It takes a keen eye and a strong sense of industry trends to spot gaps in the marketplace—but being the first to fill that gap can reap dividends. Industry titan Dave Childress saw such an opportunity and started a technology-as-a-service (TaaS) business that offers MSP partners the ability to add new tech revenue streams without the manpower and massive starting costs.
By uniting his B2B company Claratti with Turnium Technology Group Inc. (TTGI), he was able to access their partner network and expand the business’s reach internationally. TTGI acquires and integrates companies that complement its strategy.
Claratti is Childress’ fifth tech company, born from 40 years of experience in the channel and an idea. Now, he serves as global CEO of both Claratti and TTGI, striving to make technology as easy as flicking on a light switch. And the numbers speak for themselves—TTGI’s revenue is growing over 20% quarter-over-quarter, and they’re able to offer their partners 20–40% margin on the blended product stack they offer.
Robin Robins, founder of Technology Marketing Toolkit and MSP Success, interviewed Childress to get an inside look at the ins-and-outs of his unique business model, discuss the AI engine that powers it all, and get his take on how MSPs need to adapt to stay current in the changing market. This Q&A below has been edited for clarity and length. Watch the video above for the entire interview.
Robin Robins: You’ve got a very unique business model that I think everyone needs to hear about. Tell us a bit about Claratti and TTGI.
Doug Childress: [The idea for Claratti] came to me one day flicking the lights on in my office; I thought, “It would be nice if we could make technology this simple.” There are so many moving parts in technology, and there wasn’t one company you could call and ask to do everything. It dawned on me that I could make a B2B—sell our products to partners, who put their brand on them and sell them to the end customer. Claratti gives [MSP partners] the ability to sell a product, like cybersecurity, and generate new revenue streams without the techs, skills, or expertise needed.
The partners that sign up with us don’t have to hire anybody. They don’t have to invest any capital. They don’t have to go through any rigorous training, because we do the heavy lifting for them. We’re kind of like a big superstore for technology. We’re finding that our MSP partners out there feel there’s about a 60% gap in technology [coverage]. We want to [eliminate that gap and] make the partners able to step in front of the end customer and offer a solution [for whatever the customer needs].
I [originally] got interested in TTGI because they wrote their own SD-WAN software, which was white-labeled; they could write the software and give it to a partner, who could brand it and sell it to the end customer. I’d built a technology-as-a-service platform, and was looking for partners worldwide. Overnight, I got access to 70 channel partners in multiple countries.
Robins: To the MSPs [reading] this, I would suggest you look at this in two ways. Maybe you want to be a partner, and that’s fine, but [also look at the] business model. Think about this as a different type of customer you could sell managed services to.
So, Doug, when you’re reselling this service, who goes in and sells it? There has to be a sales process, a quoting process, account management, etc. Are you providing all of that, or do [the partners] have to do that work?
Childress: It depends on the way you engage us. We can be the boots on the ground. Say you’ve just signed a customer in California; you’re based in Tennessee. If you have a partner-to-partner agreement with us, [we’ll match you up with] one of our partners in California [to be the boots on the ground]. Everything flows through us; we make sure there’s no infighting between partners, and the other partner will honor whatever rate you’re billing the customer and work within a boundary of margin.
[If you] don’t want to employ anybody, we’ll answer the phone and call the customer as you. We’ll deliver the product as you. We’ll take a bigger cut, because we’re doing more work, but [partners] are able to create this global presence through our partner network, that would take years and millions of dollars to develop [otherwise].
Robins: The MSP landscape is changing, especially with the impact AI is having and the pace at which it’s evolving. If we look forward five to 10 years, how do you think MSPs will have to operate differently in order to compete?
Childress: You’ve got quantum computing coming; in three to five years that’s going to change the world like we’ve never seen before. We’ve already seen what AI has done in the last two years. I find a new AI model every week. For MSPs to keep up, they’re going to have to reinvent themselves.
The landscape is changing. Stop trying to do it all yourself. There’s already a platform out there that will do it with you, for you, and it’s got AI baked in.
Robins: On the AI component, you have created an AI engine that will sit on Zoom and Teams meetings and direct the questions you ask, take notes, and help put the proposal together. Is that correct?
Childress: Yeah, that’s it. It’s in the lab now, and we’re using it internally. We jump on Teams calls as the partner. The AI script runs on the side, [telling us] which questions to ask, [dependent on the answers the customer gives]. Every single time we hang up a call, that script is getting re-tested.
We’re also working on voice bots now, which will make outbound calls. And we’re working on empathy; as I’m sitting and talking [with someone], our modules are running in the background reading [their expressions with] facial recognition. Then it will tell me to talk more about cybersecurity, for example, because it piqued [the prospect’s] interest.
And, we’re using AI to overlay the partner’s logo on the marketing literature and everything [we produce for them].
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