Pax8 Roadshow Special - Gene Reich

In this special Pax8 Beyond '26 feature of Partnerships Unraveled, we sit down with Gene Reich, Cofounder and CEO at Traceless. Coming from more than two decades running an Apple-focused managed service provider, Gene brings an operator's view to a conversation about human communication security, the help desk as an emerging attack surface, and a security brand that leads with positivity.

Gene opens with how Traceless came to exist. Running his own MSP, he kept finding the same vulnerability. Help desk conversations, password requests, and human communication were consistently the weakest point, and no existing tool solved it well. He built a prototype, brought five managed service provider peers into an early advisory group, and iterated from there. The attack surface has kept expanding since. Threat actors have moved beyond email into ticketing systems, Teams, Slack, and now voice AI. Traceless has grown alongside that landscape, focused on giving providers and their customers protection that meets how people actually communicate today.

From there, the conversation moves into how Traceless shows up in a market known for fear-based branding. Gene deliberately chose the opposite approach. Tie-dye Nike jumpsuits, colorful design, and a message centered on helping providers get healthier through better tooling, without leaning on fear tactics. The AI approach follows the same intentional line. Traceless runs its own small language model that never dials home, stays inside a container, and adds contextual analysis on top of traditional data protection. The platform flags high-risk transactions and gives providers a chance to guide the moment with clear guardrails.

Gene closes on a simple reframe. The digital assets managed service providers control today are the equivalent of what banks hold. Customers should expect the same level of security from both, and the providers who deliver that will be the ones customers trust the most.

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Transcript

Welcome From PAX8 Beyond

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Welcome back to Partnerships Unraveled, the podcast where we dive deep into the mysteries and the secrets of partnerships and the channel. Coming to you from PAX8 Beyond 2026, I am happy to sit down with Gene Reich from Traceless and the owner of the coolest work outfit I've ever seen. Never change. How are you, Gene? Yeah, great.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

It's been um a good show. I guess we're midway, right? Um energy level feels good and uh lots ahead of us, also.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

Amazing. Yeah, I've hit like seven empty red bulls under this table, but we won't talk about that. Yeah, no, the energy uh really does feel

Fashion Choices And Brand Signals

SPEAKER_01 0:40

good. Um hey, before we get into the meat of things, tell me a little bit about yourself, your background, and your fashion choices.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Yeah, for sure. So uh I've been in the MSP space for just over 21 years. I have uh an Apple-focused MSP that I've owned and been a part of for that's 21 years, and uh now I'm focused on traceless, which is uh kind of why we're here at PAX 8. And that's been seven years that we've had traceless, and um we um we we ended up choosing tie dye Nike jumpers uh because of a disagreement I had with my co-founder on how to show up at conferences. And as I was telling your peer, you know, get guess who lost.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

So it wasn't like a screw you from you that just kind of stuck.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

No, no, it was like because it was like we were talking about our first show, and I was like, okay, what are we gonna wear? And he's like, I'm gonna wear sweatpants. And this, oh come on, you can't show me sweatpants. Anyway, he convinced me, and then we just kind of got deeper and deeper into what if we did wear sweatpants, what would they look like?

SPEAKER_01 1:47

What they look like, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Because you also have like your kind of like formal dress pants, sweatpants looking things, right? Uh there's a whole like niche in the industry of fashion for that. So cashmere sweatpants. There's that option, the super luxe primo ones. Um, and we ended up going deep down the rabbit hole and deciding on very unique tie-dyed uh you know, Nike sweatsuits, and from that our brand became also very colorful and interesting. It's been really fun, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Cause I mean, I have to say, like, I mean, we're not going to do this entire podcast about fashion choices, but I I think it does say something, right? Because to me, I I looked at your your logo, your design languages, obviously, this, and I'm like, oh, that tells me something about like you as a person, but also you as a company. And I'd like to dive into that just a little bit.

Why Traceless Had To Exist

SPEAKER_01 2:36

You founded Traceless in 2019, you do something very specific, but talk to me about the why and the how. How did Traceless come to exist?

SPEAKER_00 2:44

Yeah, it's a good question. And I think it's um like a lot of other MSP founders or former owners who decide to go back to the channel and do something else, whether it's like an advisory service or a software company. And for us, um, for for me, I found a vulnerability in my own MSP around who's calling the help desk and how do I get people passwords. Pretty simple stuff. And I couldn't find solutions to fit my needs and decided that it was a good idea to start something to help the entire community protect themselves against uh threats that are now quite quite active.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

Yeah, that's that's fascinating. So I have a question. I I was recently playing around with uh with an idea, cybersecurity idea, and I ended up uh connecting with the CEO of the cybersecurity company, and I told him when he said, like, oh, that's just this. Yeah. Oh, well, that's good to know. So I'm curious, you were talking about you saw this vulnerability in the space. So you came came up with this idea. How did you challenge yourself to figure out if, hey, does this make sense to spin off into an actual company and focus on those?

SPEAKER_00 3:48

Yeah, so we had um, and I think this is like a very useful exercise of how do you become a software company? And I think one of the um like you're solving a problem, right? So if you solve a problem for your business, maybe you talk to your peers, hey, do you have this problem? It's kind of how we started. And you know, 2019 we built a prototype and then talked to a uh security peer group that I was uh a part of that later became uh an advisory council for cybersecurity on uh the ConnectWise partner advisory consoles. Yeah, all right. So it's like very early. That was like the the starting of that group. And then we started, you know, five people in that group paid for the yeah. Hey, would you guys pay for this for it? Yeah, sure, I'll pay for it. It's good good idea. And we just kind of went from there, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

No, I think that makes a lot of sense to do it in an iterative way, but I think it does matter that if you're already in that space and you're solving the solutions for yourself, then it becomes uh logical to extrapolate that to other MSPs that might have that uh have that problem. Um, again, I I think you have a very specific value proposition and and a pretty bold positioning statement. I think it's AI cybersecurity for human communication. Um, how did that kind of product evolve from those first days of like the five MSPs saying, yeah, that's interesting to me, to where you are now

From Prototype To Real Product

SPEAKER_01 5:10

seven-ish years later?

SPEAKER_00 5:11

Yeah, so I think it's like when we started, it's like, okay, we have a problem and we're just gonna fix it. Yeah. And then kind of zooming out, like, well, what actually is this problem? And what we realized it's uh the problems were due to the change of how people were working. So instead of everybody one-to-one email or film call, we were using ticketing systems, sure, yeah, right. And then the threat landscape hadn't evolved, and neither had the protection layer around that communication platform. Uh, now we're seeing most of the headline prevalent attacks are on service uh related uh orgs or systems, yeah. Right. So we're here. Um, and we started looking also, oh, Slack and teams, like look at the adoption rate and look at maybe the protection or lack thereof. Uh, and then we have AI and voice AI kind of coming in uh that's also now changing how we communicate. And I think there is a similar overlap of concerns that we see at Traceless that we think uh hold value in those spaces.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Yeah, I think that

Training People And Making Security Easy

SPEAKER_01 6:17

makes sense. And one challenge that potentially maybe this isn't a challenge at all, you can help me out here is like if you're talking about help desk employees, right? They're obviously inundated with calls and tickets and messages all day. How do you then enable them to understand this different way of working and and basically focus on the human risk management side of things, like to enable these tools to actually work so that the point of failure isn't the people?

SPEAKER_00 6:43

Yeah, it's um it's hard, right? Because you know, the joke, um, an MSP joke is like, oh, uh, what was wrong with so and so, the CEO of that company? Oh, it was an eighth layer problem, or you know, it was a problem between the user and the keyboard. Yeah, right. And and so much of the challenge, no matter how many tools that help and do great things, that will always kind of be the last mile. Um, and so I think training uh and adopting operational SOPs in your side of your company or uh MSP are kind of like where it starts, regardless of a tool that you might buy or not buy. I think it starts or flat. Um understanding the risk profile and the importance uh of that person's job and to you know to their customers, and also educating your customers. Like, how do you make sure your customers expect uh another layer of security on their service?

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Yeah, that it doesn't just seem like, oh, I have to do this another thing to to manage my tool. Oh, I already have MFA, I already have all this stuff. Like, yeah, it's a lot of um uh awareness and engagement, I think, on on that side. And I think it can be tricky, but the the the picture you paint here, it makes so much sense to me. It's so it seems so easy to do phishing attacks through help desk that I'm like, wow, I I've never really actively thought about that before. And I think a lot of companies probably haven't either, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

And and I think what we've tried to do is make it easy to implement, easy to buy, and easy for the people who are using the tool to use the tool. Make it like and that's a kind of you know, one of the challenges that I had as an MSP is how do you get people to adopt new stuff? Yeah, and by putting it in places where people are working, putting it where they're working, using tools like uh Microsoft Authenticator or Duro Okta that they're already using. So they don't have to get all their customers to install a new thing or change the way that they're working, but to do something impactfully more secure in an easy way is kind of been our focus to like then if you have all these SOPs and people can understand, you still have to make it easy for people to use and adopt.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Yeah, and I I I think also for the people that actually use these solutions, they don't want to be tricked, they don't want to be spoofed, they don't want to be fissure, right? It's it's also a bit of like, hey, I want to do my job effectively, and I don't want to screw over the company I work for just because I didn't really check if someone were was the person they said they were, and I gave them their password back, you know.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

Yeah, and I think as much as we're like been doing this for seven years, we still feel early at times because people don't have to make this decision, right? It's it's a voluntary choice to be a little bit more secure, sure, in this area, or a lot more secure, but you know, anyway, you look at everything, it's just another thing that people have to adopt. So I think that that's been the challenge, uh, respectfully to the NSPs out there. Doesn't change the threat, but it's still a thing.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

Yeah, and and I can imagine, but I mean that that is only the case until a massive breach happens through uh a similar related process, right?

SPEAKER_00 9:55

Yeah, and if you look at a lot of the newsworthy headline breaches, a lot of them, most of them, revolve around IT impersonation, help desk attacks, help desk system attacks, data exfiltration from house help desk systems. So I the it's out there. I just don't, you know. Uh we're trying. And we're also trying, right? We're trying to, I think when you think about like the branding stuff that you mentioned, yeah. We've always like decided, okay, in security, you can have two approaches. Or you can have a few, right? But a very common one is like fear, death, and uncertainty. And we've tried not to be that as our like go-to-market strategy, yeah. And instead, it's like, hey, maybe you could be healthier if you adopted traces, right? It would make you better. And I think that that's kind of more of our brand association than as as we're wearing you know, Nike jumpers, right? Yeah, then um the fear and the death and the dark stuff, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:54

Well, and and I appreciate that approach because it's almost about memorability. People have to remember that this is a challenge, and indeed you can do that with fire and grimstone, or you can do that by hey, what are those guys in the tie-dye jumpsuit? What were they talking about? Oh, yeah, my help desk impersonation. Okay, I'm gonna talk to my my help desk. Do they run into that? Oh, yeah, we sometimes do, and then it becomes a more organic conversation, but I think it does then become more of a long game. Yeah, obviously, with fear and certainty and doubt, you can just kind of I don't know, beat the market into submission.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Correct. Correct. Um but you know, we're here for people, we're not going anywhere, right? So I think it's um we're happy to meet people where they need to go.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Yeah, no, awesome.

AI Voice Threats And Contextual Guardrails

SPEAKER_01 11:32

Um, I have a question about AI, obviously, because uh look, I used to be very skeptical about like AI voice models, but they're getting so good now that they're almost indistinguishable unless you listen like very closely. Um, and I take it that these types of attacks really work effectively on desks, impersonating people, getting getting certain data. Um, so how are you adopting the traceless model to to combat these types of AI-driven threats?

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Yeah, so I think um our AI model is something we've been working on. It's our own small language model, cool, which is it doesn't dial home, it stays in our container, it runs on CPU infrastructure, so it's extremely fast and it's very cost effective, right? And the thing that we feel is interesting about our approach is it's not just um doing key cipher matching, which is traditional DLP, which is if it's four dashes of number or four numbers with dashes, it's a credit card, right? Yeah. Um, we're adding a layer of uh contextual analysis, right? So the thing about sensitive information is it's really dynamic. Uh it's not, I mean, it's not terribly dynamic, but businesses would potentially deem things more sensitive than the others to their own business or our focus. And also kind of like what you're talking about could lead to hey, why don't you pick up the phone or why don't you send a verification? Because kind of what you're saying is is fine, but like you're you're entering what we call our traces a high-risk uh transaction, yeah. Right. And so we don't want to be a DLP thing that's like a narc, like who's not working, who's saying you know that's not what we're doing specifically.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

You didn't use this extra layer, you're right.

SPEAKER_00 13:23

We're not spying on people, we're just trying to say, like, hey, here's some guardrails to to just like think about what you're doing and keeping it more secure, and that's really what this mechanism

Banks Set The Bar For Verification

SPEAKER_00 13:33

is about.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

Yeah, I I love that, and I think um I think we should take a page out of the book of like banks. I think they do do this stuff a lot better already than a lot of other companies. I mean, if I look at something like I call my bank today and I call them through the app, and that's basically an extra verification step for them because they can trace back that I'm actually calling from an installed app and things like that. And and I realized only today, like, oh, that's a pretty nifty secondary verification step that is super unobtrusive. Um, but having this kind of stuff in in the broader MSP space, you know, taking taking figure the book of these companies that where data security is everything, yeah, you know, and even that's what it's all about. I think that's also a small way forward to kind of take your ideas and go with them.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

Yeah, I mean, it's like I remember I don't it's like years ago, I don't remember exactly where I was, but the the dialogue was basically saying, okay, in the early 1900s, you know, what were the assets of your company? They were really heavy pieces of machinery that make things. Yeah, right. Fast forward now, what are the assets of most of the customers who are here of the MSPs who are here at PACS8? They're digital assets. Yeah, right. So, okay, your bank has your financial assets, and your intellectual property of your customers is bound by the authentication and access that MSPs control. Yeah. So it's crazy to think that you expect your bank to do something, but your customers don't expect you to do the same to their most valuable assets to their the entire business. Yeah, that pays your salary.

unknown 15:06

Right.

SPEAKER_00 15:07

So that's how that's another way to think about it from a very simple perspective of okay, it's serious what we're doing here.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

Yeah, it's such a good point because that's what ransomware is all about, right? Like, hey, we we stole your business, pay us some money, which in in the past, if you have like I don't have a production line that was a bit bit more difficult to do, but yeah, that we we don't make those parallels enough. Like, hey, we don't maybe we don't take seriously enough the data that we uh the the the value of the data that we have, yeah, right? Um, and that we we take our bank accounts seriously, but why do we take our business rich and our clients' businesses? Exactly, right? Yeah, because it's a knock-on effect, yeah. Correct. You come in through a help desk, you breach assist, and you can find cut uh customer information, all the stuff.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

So it's like a we hold all the keys. Jesus. I'm scared where that's we said no in your twice. Yeah, I'm just gonna take a look at your tracksuit and I'll feel better.

Small Steps For MSP Security Maturity

SPEAKER_01 16:00

Yeah, yeah. Um, hey, this was a phenomenal conversation. Do you have any final thoughts, comments, tips, or tricks, words of wisdom you'd like to share?

SPEAKER_00 16:07

You know, I think I always try to encourage uh MSPs to acknowledge that we're all trying our hardest. It's extremely difficult to own a business, no matter what kind of business. And if something you heard today was like, oh man, but I just can't because of A, B, and C. Yeah, that's okay. I think it's good to maybe socialize it with your team, think about putting a process in place, talk to your customers. Hey, is this important to you? Would you pay more for it? Or, you know, whatever the case is, right? Yeah. And then at least have something instead of nothing. That would be my advice.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

Yeah. No, I like it. It it is iterative, it's not fire under him still. It's just think about what's important. Yeah, just try to move it.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

Just try to move it every day as an entrepreneur. All you have to do is come in and just move forward a little bit. Hasn't that be a full step? Just a little bit every day.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

Yeah, and I I love that so much. And I think, yeah, if you have the people around you that can support you on that motion, then then life becomes a lot easier. And running a business stays too.

SPEAKER_00 17:02

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

I love that, man. Thanks. Those are great words of wisdom. Thank you. Um, Gene Reich, everybody. Um, coming from Pac Site Beyond. And for you, dear viewers and listeners, we'll see you in the next episode. Thank you. I thank you. Yep. Awesome.