Kirby Watson of AlignedTek, winner of the 2026 Better Your Best competition, is quick to say he isn’t a tech guy—he’s a sales guy. Since launching his MSP in 2022, Watson has leveraged the TruMethods framework and Technology Marketing Toolkit (TMT) structure to grow and scale his business to what it is today. The key to his success boils down to one word: discipline.
In a conversation with MSP Success, Watson discussed the metrics and strategies behind Aligned Tek’s growth and momentum. More importantly, he explained why he believes the blueprint for success already exists, and it works, as long as you are willing to follow it.
MSP Success: Tell us a bit about Aligned Tek. What was your year-over-year revenue growth for 2025? On average, what has it been over the last few years?
Watson: Aligned Tek was founded in 2022, and we have 23 total employees. In 2025, we had a 110% year-over-year growth. Over the past three years, we’ve maintained a compound annual growth rate of 51%.
MSP Success: What are your top three growth indicators that you measure and why?
Watson: The first is net new MRR. It basically drives revenue and measures the effectiveness of our sales engine, which we’re a sales organization first. The second one is our sales pipeline coverage versus targets that ensures we have enough opportunities to hit our sales goals for the month, quarter, and year. Then we have project revenue from existing clients as the third. This shows how well our VICO and TAM teams are uncovering projects and expanding within our existing client base. Overall, those metrics give us a clear view of both new logo growth and expansion within our client base.
MSP Success: What would you say is the biggest secret to your success?
Watson: Execution discipline. We focus on doing the right things consistently. For example: weekly pipeline reviews, sticking with a structured sales process, and holding the team accountable to those KPIs and leading indicators.
MSP Success: Your structured sales process and such, is that something that’s very unique to Aligned Tek, or is it something you’ve picked up from peer groups or workshops?
Watson: I’ve got to tell you, the majority of it is what we’ve picked up from TMT. It’s the processes that TMT laid out for us. We just followed it and were very diligent about it. I do attribute a lot of it to the peer groups and accountability groups I’m in, but TMT gave us the blueprint.
MSP Success: That’s encouraging because if everybody has access to it…
Watson: It’s not a secret.
MSP Success: What strategies are you using to acquire new customers?
Watson: We take a targeted, multi-touch approach [that includes] personalized outreach campaigns and direct mail to the high-value target list. We do a lot of educational marketing, have strong discovery calls, and then do pre-sales assessments before presenting our solution. That allows us to create or earn the prospect’s trust before we present.
MSP Success: What has been the biggest catalyst for your business growth?
Watson: Building the right foundation early. We made a conscious decision to prioritize structure, process, and accountability from the start, which has allowed us to scale much more quickly without sacrificing our service quality. I think it’s just building the right foundation early, making sure we’re doing all the small things right and consistently. That allows us to grow as we did.
MSP Success: What were your biggest growth challenges in the past year?
Watson: Because we made an acquisition, I think it’s keeping our operations aligned with growth. We had to really maintain that consistency across the Mid-Atlantic and the Southeast now that we have two offices. That took a lot of work and investment in documentation, process development, and just holding everybody on the team accountable.
MSP Success: What advice would you give other MSP owners looking to grow and improve their business?
Watson: Focus on your foundation before chasing growth. Focus on what you do day in and day out. If your processes, pricing, or service model is not solid, the growth will expose your every weakness. Build repeatable systems. Then lastly, I know it’s small, but join an accountability group such as TMT or TruPeer. There are blueprints out there. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. There’s a lot of successful MSP operators out there, and what they’re doing is not a huge secret. But you have to do it, there’s no easy button.
Read all about the 2026 Better Your Best competition, including more details about Watson’s presentation as well as the other five finalists at Kirby Watson of Aligned Tek Wins TMT’s Better Your Best Competition.
