cost came down . Instead of needing 100 people to implement a system , it only required five , and then three , and then two . So , what we started seeing around 2010 – 12 was small- to mid-size businesses being able to consume technology to get the same functionality that the enterprise had benefited from just 5 – 10 years prior . That began the current SMB revolution that we are in the early stages of now .
I lived through this transformation , and that allowed me to really understand what was happening on a macro level .
ROBINS : Why Kaseya ? What made it a unique challenge for you as a CEO ?
VOCCOLA : That trend that we just discussed — the trend of SMBs adopting technology at such a massive rate — well , the tip of the sword for that movement is the MSP . MSPs are the vehicle for how small and medium businesses obtain and consume technology .
If you think about what technology means for a small business , it starts with the endpoint . Yes , security , compliance , disaster recovery , and a million other aspects are all important , but fundamentally , every piece of technology has to start at the endpoint . So , why Kaseya ? In 2015 , Kaseya had ( and still has ) the best industry-leading product and core technology that allows an IT professional to most efficiently manage all kinds of endpoints like PCs , servers , VMs in the cloud , mobile devices , and network devices .
MSP technicians have to worry about every aspect of technology , and you often see the same technicians doing all elements of IT management for all their customers . Most MSPs are not large enough to have complete resource specialization like the IT shop of a Citibank has . You rarely find an MSP that has dedicated people answering the service desk , another dedicated group focusing only on patching machines , another managing and reporting on compliance , and yet another worrying about backup , etc . In most MSPs , it ' s the same person doing all of these jobs . We call this individual the multifunction IT professional .
Back in 2015 , what the market did not have was one platform that let that multifunction technician do all of this from one place . The workflow of an MSP technician involves up to seven or eight different functional areas of IT . At the time , Kaseya had the best foundation to create an integrated platform for the multifunction IT professional because its remote systems management platform already automated endpoint management . From that same platform , I figured we could build in backup , compliance , and security , and we could do it for half the cost compared to an MSP having to piecemeal together seven or eight products from seven or eight different vendors . That can really make a huge impact on a 12-person , 20-person , or 100-person MSP .
So why did I take a chance on Kaseya back in 2015 ? Because Kaseya had the foundation and technology of the leading endpoint management technology in place that was required for building the industry ’ s first and only multifunctional IT management platform , IT Complete .
ROBINS : So , you saw this opportunity , you evaluated it , and you put together a game plan . Was there anything that surprised you ?
VOCCOLA : The first surprise was just how angry Kaseya ' s customers were back then . For the first three months , all I did was talk to customers who were ready to abandon us . Of course , it wasn ’ t fun to hear , but I viewed this as a huge opportunity because these customers , while angry , also cared enough to take the time to talk with me . I had about 250 one-on-one conversations with these frustrated customers during my first year on the job , and these conversations validated the strategy we had for turning around the company . It reinforced the fact that what Kaseya does for our customers is extremely important .
Another surprise was how massive the MSP market is and , at the same time , just how small of a community it is . At Kaseya , we account for about 144,000 MSPs around the world . Some of them are one-person shops and some are 5,000-person shops , but they are all categorized as MSPs . Of those 144,000 , the majority are successful businesses . However , I ’ d estimate that upward of 90 % feel they don ’ t have the training , experience , or skill set required to keep growing their businesses to the next level . Sales , marketing , service delivery : These are the challenges that most MSPs around the world face .
The last surprise was how phenomenal and passionate the people ( employees ) underneath the executive team at Kaseya were . Thank goodness these people stuck around during the hard times , because they are the ones who genuinely and authentically care about our MSPs . It ’ s because of their dedication to making MSPs ’ lives more convenient that we ’ ve reached the place where we are today .
ROBINS : Where are you today ?
VOCCOLA : We are growing very rapidly and looking to keep getting better . We ' ll do upward of $ 300 million this year . To compare , in 2015 , we were bringing in approximately $ 75 million . Furthermore , our retention rates are over 94 %, which demonstrate that customer satisfaction levels are exponentially better than they were previously , and we are very profitable , looking to do over $ 75 million in profit this year .
ROBINS : Kaseya sounds like a force to be reckoned with . What did you change about the company ’ s mission to secure that growth ?
VOCCOLA : The biggest change was that we shifted our company culture back to one of “ making our customers successful .” Period . In fact , everything that Kaseya does is now customer-centric . We have approximately 1,150 employees around the world ( we had 350 when I joined ), and I fundamentally believe that if you ask every single employee at Kaseya what our mission is right now , every one of them would say the same thing : We put customers first . However , had you asked that question four