Just about any business owner could tell you that starting a business rarely goes how you’d expect. But for Leo Bletnitsky, founder and president of Las Vegas-based MSP Healthy Technology Solutions, some unexpected obstacles led him to roll the dice in Las Vegas. His bet that a client-centric approach to growth has paid off, with his MSP seeing steady YoY revenue increases of 25-40%. Bletnitsky’s continual focus on “what’s next” has him now looking to acquisitions to get to the next level.
Getting Started
Bletnitsky’s family immigrated from Odessa, Ukraine, to the San Francisco Bay Area when he was 4 years old. After graduating from college, serving in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve, and working in computer networking jobs, he started Healthy Technology Solutions in Oakland, California in 1996; his first client was the CEO of his former job, who had been struggling with support since Bletnitsky left. Over the next nine years, he steadily built his client base. However, Bletnitsky had also completed a National Security graduate certificate program in the meantime.
“I talked to the Special Agent in Charge for San Francisco FBI when he spoke to the grad school class, and he encouraged me to apply to the FBI for a special agent position since I had a military and tech background and spoke Russian,” Bletnitsky says. “I got through the process quickly and sold my business to a larger competitor when I received the ‘Congratulations, you’re hired’ letter. Unfortunately, I then found out I had failed the required hearing test. Although I had always worn ear protection when shooting, my time in the Coast Guard had left me with a slight hearing loss in a few frequencies—just enough to disqualify me from being a Special Agent in [the] FBI.”
Despite his extensive experience, Bletnitsky was essentially back to square one. However, he wasn’t giving up yet. “I spoke with that very first CEO again, and he offered to move his server co-location from San Francisco to Las Vegas since he’d recently moved their HQ Office to get away from the high California taxes. I couldn’t work in the [San Fran] area due to my non-compete, so I thought, ‘Screw it, let’s move the family and business to Vegas.’”
Rebuilding The Business
Since landing in Las Vegas in 2005, Bletnitsky has expanded his team, added a presence in Central Florida, and prioritized a client-centric approach to delivering innovative technology solutions. “You could probably trace this back to my childhood, but I’m always looking for ‘what’s next’ or troubleshooting how to make things better for our clients,” notes Bletnitsky. “But the business has a lot of inherent risks these days, particularly with cybersecurity. In fact, cybersecurity has become our number one job, with everything else becoming secondary.”
Bletnitsky knows that by taking care of his clients, the rest will come. One way he ensures this is by cultivating a workplace built on positive reinforcement and trust. “I’ve seen firsthand what it’s like to be underpaid or underappreciated in the workplace,” says Bletnitsky. “Everyone on the team must be a motivated self-starter with a personality—no SNL Computer Guys allowed! There’s no place for slacking here.”
Continued Growth And Acquisitions
Over the past several decades, this mindset has served them well, with the business growing significantly. And looking ahead, Bletnitsky and his team aim for continued expansion. “We’re always looking to grow,” Bletnitsky mentions. “Whether that be through strategic acquisitions or organic growth, I want to have a continued impact on the communities we serve.”
Healthy Technology Solutions has maintained steady growth, usually landing in the range of 25– 40% year over year. This last year, however, they ended up around 15% growth, which left Bletnitsky dissatisfied. “Part of that is that we didn’t really do any marketing or events last year,” he says. “But part of it is as you get larger, it’s harder to maintain that growth. If you’re doing half a million a year, it’s pretty easy to have 50% growth and get to $750,000, whereas when you’re at $2 million and aiming for 50% growth… that’s pretty massive growth.”
While they’ve since stepped up their marketing efforts with direct mail, door knocking, and events, the next major step for Healthy Technology Solutions is a potential acquisition or two. “At this point we’re looking to buy some smaller MSPs both to grow nationally and to make sure all our processes are correct. Then we’d like to start going larger,” he says.
The road to Bletnitsky’s success has required navigating some unexpected twists and turns, but with his perseverance and forward thinking, the odds are in his favor for the next phase of growth.
