.
I've called my company I was oncontract to them, called my
account manager and he said well, if you don't take this, don't
(05:47):
take this opportunity, we'llconsider that a voluntary
termination.
So by lunch I was unemployedand heading home to start my MSP
.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Wow, so obviously stressful.
But in the end you had to knowI mean, it was on your mind for
a while.
You had to know you're makingthe right decision.
I'm not saying that therearen't people that would
sacrifice their families fortheir careers, but as long as
I've known you, you've alwaysbeen a family man and I couldn't
see that ever seriously comingacross your mind.
(06:18):
Right yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
I spent a lot of time .
I'm a man of faith and I spenta lot of time in prayer over
those years just trying todecide what to do, and I had a
really clear sense from the Lordthat this was he was going to
prosper a business that I builtand I didn't know what that was
going to look like.
But I just started doing it.
I went to some companies,really thought I'd do great with
(06:41):
manufacturing firms, but Ifound out quickly that the
manufacturers in my area eithercouldn't afford me or had IT in
Detroit or Chicago or somewhereelse.
So I actually got my firstbreak from a good friend of mine
from church that had a verysuccessful HR business in town
and he said hey I need your helpand we kind of worked together
(07:04):
I helped him build his business,he helped me build mine and
kind of got MidSolve launched.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Wow, so you did something early on.
That, I think, is prettyfantastic.
It's not uncommon today, butyou led with security and backup
.
I think every MSP hopes to leadwith security and backup today,
but you were doing that earlyon.
Why?
Speaker 1 (07:24):
to lead with security and backup today, but you were
doing that early on.
Why so?
As I approached companies,small businesses in my community
, I really got this theme ofwhat they were all missing.
So all of them either had nosecurity, no antivirus, or what
they had was outdated.
They had no idea what was goingon with their backups.
They either had no backups orthey had backups but had no idea
(07:46):
whether they actually worked ornot, just with a theme, you
know.
And they weren't doing patching, they weren't doing you know
any, any basic maintenance andand anybody that was working for
them any IT companies, computercompanies were doing a really
poor job of it at the time, andso I just led with that.
I said you know, these are thethings you need and we'll help
(08:08):
you figure out the rest.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
What were some of those early challenges when you
started MintSolve?
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Finding customers was a big one.
I've never advertised, I'vealways grown via word of mouth
and, you know, really stood onmy reputation and in my
community and so just gettingthose referrals and bringing
people on, bringing the right,getting the right software stack
, getting the right tool stack,was huge and I've actually been
(08:39):
with Enable for 18 yearsprobably.
You know, I started long, longago, found it to be a great
product and you guys just keepadding great stuff, so I keep my
.
Almost my entire stack isenabled Awesome.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
So early days, mid-solve I think it's probably
30, 70, time and materials,project work, break-fix type
stuff what sort of prompted ashift towards true managed
services?
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Well, that's kind of interesting.
I actually tried doing truemanaged services quite a few
years ago, probably 15 years ago, and it just didn't sell well
in my community.
So I kind of did a bit of ahybrid of that.
I kind of made a base, you knowkind of service stack that
everybody gets.
I have one product, everybodygets it, and then would do time
(09:33):
and materials on top of that.
And quite honestly I've donethat up until January of this
year.
I took the leap and moved allof my customers to full managed
services two months ago.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
And what's that process been like?
How's that been for your morale?
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Uh, I haven't had much sleep in the last three
months, but I actually wentreally, really smooth.
It was a lot of work.
Um, I uh.
So far, I've moved probably ahundred customers over and I
lost one in the process.
Um and again it.
One thing I've learned throughall of this is is this is a
relationship business, and so Ispend a lot of time building
(10:14):
relationships, and this reallytaught me.
This process taught me just toto trust that relationship.
Like you know, it's importantthere.
My customers are counting on meto guide them in the right
direction and even if that costsmore money, they're still.
They still want that service.
You know that's what they'recounting on me for.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Awesome.
So you talk a little bit about,you know, one level of service.
This is what we offer.
You take it or leave it, how's?
Speaker 1 (10:46):
that worked for you and how's that worked for your
customers.
So having one product like thatreally separates the customers
that appreciate and understandwhat IT managed services are and
the customers that just wantyou know backup or just want
antivirus or you know that kindof stuff.
(11:07):
And for me I just feel like ifit's good for one customer, it's
good.
I don't have different levelsof customers.
I need to provide a highservice, high level service for
everybody.
So typically once I explainthat, talk through that with the
customers that are a littleless comfortable with it, they
come around you.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Most MSPs know more than what their customers you
know, think they know, and sofor you to be able to offer this
(11:46):
sort of baseline your MVP um,you know it, it is what's best
for them.
And I think what you had to domentally was say there's going
to be some clients Thankfullyit's only been one to this point
but there's going to be somecustomers that maybe don't want
that, and that's okay.
Like for me, this is who myideal client is and they fit
(12:07):
into this mold, they're going totake that, and so that had to
be a pretty big jump for youguys.
That was.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
that was really hard because, again, I'm a
relationship guy so I reallyno-transcript with us over the
(12:42):
next few years as things changeand evolve.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
So I'm sure every MSP goes through their sort of
growth and maturity and theycome through points in their
careers where it's scary.
Something scary happens, andfor you it was sort of 2020,
right.
I think there was an incidentand I would love to hear what
(13:07):
you're willing to share aboutthat.
I know you acted very swiftlyand I'd love to be able to hear
about that.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Well, in actually September 2019, about that.
Well, in actually September2019, I was logging into one of
my customers' servers to do somemaintenance on their server on
a Saturday morning and I noticedthat there were some files
being encrypted.
So I had caught a ransomwareissue in the act and I was able
to act quickly shut the serverdown, contact the customer you
(13:37):
know all of those things.
We were able to remediate it,get their server back up and
going.
Honestly, I think they weredown half of the day Monday at
most and they were back inbusiness thanks to Cove Data
Protect and you know all thegreat, you know stack that we
had in place and being able toact quickly.
But the particular ransomwarewas LockBit and September of
(14:00):
2019, as I was researching howto you know how to handle this,
I found that LockBit had kind ofchanged the game a little bit.
They not only were encryptingthe data, but they were also
exfiltrating that data out ofthe network and you know,
posting it on the dark web.
And at that moment I just, youknow, I saw that, as I can't let
(14:21):
this happen to my customers.
This changes the landscape ofwhat ransomware is and in
January of 2020, I moved all ofmy customers to EDR with a 24-7
SOC, so put them into MDRimmediately.
Just, you know, sent an emailout to all my customers and said
(14:42):
this is what we need to do andhere's what it's gonna cost.
And it's happening January 1let me know if you have
questions.
And it was a big leap, but itwas the, it was the right thing
to do at the time and, you know,I just couldn't let that happen
to my customers, for sure.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
So you were obviously lucky, john.
You caught this in the act andquickly offer something new that
you knew you were going to helpyour customers and then pass
that cost down to the customersNot a significant cost, but
again more than what they hadsigned up for initially with you
.
Than what they had signed upfor initially with you, um, were
(15:20):
you prepared to?
Um incur that cost your own ifthey pushed back on you because
it was so important, or or how?
What was going through yourmind?
How are you thinking throughthat?
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Uh, quite honestly, I implemented it before I told
him about it.
Um, so, yes, I was a hundredpercent ready, ready to incur
that cost because it was theright thing to do.
Um, and, honestly, after that,finding out about lock bid, I
couldn't sleep very well.
So, uh, having 24 seven sock inplace really allowed me to take
(15:47):
a breath and, and you know,kind of look at the situation
and push this out the way itneeded to be pushed out.
But yeah, I was, I was willingto lose some customers over it
and I was willing to pay for itfor them until they figured out
that it was the right thing todo.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
But I think the interesting thing was that you
knew you needed something.
You obviously realized veryquickly that at your size it was
going to be hard to do withyour team and you had to find a
partner that was going to beable to provide these 24 by 7,
365 resources.
And so you were able to do that.
That's great.
Let's talk a little bit about.
(16:22):
You know we're at an event thisweek business transformation.
Right, you've been an earlyadvocate and an early fan of
what we've done with businesstransformation.
Can you just talk a little bitabout this community and how
this has helped you work on thebusiness?
Speaker 1 (16:36):
just talk a little bit about this community and and
how this has helped you work onthe business.
So the first businesstransformation that I went to
was, I think, um, two octobersago.
It was the getting to twomillion uh, which not quite
there yet getting there, but um,they won.
That was.
That was a an amazingly greatuse of my time and resources.
(16:57):
So I walked away from thatevent going.
I will go to every one of these.
That makes sense because it's agreat use of my time, great use
of my resources.
The other thing I walked awayfrom that with is a peer group.
I got put into a peer groupwhich has been game changing for
me.
I love meeting with my peergroup.
I love being able to bouncestuff off of them.
(17:17):
And just another interestingstory about my peer group I had
an employee leave middle of lastyear, pretty short notice, and
I happened to have a peer groupmeeting that Friday that he gave
me his resignation and I justthrew out a message to all of
them as we were like hey, whatdo you guys do to hire?
And you know I got lots ofresponses back, you know.
(17:40):
But the other responses I gotback is I had guys in my peer
group go.
Hey, I've got capacity.
If you need help, desk callsanswered, let me know, We'll
help you out.
And I mean, it's just thecommunity.
That part of the community islike it's just a game.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
And I'm sure there's exceptions, but the general
majority of folks want to helpeach other.
Ori you know Ori, he alwaysuses this term MSPs helping MSPs
, and that's what I like to say.
The BT community is as well.
Specifically, this group is sotight and you're in a peer group
, which is one of the bestthings you can do to grow your
(18:21):
business.
Right For you to have thistight knit group, that monthly,
and then you still interact inbetween and something like that.
You never expect someone to say, here, help us out in a pinch
while you get through this, butthat's your family, right.
I mean, you guys have builtthat relationship.
That's pretty incredible.
That's great.
So let's talk a little bitabout MidSolve, as you guys have
(18:43):
evolved.
So you've sort of recentlytransitioned to user-based
pricing, right, which issomething that we've talked
about in the BT programs for thelast few years now, and you've
adopted some new tools Halo,EnableMDR.
Can you share sort of therationale behind why you did
that and sort of the impact onthe business?
Speaker 1 (19:06):
So a couple of things .
I knew I was outgrowing the PSAthat I was in and had some
changes in my SOC situation thatI knew were happening and ended
up going to Empower.
I was already looking at Haloprior to that a little bit, but
I was like, ah, that's a downthe road thing.
(19:26):
That's a down the road thinghad something happen with the
current PSA where I, just afterbeing at Enable, I just said I'm
pulling the trigger on this.
This is going to happen.
Same thing with the MDR Enable.
Mdr was already usingSentinel-1, loved the product
and knew I needed a new full MDRsolution and was looking at MDR
(19:49):
prior to Empower as well,thanks to my great account rep
at Enable.
He keeps me pretty wellinformed and so, at Enable, I
took one of my team membersthere and at the conference we
just both were like we got to dothis.
You know this, this is we gotto do it.
And so we pulled the trigger.
Uh, pretty much as soon as wegot back, uh, worked out the
(20:10):
numbers and um had a?
Uh, a staff transition duringthat time in June and I did not
want my new, another uh, youknow, another full God moment.
I had a replacement staffperson.
The Monday after the one thatquit put in his resignation, the
(20:30):
guy I would have picked out ofmy community to be on my team
sent me an email and said, hey,do you have any positions I
might like to work for you.
But anyway, I brought him onand really did not want to teach
him two PSAs.
So I went to Halo and said, hey, can we implement this in 30
days?
Like we need to push throughthis.
And uh, they were able to dothat.
(20:50):
His first day is when we cutover to Halo.
It's, needless to say, the last.
The second half of last yearwas exciting, yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
I bet I remember you going through there and you had
you always have this smile onyour face and you're such a
positive guy, but you had aglimmer in your eye where I
could tell there was some ounceof stress that you were hiding
deep down.
So well done.
Way to keep a keep a keep asmile on your face.
Talk a little bit aboutcompliance, john.
I know that's been asignificant focus we're going to
(21:23):
talk about it this week, butcan you explain why it's
important on you know, havingsort of a story around
compliance to help your clients?
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Yeah.
So compliance is.
You know, I feel like the wayour industry is going, honestly,
the way business is going,compliance is going to get more
and more necessary and we reallyneed to be leading in that.
The area that I'm doing a lotof compliance in right now is
WISP for accountants.
Accountants at the beginning ofthis year had to have a written
(21:53):
information security policy,which is basically a compliance
right.
It's of some sort, and the WISPcan be based on lots of
different frameworks.
We tend to use FTC safeguards,but it's a process, it's some
documentation, it's someevidence, it's the whole
compliance process and they'rebeing required to do it.
They don't want to do it, Imean, they don't have the time
(22:14):
to do it.
So they've come to me as theirIT provider and said, hey, can
you help us with this?
So right now I've got I meanI've got six clients that I'm
doing compliance as a service,for One of them is a single
accountant that works out of herhouse, but she sees the value
in it and said, hey, can you dothis for me?
(22:36):
So compliance is going to get tobe more and more important.
We just felt like this issomething we need to get on the
front end of the last BT sessionthat we went to, there were a
number of speakers talking abouthey, we need to be leading in
this conversation.
I really took that to heart andjust started calling my
accountants.
Hey, we need to do your WISP,let's get on this.
Here's the pricing.
Let's get this done and it'sbeen great.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
By the way, I love that about you because you know
you guys are not a huge MSP, butyou have taken that to heart,
to your point, and you've saidwell, we're not too small Like
we should be doing this as well.
What advice would you give toother MSPs, maybe a little bit
smaller, that are just to reallyget out, to get started in
compliance?
Speaker 1 (23:22):
So I would say get whatever help you need, get
whatever tools you need.
I'm going to put in a shamelessplug.
I work with a guy that doescompliance quite a bit, cj.
He's been to the businesstransformation sessions with me.
We are in the process of kindof putting together a business
(23:42):
to help MSPs with this processof cybersecurity and compliance
ManagerSecuritycom.
But we just see the value indoing whatever we can to help
get there so we can providetools, we can provide consulting
, we can provide the help to dothat and as an especially the
(24:03):
small MSP anytime that I couldbring someone in or bring a
product in or a tool in thatcould help me get where I needed
to go without me having to puta ton of effort into it was
hugely beneficial.
You know I'm going to catch upeventually, but if I need this
now, I want, you know, I wantsomething that that's ready,
ready to go like plug and play.
Give me a plug and play, I'llpay the money for it.
(24:24):
Let's, let's get moving soawesome.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
So just a couple more questions, john.
Talk about how.
How do you plan to continueproviding more value to your
clients, right and sort ofstaying ahead of of the trends
that the industry is is facing?
Speaker 1 (24:42):
That's been an interesting part of moving to
user-based pricing and moving tofull managed service.
I didn't personally didn't seethe value in it completely prior
to doing this, and at thispoint I really see that moving
to this model one frees mycompany up to move resources
(25:04):
around and do exactly that Be onthe front edge of things, get
out in front of things, add whatI need to add, add staff, add
those kinds of things.
But also for my customers, itallows them to fully put their
trust in us and what we're doingand know that the fees that
they're paying are going tocover what they need to be
covered.
And then we're just going tostay on the front end of it and
(25:25):
we're going to let them knowwhat that is and help bring them
along as it is.
So it's been a huge transition.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Awesome.
So one last question for you,john.
Uh, we call this the now that'sit podcast, and so I love to
ask every one of my guests whendid you know?
Now that's it.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Uh, I thought about this quite a bit.
Honestly, the answer came to meright away and I thought well,
that doesn't make a whole lot ofsense.
So, as I said, when Itransitioned from working in
Grand Rapids and moving toAngola, or working in Angola, I
really felt the Lord calling meto be an influence in my
community.
About midway through last year,as I'm kind of in the throes of
(26:06):
all of this change in mybusiness, kind of a little
overwhelmed by it, right, like,what am I doing?
I had a moment where the Lordreally said I've got you right
where I want you, and made merealize that I'm on our hospital
ward.
I'm actually the board chair ofour hospital, local hospital.
I'm on my elder team.
(26:28):
At my church I helped bringfiber to our community.
On another board, I've beenasked to be on our community
foundation transition onto ourcommunity foundation board.
So it really was a that's whenI knew.
Now, that's it.
I'm doing exactly what I needto be, doing right where I need
to be.
And all of the chaos that'swhen I knew.
No, that's it.
I'm doing exactly what I needto be, doing right where I need
to be, and all of the chaosthat's going on around me is all
(26:48):
part of it.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Good John, that's amazing.
You're a real inspiration.
It's always a pleasure havingconversation with you.
As I mentioned earlier, Ialways love seeing your smiling
face and you're such a positive,optimistic guy.
Thank you so very much forbeing here.
I wish you and CJ and the restof MidSolve the best of luck in
the future, and thank you somuch.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Great Thanks, chris, this was fun.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
True Crime Tonight
If you eat, sleep, and breathe true crime, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT is serving up your nightly fix. Five nights a week, KT STUDIOS & iHEART RADIO invite listeners to pull up a seat for an unfiltered look at the biggest cases making headlines, celebrity scandals, and the trials everyone is watching. With a mix of expert analysis, hot takes, and listener call-ins, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT goes beyond the headlines to uncover the twists, turns, and unanswered questions that keep us all obsessed—because, at TRUE CRIME TONIGHT, there’s a seat for everyone. Whether breaking down crime scene forensics, scrutinizing serial killers, or debating the most binge-worthy true crime docs, True Crime Tonight is the fresh, fast-paced, and slightly addictive home for true crime lovers.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com