A note from Kevin Clune, Founder of MSP Growth Hacks:
We are thrilled to announce that MSP Growth Hacks will partner with Zest MSP to relaunch the MSPGrowthHacks.com and MSP Spark platforms as a free virtual accelerator for startups in the IT Industry. This means that any existing paywalls will be removed (courtesy of Zest) and all existing and future content / services will be made available to the community free of charge.
As many of you already know, I have been a Shareholder and Advisor of Zest since its launch earlier this year and have had a great relationship with Limetree Labs (the MSP that led to its conceptualization) since 2020. The Zest founding team (Bobby, Andrea, & Chadd) are true “OGs” of the MSP Growth Hacks community and have been loyal supporters since the beginning. They truly see this partnership as an opportunity to preserve what we have built, more-so than a way to directly benefit from it. This has always been my primary motivation as well, which is why we have all been working so hard over the past few months to make this happen.
Here are a few points of emphasis, which I hope will explain how this partnership will look and what you all can expect moving forward:
- Immersive Mentorship Program – Our mission is to help MSP teams of 1-20 members grow. This help will culminate in various ways, some of which will be in the form of features in our platform (more on this later), while others will be more hands-on and far less scalable. As a start, I will be opening up significant portions of my calendar to provide free mentoring and consulting for startup MSPs that are enrolled in our accelerator cohorts. This immersive approach is one of the key ingredients that will differentiate this program from other typical online communities built for MSPs.
- Cross-Disciplined Resources – The virtual accelerator platform will be a revamped version of our existing MSP Spark platform. We will be adding more features and resources in the coming months, before the official relaunch. While the existing resources are heavily focused around Marketing, we will look to incorporate additional disciplines including Service, Operations, Finance, etc. This is an area where the rest of the Zest Founders can lend their deep expertise to really round out the platform.
- Cohort-Style Free Enrollment – If you were an existing subscriber to the MSP Spark platform, payment collection has already been paused on your account prior to July (in preparation for this event). While we will continue to provide services to existing members, the platform will be closed to new members until the relaunch. At that time, we will grant free access to each requesting member upon manual approval. This manual approval process is to maintain quality control among our user base, as well as ensuring that all the MSPs that are enrolled fit the necessary criteria. We will define this criteria upon relaunch.
- Streamlined And Native Branding – In exchange for the resources required to make this accelerator happen, the Zest brand may become more present on the blog, online platform, newsletter(s), guides and events. To make sure this is done in a tasteful way, MSP Growth Hacks and Zest brands will be more tightly integrated together to make it feel more natural, balanced, and intentional. The MSP Spark brand will no longer be used for our membership platform, although it will still be used to describe our weekly newsletter for marketing ideas (from which it originated).
- Deeply Integrated Partnership – While MSP Growth Hacks and Zest MSP will technically continue to operate as separate entities, I will become more involved in Zest’s day-to-day and take on a Co-Founder role in that organization. This is to ensure that this accelerator program will be executed with one complete vision and that it aligns completely with the trajectory of both projects. This is critical for the sustainability and longevity of what we are hoping to build.
- Community And Product Balance – While Zest can be categorized as a “vendor” in the IT Channel, we want to change how new vendor products are brought to market. This may mean trying things that traditional vendor products would not (or could not) attempt, always to the benefit of the MSP. Not every member of our virtual accelerator will be a fit for the Zest product and we know that. We will be very mindful of the line between accelerator and product and if you ever feel as though this line has been crossed, I ask that you reach out to me personally to let me know.
- Core Team Values – There are very few other teams (if any) in the IT Industry with which I would be comfortable working with in such a close capacity. I truly believe in Zest’s PSA solution, the knowledge of the Founders, and the values that they reflect in everything they do. It is not often in business where you find yourself with an equation where 1+1=3, but I am convinced that this is one of those situations where the sum is greater than its parts.
I want to truly thank all of our awesome readers and community members who have showed up and supported us over the years. Without you, we simply wouldn’t be able to build cool stuff and love what we do everyday. I am grateful for the opportunity to continue serving you all for more years to come.
Sincerely,
Kevin Clune