News in the Channel - issue #40

SLIDE

Slide might not be a familiar name in managed service provider (MSPs) circles, but Michael Fass, CEO and co- founder of Slide, wants to change that. The company took its first step into the UK earlier this year with the opening of an office in Maidenhead, and how he is concentrating on getting his company’s message out there about how the company can help. Slide’s mission is to be a backup company. “MSPs backup data that lives in lots of different environments such as on-prem, laptops, desktops and servers,” says Michael. “They protect data that lives in places like Azure cloud, on VMs and in files. Our mission is to be the solution provider to MSPs for all that data they are charged with protecting, wherever it lives. “MSPs all over the world have similar requirements that they're charged with. They have a huge responsibility to protect data on behalf of SMB end clients. IT is becoming increasingly central to their businesses as time goes on and it's becoming more complex and there are more dangers. SMBs are becoming more reliant on MSPs as time goes on, so we see this as an incredible opportunity for us to create leverage and deliver value for MSPs. “Wherever there's MSPs protecting data for SMB end users, we want to be there to support them. Our first product is a business continuity disaster recovery (BCDR) product, and that's because it's the most neglected piece of the stack in this space as it's the most complicated. We wanted to go after the hardest problem first.” MSP focus Slide’s focus on MSPs is deliberate. Unlike some competitors, they are channel-only and won’t go directly to end customers. “We will never circumvent MSPs or go after their customers and cut them out,” emphasises Michael. “I see a lot of that in this industry, and it makes me sick to my

stomach. MSPs don't have to worry about that if they are working with Slide.” Legacy BCDR vendors have underserved MSPs traditionally, Michael adds. “Looking at the landscape right now, there are some monolithic vendors out there that have rolled up a bunch of different companies, and private equity companies that have bought a bunch of different tech stacks and stitched them together with duct tape to deliver platform services to MSPs,” he says. “It seems to me that for many their objective is to extract as much value as possible from MSPs. Our approach is the direct opposite, to infuse as much value into MSPs as possible. Rising tides will lift all ships. That was our strategy in the good old days, as I like to call them, and that's our strategy today, and that ain't going to change.” Long history Michael talks about ‘the good old days’ as his history in this sector – along with that of his Slide co-founder Austin McChord – is long and storied. He took time out after the previous company he was associated with was sold back in 2022. But during his time out, Michael received contact from MSPs around the world that had been customers, saying they were looking elsewhere for services as they missed

Michael Fass

slide.tech

“

We will never circumvent MSPs or go after their customers and cut them out... ...I see a lot of that in this industry,

and it makes me sick to my stomach. ” The Slide UK team

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