“Wearing Many Hats”: Tatum Treadwell on Startup Growth in the MSP Channel

Tatum Treadwell from Channel Program joins Monjur live at IT Nation to share how scaling from 50 to nearly 400 MSP partners in one year is reshaping the modern channel.

She explains how data discipline, AI-driven benchmarking, and startup execution are redefining growth for MSPs heading into 2026.

See how Monjur takes legal off your plate: https://hubs.la/Q042mCxG0

Connect with us:
LinkedIn: https://hubs.la/Q042mDZk0
X (Twitter): https://hubs.la/Q042mGRL0

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Welcome to Talk Tech with Rob Scott.

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Hello and welcome to the show. I'm your host, Rob Scott, and today I have one of my friends, Tatum, from Channel Program. We're here on location at IT Nation in Orlando, and we're having a really good time. But Tatum, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

Thank you, Rob. I'm really excited to be here. You know, I wasn't fully expecting this, but I'm it's such a pleasant surprise.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Awesome. Well, I see you on the internet and on uh uh creating content all the time, so I knew you'd be a uh this is easy for you to take on short notice.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

Yeah, I'm yeah, I'm I'm embracing the the interview. I'm really here for it.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

You know, I consider you to be one of those young guns that's in the channel. Few of them I think that are in your peer group worked for me, but there's a group of we'll call them 20 somethings that are starting to really get a foothold in this industry, making an impact, and really finding that you can come into the channel as a young person, woman or man, and really make a lot of traction. So share with the audience what your journey has been so far.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

Yeah, okay, awesome. Well, I'm happy too. So technically, I started in my journey in the channel when I was an intern. So I was still in college, so I got really lucky to be able to jump straight into such a fun, unique industry like this one in NIT. I didn't always imagine I would be Sally Software, you know, but honestly, I couldn't be more happy about it. Um so I started my internship uh at Dell. Uh, one of our Dell Expert Network was a MSP program. And then I was able to negotiate to hop straight onto our business development team because I love people. I love the idea of connecting in person, right? Because there's a huge difference between a call and a face-to-face handshake. Um, and so I was able to go straight into that. And then a few months ago in February, I joined a startup channel program, and uh it has been an absolute whirlwind. Say with Rob, I've probably hit almost 40 events this year, and so it's been really crazy. Uh, but I wouldn't change it and I'm just had a blast.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

So that's so great. So you went from this giant company, Dell, to a little startup. Tell me about some of the differences in your mind between working for a large enterprise company and a startup.

SPEAKER_02 2:31

Yeah, so I guess in business development, um, at a large corporation, I felt as if the business was developed, you know, right? We already had our customer base. We weren't really trying to seek too many net new opportunities or grow so much. It was more about like expanding within the base, the customer base, uh, which in business development is kind of contradictory, right? That's more sales is selling to your current customers. Uh, but being at the startup, it's all growth, right? You know, we started this year with less than 50 MSP partners, and now we're ending the year with close to 400. So it has just been a huge growth journey. Um, and that's what I'd really liked. You know, also in the corporate uh lifestyle, you kind of get stuck into some more simple routines of just sending emails and doing whatever. But at a startup, you kind of can take on whatever job you want, right? You can make your own role in a way, even though your title might stay the same. You get to have the pleasure of wearing many hats and learning many skills that simply you want it at a place where you're kind of just designed to do a job versus designed to build your role and build your career.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

Well, I would say if you're listening to Tatum, one thing that stands out to me is that Tatum said the pleasure of wearing many hats. If you don't think that wearing many hats is a pleasure, don't go to work for a SaaS startup. Because that's all we do is wear tons of hats, we're overworked, we're all drinking out of a fire hose, we're traveling, we're living in hotels. Um, how have you been able to adjust to the travel part of the grind?

SPEAKER_02 4:13

The travel part has actually not been as difficult for me as others may seem. Um I'm originally from a small town out in West Texas, so I never really got to travel much, never got to see the world. And so I've just taken it in full stride and tried to embrace it as much as possible. You know, when you look at life with a positive outlook, the things that may seem negative, like aircore travel or living in a hotel, might seem bad to others or maybe not uh ideal. But to me, I just think it's the coolest opportunity I could ever have at this age. And so I would just take it within with open arms and embrace all of the craziness as much as I can, right? Because that's all you can't do.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

That's awesome. So as you think about this year's been amazing from 50 to 400 partners, what a huge expansion. What's happening in 2026 we're in Q4? But as the CEO of a company, you know, my thought process is already into the latter part of next year. Yeah. What are you guys thinking is gonna happen in the channel next year? What are you worrying about for your MSP clients? And what are you guys looking to help them solve in 2026?

SPEAKER_02 5:25

No, I think that's a great question because we are at the last big event of the year. And I had even made a post earlier in this week of events like this towards the end of the conference season. It is about reflecting what did your year look like and how can you improve on the next year? And so what I have seen for us, obviously it's been a huge growth year. We're all scrambling, running like chickens with our heads cut off. And so I think next year we'll finally have a lot more footing. We know who we are. We started this year with not a full vision of exactly what we were doing, but that's a startup, right? You know, the vision changes, right? But now I feel like we have our vision. We have what we want to do and what we want to look forward. Um, so roadmap kind of things. Um we have a lot of cool features coming out, you know, at any startup. A good chunk of our team is development. So we're constantly coming out with new, pretty much every other week we have a new release of new bugs and features into the platform. Um, a lot of the coolest part is around data, right? Data and turning everything into an AI, getting a big data lake, which we've already really been able to absorb that from our partners. We have over a billion dollars of transactional data in our platform, which now that we can start working with some more of that, it's gonna turn into some really cool uh AI features, like being able to prompt whether you may be spending this, but an MSP in your area may be spending this, uh, depending on what software they're using or it's different tools. So being able to benchmark what should the standard be and use that going forward to recommend new products or maybe um turn it into a lot of AI um features, such as just uploading things and having it already automatically automate that for you, right? Automation, AI, those are all the buzzwords, but and it's buzzwords because it's just the reality, that's where everything's moving. And so I'm really excited for 2026 because, like I said, we didn't have our vision, but now we really do. And how we're helping MSPs is not only helping them save themselves money, but grow their revenue within their current customers as well, which is really awesome.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

That's really neat. I think as if a software company, if you can help your customers uh save money or grow revenue, now you're not a tool, you're strategic. And so I think it's great. And everybody's looking at AI and what opportunities and risks it presents. Uh, how has AI affected your life so far?

SPEAKER_02 8:00

Well, affected, I guess, is kind of an interesting term, but I use the AI like every day. You know, I am up on LinkedIn, I am creating content, and so I use AI to help me create content because at a startup we are wearing a lot of hats, and I don't have uh someone on the marketing team that can help me brainstorm ideas, right? I just have my perfect little chat GBT partner who's helping me create things and uh get more industry insights that maybe I don't know because I'm still learning and I'm still growing, and so it helps me just brainstorm, helps me, helps inspire ideas, helps me um tailor things and just make it a lot better. Um greater AI, I just see it as this is really awesome opportunity, not just as a tool, but as like a bubble, right? The AI bubble. So I'm just excited to see where it goes because I know 2026 is gonna be a huge year for all of us in the SaaS industry and being able to use all of the new coding tools, all of the new different AI features, uh, those fun videos that people use to create. So I'm just excited to see how it translates for everyone across these streets.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

So there's a lot of people in the world that say SaaS is dead. The people who are working in SaaS don't feel like it's dead. Yeah, yeah, that's a lot. SaaS is definitely alive. Um when you think about your personal journey, you know, you're uh a young female, to me young, um in a male-dominated industry. Uh tell me about uh if if you're speaking to young people who might want to have a career in the channel, tell me what uh you what advice you would give to them.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

Okay. Um one of my things that I live by, I have an older brother. So of course I comp I've been competing with men my whole life, right? Um so I have a saying that's like anything a man can do, I can do better. And I try to carry that into my work as well. You know, I've had a lot of people say, oh, it it must suck for you being a woman surrounded by all these men who either, you know, sometimes don't look at you fully as who you are or as you present, and sometimes more it's just like a woman or just a young person. Um, but being able to change that narrative with words, with presence, and with power too. Showing people all because you are a woman doesn't mean you don't carry the same power, but you do have to show that and present different ways. Maybe it's why I might be wearing a suit today, um, a little bit of a power play. But the advice I would have is don't let any stigmas around that affect you. Being a woman in a male-dominated field is actually the greatest blessing and opportunity you could have because you're a different, you're different, right? And differences are where you make your big impacts, like showing how I don't come, I'm come come from a farm, like I don't come from this space, I don't come from a technical background, but I understand people and I understand that your impact is your own. So just make your own impacts, don't let anything get in the way of that or like gear you towards anything else. Just be who you are and stick to that, and people respect that.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

So, those of you who think Gen Z kids aren't smart or hardworking, ladies and gentlemen, Tatum from the channel program, thank you for being on the show.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Don't let Rob. You've been listening to Talk Tech with Rob Scott, brought to you by Monger. Monger is the first mover in providing contracts as a service solutions specifically designed for IT managed service providers. Their SaaS enabled legal solution is based on industry leading templates, customized for each client, and periodically updated to ensure that MSPs always have the latest protections and are legally compliant. For more information, visit monger.com. That's M L N J U R dot com.