Warranty Master has hired channel veteran and MSP (managed IT services provider) industry expert Dan Wensley as CEO, ChannelE2E has confirmed.
Wensley is expected to surface with the company at DattoCon19 -- the major Datto conference for MSPs -- next week in San Diego.
Anthony Day, who has led Warranty Master since its inception, will remain with the organization and deeply focused on product and engineering, the company says.
Warranty Master is an asset lifecycle management (ALM) software company. The firm has 5,000 partners and is backed by Top Down Ventures -- a SaaS-focused investment firm led by IT Glue founder Chris Day.
Warranty Master Names Dan Wensley CEO: His Bio
Wensley is well-known across the IT channel. The longtime CompTIA member most recently was president at Passportal, an MSP-centric password management and document management platform that SolarWinds acquired in April 2019. Earlier, he was VP at Level Platforms, an early pioneer in the RMM (remote monitoring and management) software market. (Barracuda Networks now owns that platform.)
Wensley has helped to pioneer multiple stages of MSP software market -- especially for partners and their SMB end-customers. While at Level, he launched MSP Partners -- a vendor-led organization that developed marketing and sales guidance for VARs that wanted to transform into MSPs.
The effort included Wensley reaching across the aisle to partner with Dan Shapero at rival Kaseya. Together Wensley and Shapero ("Dan and Dan") put aside their competitive differences to drive education across the MSP market. (Shapero has since joined TeamLogic IT as president, and CompTIA acquired MSP Partners in 2009.)
Warranty Master Names Dan Wensley CEO: Executive Perspectives
Warranty Master offered this prepared statement about Wensley joining the company:
"Wensley’s initial focus will be working with Warranty Master’s product, engineering and partner-facing MasterMind teams located in Montreal, QC and Vancouver, BC. He will make his first industry appearance while acting in his new role at DattoCon on June 18th, 2019, joining Warranty Master Co-Founder Anthony Day, on stage for an all attendees keynote presentation."
In a prepared statement, Warranty Master Co-Founder Anthony Day added:
“Having Dan, a proven channel and business leader in place as CEO, will greatly expand our ability to accelerate the rate of growth and innovation we have had to-date."
Concluded Top Down Ventures CEO Chris Day:
“The Warranty Master team could not have landed on a better leader to guide the Warranty Master organization and its partners through this next stage of growth."
Warranty Master Names Dan Wensley CEO: The Interview
In an email exchange, ChannelE2E pursued more information from Wensley about his career move, Warranty Master's business focus, and next moves. Here's the conversation:
ChannelE2E: How did you first hear about Warranty Master?
Wensley: I first heard about Warranty Master from Managed Service Providers themselves. There was a buzz building at conferences, and throughout different MSP thought leadership circles that caught my attention.
A core focus for me has always been to remain a student of our industry; I’m an avid life long learner. I view staying in touch with evolving partner needs and objectives as a key priority of my education. Maturing service providers were adopting this new platform at an alarming rate, and it quickly became evident to me that Warranty Master was servicing a dire partner need; I wanted to understand why.
ChannelE2E: What intrigued you about joining the business?
Wensley: Warranty Master’s solution, and the value it delivers to partners initially piqued my interest.
When I explored further, I found that Warranty Master was scaling quickly, and there was a base of 5000+ current partners; 200 more were joining every month. The numbers spoke for themselves but, I wanted to hear directly from users as to why they chose to get on board so I reached out within my network to get an insider’s perspective. I found that numerous users shared their excitement in regards to the value Warranty Master delivered in growing their own business by improving their operational efficiently, and generating additional revenue.
With an understanding of the product, and it’s impact, I then dug into the structure of the business and the team leading the charge. I found a network of MasterMinds. They were seasoned, well-educated professionals with a distinct passion for innovation. Their dedication to providing industry with the best possible service as well as the team-oriented, results driven culture made my decision to join incredibly easy.
ChannelE2E: How involved is Top Down Ventures, and their CEO Chris Day?
Wensley: Warranty Master operates as its own business with a dedicated team of 30+ full time employees.
Top Down Ventures provides us with the ability to optimize the operation of our business. They provide us with additional resources and infrastructure, so that we can focus on the development of our products.
As CEO, Chris operates Top Down like an incubator on steroids. They provide capital, and scaling expertise to emerging software companies on the verge of greatness, and the Top Down team supports a portfolio of businesses, Warranty Master being one of them. This unique partnership has lead to Warranty Master's success to date, and will continue to provide us with the backing and guidance we needed for us to continue to grow.
ChannelE2E: Can you explain some of your initial focus areas -- perhaps for the first 90 days on the job?
Wensley: My first goal was to ensure our people were all dedicated, and focused on the service of our partners and the quality of the solution we were delivering to them. It was great to see this had already been accomplished before my arrival. Upon meeting with our development and client facing professionals, I couldn't be happier with the team we have in place and will have the opportunity to build upon.
My next goal is to work with, and learn from current partners, as well as ensure that more enterprise organizations, and managed service providers know the value that Warranty Master will provide them with. I am looking forward to kicking off that conversation with the MSPs attending DattoCon 2019 in San Diego, California.
In the near future, I would like to expand the partner ecosystem. Our recent ServiceNow integration is one example of the many expansion opportunities that lie ahead for us and new partners. Having spent the past four years focused on security and operational optimization, I also see that space as an area that Warranty Master already contributes to but, has yet to educate the market on.
Overall the short and long term goal is ensuring Warranty Master partners are benefiting from using the application, and using it as a tool to drive revenue. Today, only a small percentage of our partners are taking advantage of the sales and revenue opportunity that Warranty Master delivers. This opportunity goes beyond warranties and involves asset lifecycle management. I look forward to working with both our integration and direct partners to ensure the full value of the application is being realized by all.
Warranty Master and ServiceNow?
That comment from Wensley about ServiceNow certainly caught our attention -- for a range of reasons.
Fully Managed -- an MSP that Chris Day also backs -- just acquired a ServiceNow consulting firm. Day and his team were also particularly active at the recent ServiceNow Knowledge 2019 conference in Las Vegas. The IT service management (ITSM) platform is widely popular within enterprises. But ServiceNow is too busy to address midmarket opportunities. That explains why Fully Managed offers a multi-tenant version of ServiceNow. And it provides clues that Warranty Master also sees upside opportunities within the midmarket and enterprise sectors.
We'll explore more details from Wensley, Day and others next week at DattoCon.
