Running an MSP Across Two Generations

Mark Pace started Sterling IT in 1995. Thirty-one years on, his son Nathan runs the business day to day as General Manager (a role he never planned on) having come to IT from real estate.

In this conversation, recorded live at Catalyst, they talk openly about what generational handover actually looks like inside a working MSP: the fear of letting go when your clients have been with you for 25 years, the arguments over changing a logo or moving an office, and why the friction between old-school experience and new-generation thinking is the thing that makes it work rather than the thing that breaks it.

There’s also some practical wisdom on client retention, treating the one-man band like your biggest account, and why partnership beats price every time.

  • People & Leadership
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Key Takeaways

1

The Hardest Part of Succession Isn't the Handover, It's the Trust

Mark's biggest fear isn't losing control, it's losing clients he's held for 25 or 30 years. When your retention is so strong that the only reason you lose an account is because the client sold or closed down, stepping back feels like putting the whole thing at risk. Every founder underestimates how much of the resistance is emotional rather than commercial.

2

If They Can Do 80% of What You Do, They're Doing a Good Job

Founders hold on because nobody does it exactly their way — but exactly their way was never the standard, it was just the habit. Once Mark accepted that Nathan was operating at 90%, he took an eight-week trip to Europe and the business didn't miss a beat.

3

Your Smallest Client Today Might Be Your Biggest in Two Years

Nathan's advice to newer MSPs is to treat the one-man band exactly like the 30-seat account — same respect, same service, no triage by headcount. Mark has the numbers to back it: Sterling IT's three largest clients today would have sat in the bottom five when they were onboarded, and one went from four staff to around 150 in two and a half years. The MSPs writing off small clients as "not worth my time" are qualifying out of their own future revenue.

4

Nathan's Rule: Hiding a Problem From a Client Costs You 100% of the Trust

Every MSP has bad weeks, and the difference is whether the client hears it from you first. Own the stuff-up, put your hand up, and the relationship survives it. Try to bury it or shift the blame, and when they eventually find out (they always do), you don't lose some trust, you lose all of it. It's the same test he applies to his own vendors.

Featured Panelists
Ben Town
Hosted Network
Mark Pace
Sterling IT
Nathan Pace
Sterling IT

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