Huntress Director To MSPs: Growing Your Community Will Help Grow Your Business

‘When you open your books or your hearts or your minds to your fellow MSPs, you’re building a community that is going to benefit your business, says Huntress executive Tracie Orisko.

Tracie Orisko, senior director of sales development and community at cybersecurity vendor Huntress, emphasized the importance of community while addressing MSPs at CRN parent The Channel Company’s XChange NexGen 2024 event, which runs through Tuesday in Houston.

“When you open your books or your hearts or your minds to your fellow MSPs, you’re building a community that is going to benefit your business,” she told the audience.

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Orisko highlighted a number of actions MSPs should take to help move their business forward.

MSPs should consider hosting and attending a variety of events, she said. Huntress has industry-focused Tradecraft Tuesdays, the Community Fireside Chat for MSP-to-MSP conversations, Product Lab for receiving feedback from partners and discussing upcoming changes, and another monthly event around hacker techniques, according to Orisko.

In addition, at conferences MSPs should try to meet a certain number of new people and chat attendees up in the hallways and at after-show meetups, she said.

MSPs also should feel comfortable sharing positive and negative feedback with vendor partners, according to Orisko.

“We want to listen and engage,” she said. “And I want you to be loud. Whether you are a Huntress partner or not, I want you to be loud about what we are doing well and what we are not doing well. … If our tech isn’t good, it doesn’t matter how much time I spend flying around the world to ensure that you guys are engaging with me. You won’t want to stay engaged if we're not building good tech.”

Orisko also said that a vendor’s reputation comes from the MSPs engaging with the company.

“The reputation that your vendor has, whatever vendor it is, comes from you guys,” she said. “And so let us help be the ones that drive your community engagement.”

Melvin Williams, CEO of Blue Bell, Pa.-based solution provider M&N Communications, told CRN he has found peer-to-peer and MSP-to-vendor relationships important ideals for solution providers no matter their level of maturity.

“Community is so important for getting ahead in the channel,” he said. “I’ve helped other companies and been helped by other companies.”