While some MSPs might consider nonprofits risky or unprofitable, Nimer Saikaly has built his entire business servicing them. Eighty percent of San Diego-based MSP Ciprus Consulting’s client base are nonprofit organizations, yet the MSP is still maintaining a steady 50% year-over-year revenue growth.
But profit is far from the most important thing to Saikaly. He is passionate about giving back to his community, and providing accessible, top-quality tech support to nonprofits throughout San Diego is his method of doing so.
Finding Their Niche
Saikaly’s first job out of school, at an organization called Episcopal Community Services, heavily influenced this choice. “I ended up working there for 18 years as the director of IT and gained so much hands-on knowledge and experience that later informed my own business. They even helped me gain my permanent citizenship back in 2012,” Saikaly explains.
This was when Saikaly began considering opening his own MSP. But first, he got his Master of Business Administration with a minor in Information Technology, which gave him the education necessary to succeed. Saikaly says, “At this time, I told myself, ‘You got the citizenship, you have the education, you know what these organizations need. Now it’s time to start your own company so that you can give back to these not-for-profits and deliver the help they deserve.’”
Building Ciprus Consulting
There were two main motivating factors for Saikaly when creating Ciprus Consulting. One was building a company that truly cared about their nonprofit clients and provided top-notch service, and the second was his wife and daughter. “On the professional side, it was absolutely critical that my business was structured to accommodate how not-for-profit organizations operate. Although we may not be working directly with people in need, we’re supporting the people that help those people, and that’s what pushed me to want to start my own business in the first place,” says Saikaly.
And what started as a one-person endeavor operating out of Saikaly’s home has now grown into a full-blown MSP. “Customer service is our number one thing,” says Saikaly. “Because many of our clients are big enough to need robust IT help but have a small internal team, they often weren’t getting the treatment or value they deserved with their previous MSPs. While we are an MSP ourselves, we understand and empathize with their struggle and strive to differentiate ourselves through our commitment to excellence and unparalleled dedication to our clients’ missions. In fact, my absolute dream would be for Ciprus Consulting to be known as the number one MSP for not-for-profit organizations nationwide.”
Ciprus is well on their way to achieving this goal—Saikaly was named the San Diego Top Tech of the Year in 2023, presented by Cox Business; a 2024 Leader of Influence in Technology, by the San Diego Business Journal; and was a finalist for the 2024 Small Business Award of Community-Minded by the California State Assembly.
Tripling In Size
Saikaly’s strategy is working; Ciprus is growing rapidly. “Over the past few years, we’ve doubled, if not tripled, in size,” Saikaly notes, referring to both their revenue and number of employees, of which they currently have eight.“We’ve still been extremely deliberate with our client selection, only taking on clients that are a good match, but our goals of expansion would allow us to help even more not-for-profit organizations and enact further change in our communities.”
Ciprus credits much of their success to word of mouth and referrals from the nonprofit community.
“For us, expanding doesn’t just look like going to a nonprofit and letting them know about us. It’s more about talking to people, being present in the market, and doing a good job for our other clients—that’s our way of growing. That’s what determines if we will grow or not.”
A Man On A Mission
For Saikaly, the most important thing isn’t making record-breaking profits or rapid growth. Instead, he wants to give back to his community by taking great care of his nonprofit clients, in turn enabling them to help more people.
He explains, “This is our priority: having the best team on board and giving the best to our clients. We don’t look at it like most MSPs, just providing the services and making sure the computers are up and running. Our goal is to achieve the mission of our clients. We make sure to understand what their mission is, understand what they’re trying to achieve, and bring the technology to help them do it.”
“It comes to one point,” he explains. “What are we looking for? As long as we have a decent income, profit to run the business, and can compensate our employees correctly while giving the best customer service and support and helping to achieve our clients’ missions, that’s what matters.”
But until then, Ciprus Consulting will continue giving back to the community in the way they know best—by empowering their nonprofit clients to help more people by ensuring their tech stack isn’t holding them back.
