Partners To Potential Datto Buyer: Don’t Change Culture

‘I think culture is one of the most important items, it really is,’ says Dave Seibert, CIO of IT Innovators. ‘Culture is what makes our businesses what they are, whether you are an MSP or you are someone like Datto.’

Datto MSPs have a message for all companies interested in buying the company: Don’t change the corporate culture that has made it an MSP favorite.

“My hope is that whatever is to happen, I would like to think and hope that because Datto has been so successful in what they’ve done—and they have done a really fantastic job and they’ve got a great community of channel partners—that somebody is seeing that for what it is and wants a piece of it but doesn’t want to change it, doesn’t want to disrupt it,” said Michael Crean, CEO of Woodbridge, Va.-based master MSSP Solutions Granted. “I love the corporate culture over at Datto.”

Crean’s comments come after Bloomberg reported that Datto is considering a possible sale of the company after it received interest from private equity firms. The Norwalk, Conn.-based cloud-based data backup software company is working with a financial adviser to solicit interest from potential equity firms, according to a Bloomberg report.

[RELATED: Is Datto About To Be Sold? 5 Big Things To Know]

Datto has not commented on the matter.

Dave Seibert, CIO of Irvine, Calif.-based IT Innovators, said he sees the potential sale of Datto as a positive milestone. Datto is one of more than 60 vendors that IT Innovators works with.

“I see it as proof of the model,” he said. “I think right now being an MSP is one of the best places we can be to run a business. When I watched Datto grow, I mean I watched them hit the $1 billion, and then $2 billion, $3 billion and $4 billion [valuation] mark. And through each one of those stages they’ve had different investors. I don’t treat the investor side as something negative, I view it as proven validation of how strong the MSP model is in our industry. I see it as a value-add.”

Seibert, who’s been in the industry for 40 years and is a Microsoft Worldwide Influencer and Microsoft MVP, agreed with Crean, however, that company culture is important.

“I think culture is one of the most important items, it really is,” he said. “Culture is what makes our businesses what they are, whether you are an MSP or you are someone like Datto.”

Seibert said culture helps determine the actions of company leadership, the relationships vendors have with their partners, and how the partner program is modified or enhanced.

“I’ve watched Datto grow to the point that so far, they’ve been on track with culture,” he said. “I feel positive about it. It’s really important.”

Siebert said he does not see change as something to be wary of.

“We live in technology and technology equals change. I get accustomed to change because it’s the industry that I chose,” he said. “Being in the industry, when I watch change happen, I don’t instantly think about what might be bad about it. Instead, I look at what’s the opportunity? What are the good things that could come out of it? And I kind of look at this the same way.”