Partnerships Unraveled
The weekly podcast where we unravel the mysteries of partnerships and channel to help you become more successful.
Partnerships Unraveled
Eric Torres - Empowering MSPs with Pax8
In this episode of Partnerships Unraveled, we explore the transformative world of channel strategy and partner enablement with Eric Torres, VP of Channel and Community at Pax8. Eric shares his journey from being an MSP to becoming a leading figure in the channel, offering a unique perspective on the opportunities and challenges facing MSPs today.
We discuss how Pax8 is revolutionizing partner enablement with its innovative Voyager Alliance Program, which combines funding opportunities with tailored benefits to drive growth and empower partners. Eric highlights Pax8’s commitment to community building and their ability to foster collaboration among partners—even competitors—through dynamic events and initiatives.
Join us as we uncover what makes Pax8’s approach to the channel so impactful and how they continue to shape the partner ecosystem landscape.
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Welcome back to Partnerships Unraveled, the podcast where we unravel the mysteries about partnerships, and channel on a weekly basis. My name is Alex Whitford, I'm the VP of Revenue here at Chanext and this week I'm excited to welcome our special guest, eric. How are you doing?
Speaker 1:I am doing well. How are you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I'm recording one of the first podcasts of the new year, so I've had a month off from recording. So if I forget how to talk or forget what the hell the channel is, you're going to have to help me along the way, but I'm sure we'll be fine.
Speaker 1:Sounds good, sounds good.
Speaker 2:Also maybe for the uninitiated Eric, you'll be able to give us a little bit of a rundown of who you are, where you've come from, Sure, sure.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm the VP of channel and community here at PAX 8. Fairly new. I guess I've been at PAX 8 now for just over three months. Prior to that, I spent a couple years over at Scalepad running their channel team. I spent six, seven years over at Datto being on their events team and leading a charge there, and then, prior to that, I spent nine years at an MSP. I did at the MSP. I did everything except for the engineering. So sales marketing operations everything except for the engineering. So sales marketing operations you name it and just loved this industry, loved the space and continued to evolve and find my niche.
Speaker 2:Awesome. So you've completed Channel Bingo because you've done partner, vendor and something in the middle, so that's awesome because that means you've got that sort of full experience cycle. I'd love to understand how that's impacted your sort of strategy and execution now that you're at PAX 8.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it definitely gives an advantage. Anybody that has true MSP experience knows what it's like living in those shoots, the challenges, the restless nights, the long hours and the panic. I mean, if you think about an MSP, they are the unsung heroes for small to medium-sized businesses all over the globe where they're helping those businesses operate, helping them run and making sure that their technology is working well for them. So it gave me the advantage of just knowing what it was like doing all of that and viewing things a bit differently from the typical vendor, and I'm not shy about sharing that. I still boast that. Hey, I spent nine years at an MSP and and here's what I used to deal with you know it's it's a while while back, but the challenges are are have have evolved. The challenges are a bit different, but it's still the same hard work and, uh, and I bring that into everything that I do on the on the vendor side.
Speaker 2:And I bring that into everything. That's great. You really understand the stresses. Maybe I'd love to understand because, um, I've spoken to lots of your team in berlin when I was out at the event and really pax8 seemed to be doing something quite special. Um, I think, uh, I, I also come from that sort of distribution world and it can be quite order, takery and in in sort of transactional motion, and it seems that Pax8 are trying to flip that on its head. Talk to me about what you envision Pax8's most transformative model looks like today.
Speaker 1:Good question. So I had my eyes on Pax8 since the very beginning. They came in years back and we say this when we present the second slide, after we introduce ourselves is the word disruption and coming into the space as the old distribution model and disrupting it, like you said, truly flipping it on its head because of the partner enablement. That's where we are significantly different the added value, the benefits to MSPs of working with PAX 8 versus the typical distys that are out there. But I had my eye on PAX 8 and it had me kind of scratching my head going you know who is PAX 8 and what is a cloud distributor? You know what is this, what's a cloud marketplace?
Speaker 1:And I saw the momentum that they were building, that we were building over the years, and the number one thing that stood out to me was the community MSPs love PAX 8. And it is that value add that we provide, the enablement, the, the intangibles that that typical distys aren't, aren't doing. So that that was ultimately what led me to to look at at this company and and figure out okay, there's, there's something definitely here, um, and then my, my old boss at dato, rob ray, industry um, vet and uh and pillar in the communities. He, uh, he went over to pax 8 a little while back and and I told him, I said when I left working with him at dato, I told him you know, if you ever have a role for me somewhere else, let me know. And a couple years later, here we are awesome.
Speaker 2:Well, it's's funny you mentioned Rob because I gave him some feedback when I met him face to face at your event in Berlin. I spoke to a load of MSPs. You hosted a great European event and lots of MSPs came to meet lots of the brands that you work with and I was amazed at this is a soft word, but the vibe right. People were really enjoying themselves, they were open, they were collaborating with some of their competitors, which I always find fascinating to see that MSPs are willing to sort of open book and share secrets with people who feasibly could be competing with them. But I can imagine that creating and sort of organizing events like that is immensely powerful for the Pax8 brand. Two-tier question how the hell do you foster that vibe and secondly, what's it doing for your brand?
Speaker 1:I'll answer the second part first. I mean, it's truly elevated it. That was right when I had first joined PAX 8. So my first time meeting the rest of the executive team and being with everybody was in Berlin at Beyond, and the momentum that it had built and, like you said, the vibe. It's similar to some of the events that we have seen here in the States and then some, and that buzz that was just humming along the floor of people having a good time, like you said, collaborating on things and opening the conversations up to even their competitors.
Speaker 1:You know, I put myself in the shoes of an MSP and I remember going to some of these events back then and I went to events with a couple of set goals and the number one goal was to meet somebody else that does exactly what I do that I could foster a relationship with and learn from communicating to each other, helping each other. That's the beautiful thing about this industry is people are just out there helping each other and you learn from others' mistakes and they try to guide you so you don't make the same mistakes. But yeah, the vibe that was happening there and how we did it, it's not even so much PAX 8, it's the people. The people did it. We listen to our partners, we know what they're looking for, what they want, and and we announced our European conference in Amsterdam and people were signing up immediately going. This was the best event I've been to. So let's run it back.
Speaker 2:No, I completely understand why. I think one of the things that sort of immensely impressed me were some of the keynotes right and we had extremely senior right from the top people coming from PAX 8, which I know sometimes Europe can feel a little bit like the ugly sibling because, you know, as some other, some other events, you've got really senior people in the US and maybe some more of the junior to media. But no, pax 8 was out in force showing the love to the European MSPs and I got lots of feedback that they were responding really, really well, which is it's awesome to see.
Speaker 1:I got lots of feedback that they were responding really, really well, which is awesome to see. Yeah, I mean, we're fortunate here at PAX 8 that a lot of the decision makers, a lot of the people who behind the scenes are the ones building all of this, are the ones that have been in the space, in the event space for years, and when we go to events we learn just as much. On the vendor side, we learn what the attendees are looking for, what they like, what they want to see, what content people can deliver to them, and every single show we pick something and we evolve on that and we bring it to what we do. So the folks that, the folks that that put on beyond are just they're, they're fantastic and it's uh, it's, it's a labor of love and uh, and it takes a full year of planning and and the result is is happy, happy partners.
Speaker 2:Well, it really came out right and a labor of love is is true. I've been to these events, I've helped organize these events when I was in in distribution world and, and it is a huge amount of work, but the sort of love and enjoyment that the team obviously put in came out in the event, which was awesome to see. Um now, maybe pivoting slightly to uh, some more of the mechanical pieces. I know from your time in data. You built an mdf program that was very, very successful. Interestingly, and again maybe very disruptively, you're actually building an MDF program within PAX 8. Talk to me about how that strategy came, because that's quite a disruptive and different thing for a cloud distributor to be doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely Going back to the days at Datto and that MDF program. Going back to the days at Datto and that MDF program, my boss, rob, when Rob and I were talking and he told me he said build MDF and run MDF. He told our whole team that as an MSP would want to receive it Like what is in it for them. You have to put the MSP first and foremost. How can they utilize the funding available? How can they grow? And we had something that was really special. I am so passionate about MDF. I mean, from an MSP standpoint, it's free money. And then you get people that are doing this every day.
Speaker 1:The team we had at Datto was out there doing these presentations, building these campaigns, these events and knowing what works and what doesn't work, and then sharing that and working with these partners and building something pretty cool. And for me, the passion in it was seeing that MSP sell something as a result and grow and then come back to me saying, hey, because of that, that presentation you did, or because of that campaign you helped us with, we we got five new clients. Like it's fantastic, fast forward to now. Um, I had asked once again. I asked Rob. I said Rob can do.
Speaker 1:You mind if I take over MDF, because PAX eight has had an M, has an MDF program even prior to me starting and, um, it was kind of just I don't want to say ad hoc, but in motion there was people that were utilizing partners, utilizing it in all different facets, and I just said, hey, can I take this over? Can I own it? Can I revamp the process? Make this easier for partners, make it easier for the vendors that are inside of our marketplace and truly again build something really cool. In my previous experience we saw for every MDF dollar that we spent we generated as a vendor generated five, so 5x multiplier, which is even more for the MSPs because typically we're paying for most, if not all, of whatever that campaign is. So on the MSP side, you're looking at a 10x multiplier of their investment and you factor in time and all of that. But there's some momentum behind that. There's ways to truly build a larger, stronger base of clients for MSPs and that's what I set out to do and it's still ongoing. Um, I'm working on it right now and hopefully rolling out this, this MDF 2.0 process, and and uh and program uh, in the very near future.
Speaker 2:And it's funny cause, uh, I've got a list of questions in front of me and, um, the question literally reads you've consistently, consistently talked about putting the MSP first, which, ironically, you just quoted about a minute and a half ago. So I'd love to understand how that sort of key guiding principle helps drive the vision for where Pax8 is headed and what's going to change in that channel ecosystem.
Speaker 1:It goes back to that word disruption. It goes back to that word disruption. And when you think of the typical disty model of the others that are out there, I hate to say it, but it's more order takers. You know, it's someplace an MSP goes to and, hey, I need to purchase this, I have some software licensing I need to buy and I have some hardware I need to buy, and they go to their distributors.
Speaker 1:Pax 8 has that true MSP focus, like, okay, well, what else can we do? How do we bring in more value and build this strong community? And going back to your very first question about my experience and being an MSP, a lot of the folks at PAX 8 are former MSPs, former MSP workers, former MSP owners, and that's the value add, is the education that they bring. So we have a whole, we have a peer group program where it's led by former MSP owners that are going. Here's what we went through and here's the mistakes that you guys should not be making and then being again using the word collaborative and helping grow. So that is truly ingrained in everything we do at PAX 8 is how do the partners feel? How do we make this MSP focused above anything else? And it's great.
Speaker 2:It's really interesting because sometimes I think the best sort of strategic visions and creative and all of these things that sound like they're really complicated to build actually start from a really easy starting place, which is you know what's the customer actually need.
Speaker 2:And in your world the customer is the MSP. Right? And I think the thing that I'm really fascinated about and I spend a lot of time in my world at Channex talking about as VP of revenue is we talk a lot about campaigns in a box and people providing campaigns in a box, but if you go and speak to the average MSP, they have no idea even how to use them, they don't have the resource, and so you end up solving the problem that doesn't exist, because it's a completely different problem. If you don't have that feedback loop, you never get that true understanding outside of the sort of senior leaders having come from that space, I can imagine you need to foster a culture that demands that. The PAX 8 team are constantly asking for that feedback. How do you go about encouraging and building that culture? I know it's something that a lot of our listeners will be really keen to understand how they can embed that in their organizations.
Speaker 1:I think the biggest thing is asking, and then listening, talking to our partners, what can we be doing better, what are we doing bad, what needs to improve? And I just had this conversation. Last month I was with a partner of ours who I've known him for years and he's a good friend of mine, and we sat down and he's like Eric, I got to tell you there's some things that I think you guys could be doing better. And he just let me have it. And he was like, hey, here's some things that, here's some ideas that I have. And I take that info and I run straight to the top and I'm going hey, guys, we've. We just had a partner who told me this let's, first of all, let's make sure he's, he's feeling the love and that we're taking care of him, and then, second, what can we? What can we change what we're doing from a support standpoint, from an enables ableman standpoint, and work some of his ideas into our, our, our next gen offering for him. So it's listening and it's having those those conversations some of them are difficult, some of them are, are easy and fun, but it's soliciting the feedback. And then, as far as internally, um, I think it's just it's relationship building on on the on, on the sales side of the thing, sales side of the house. So, from a rep standpoint, learn everything you can about your partner and become friends.
Speaker 1:When I go back to my days of being an MSP, my most favorite rep and not because I used to work there and was drinking the Kool-Aid, but was my dad or rep and and he was my favorite rep because he called me and he would ask me a series of questions that had nothing to do with business and it was about me personally. He got to know me personally. We built this bond where we were talking a couple of days a week and it was just hey, how was your weekend, what'd you guys do, how's the family? And was just hey, how was your weekend, what'd you guys do, how's the family? And then we would talk about business and then it was just a comfortable atmosphere where I could be like you know what? Here's what I need from you, here's how you can help me.
Speaker 1:And, from an MSP level, what you were saying as far as solving some of the challenges that they don't even know that they have yet, sales and marketing is a huge challenge and growing their, their client list and their base and and having those very rudimentary sales 101 conversations and helping them, uh is it's what we do and it's it's ingrained in everything, every one of the, the, the folks on our team, and, uh and again, just having these conversations with partners, getting to know them and then building it's funny, right, because sometimes we as salespeople have a tendency to try and avoid some of those more painful conversations.
Speaker 2:But there's three wins when you go and get that feedback. The first win is you take that feedback internally and it turns out as a good idea, so you improve as a business, so that's good. Second win is if the MSP sees that you enacted on their feedback, their loyalty is so strong because they can see that you really listen and care builds when you do those good things Right, and so I would really encourage, whether you're senior, junior media. How can you go and garner that feedback consistently and then actually do something about it? Cause the rewards are endless If you can get it done as a flywheel motion consistently, consistently and consistently.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely and and uh, another thing too, which, um, whether this helps other other vendors, other anybody in this space is the different avenues to pay attention to the different mediums of communication. I see a ton of it in social media. We all see the Reddit threads, we all see the Facebook groups. But the availability for your average small MSP who's just starting that can go out there and then solicit some feedback and then you get somebody like Rob Ray, who's been in this space forever commenting within a few minutes, and that's true. You don't really see that in a lot of other industries, where somebody can get that instant feedback, that instant communication from somebody going hey, you know what? Let me go figure this out for you and I'll be in touch. Here's my email address, let's talk. So it's opening up not just to those one-on-one conversations but paying attention to all that's out there in the ether. And it can be daunting and it could be a cumbersome, but, um, that's what. That's what makes MSPs feel the love and feel listened to.
Speaker 2:Awesome, Eric. Well, at Partnerships Unravel, we love feedback. Uh, we love it so much. We always ask our current guest to feedback who they think our next guest should be. I know you have someone in mind.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, absolutely. My very good friend, a former coworker with me and uh and somebody I'm very close with, uh, michael De Palma, uh senior VP of uh Kaseya, and uh and I. I gave him a heads up that you guys would be in touch and you guys are going to love them, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:Awesome, Eric. Thank you so much for the recommendation and I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge here today.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Anytime.