How Should MSPs Be Valued - Listen to Aaron Mahl and Greg Northrop at IT Valuation Talk About This Important Topic

12/01/24 • 21 min

Welcome to another episode of M&A Insights, where we speak with Aaron Mahl and Greg Northrop at IT Valuation to dive deep into the strategies and approaches shaping the world of MSP Valuations. Today, we're tackling a game-changing topic for MSP owners and IT service providers: how to maximize your business valuation and structure your company for a successful exit. From IT Valuation’s 24-factor pricing model to legal setups like S-Corps versus C-Corps and emerging deal trends like rollover equity and earnouts, we’re unpacking the tools you need to make your business irresistible to buyers. Listen in!

www.linkedin.com/in/madhur-duggar

www.linkedin.com/in/madhur-duggar

Previous Episode

Common Mistakes MSPs Make When Growing Their Business and How to Avoid Them with Terry Hedden at Marketopia

In this episode of M&A Insights, Madhur Duggar engages with Terry Hedden, founder, and CEO of Marketopia, to explore strategies for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) aiming to scale and enhance profitability. The focus is on Marketing. Key insights from their discussion include:

It is all about the ROI: Focusing on the profitability of a Lead Generation strategy and not just its cost.
Taking bigger steps: Putting in motion a lead generation process that will have a noticeable impact on leads and sales rather than one which may cost less but has very marginal improvements.
Learning who to trust: If you are looking to sell your MSP after scaling its topline several multiples, take the advice of those who have done just that.
Deploy capital across all aspects of your business: Focusing on deploying capital to all aspects of your business and not just to product improvement. Even small increases in budgets for Marketing can increase lead generation by an order of magnitude.
Delegation and Team Empowerment: Terry emphasizes the importance of delegating responsibilities and empowering team members to foster growth and innovation within the organization.
Lead Generation Beyond Referrals: Relying solely on word-of-mouth referrals can limit growth. Terry advocates for proactive lead generation strategies, including digital marketing and tele marketing for appointment setting, to create a consistent pipeline of potential clients.
Utilizing Proven Marketing Campaigns: Implementing effective marketing campaigns tailored to the IT industry can help MSPs stand out and attract new clients. Marketopia offers pre-built marketing campaigns and sales toolkits designed specifically for MSPs.

These strategies provide MSPs with actionable steps to drive growth and achieve their business objectives.

www.linkedin.com/in/madhur-duggar

Next Episode

What Makes an MSP Irresistible? Lessons from Evergreen’s Acquisition Strategy with Sydney Hockett

Folks, welcome to yet another episode of M&A Insights. I am your host Madhur Duggar, and I am so excited to introduce my guest Sydney Hockett VP of M&A at Evergreen. Evergreen has been engaging in one of the most active MSP global roll-up strategies having completed almost 90 MSP acquisitions over the past 7-8 years. What are they looking for in their acquisitions? what makes their acquisition strategy so unique? How can you as an MSP owner make yourself invaluable to your clients? To find out the answer to all these questions and many mor, listen in!
Here are some questions we get into:
Evergreen Background and Acquisition Strategy

1. Can you give us a quick background on Evergreen’s platform strategy and what role you play in that?

2. How many acquisitions have you made to date? How many did you make in 2024? How many do you plan to make in 2025?

3. Any differences in the types of acquisitions you made in 2024 compared with previous years and what you are looking to do in the future?

4. What differentiates Evergreen’s MSP platform from that of other big buyers in the marketplace?

5. What differentiates Evergreen’s evaluation approach from that of other platforms that also do not fully integrate their targets?

6. You offer cash upfront, roll-up equity and earnouts. Can you shed some light on what shapes the amount of each a Seller can expect to receive depending on their business profile?

7. What role does scalability play in your acquisition strategy? Do you have a minimum size threshold below which you likely will not go when acquiring?

8. What are some of the key financial metrics that drive multiples in an acquisition for Evergreen? Are these different from what others would look at?

9. How important is it that there be alignment between the acquired MSP's culture and Evergreen's corporate culture?

10. What advice would you give to small MSPs that are looking to scale-up through mergers?

11. How long does it take typically from CIM to Closing?

12. Can you walk me through your typical due diligence process when evaluating MSP acquisition targets? How much weight do you give to financial performance vs. non-financial factors (e.g., customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction)?

13. How can sellers monetize their equity?

Market and Competitive Landscape:
14. How do you see the MSP market evolving, and how does that influence Evergreen's acquisition strategy? Are there emerging trends (e.g., cybersecurity, cloud migration, AI/automation) that you are particularly focused on when considering new acquisitions?

15. What is a risk that is under-appreciated in this space?

16. In the next couple of years, several PE-backed MSP platforms will be coming to market. What will you be looking for when that happens?

www.linkedin.com/in/madhur-duggar