Ambitious Your.Cloud helps MSPs keep their freedom
“The Your.Cloud growth rocket has absolutely left the launch pad,” says John Reynders (pictured) enthusiastically. He has now been CEO of the company for a year, which was still called TSH when he took office. In the past year, not only did the name change, but 15 new companies joined. Reynders, however, remains unabatedly ambitious. “We want to become the number one premium MSP in Europe.”
Your.Cloud, owned by Dutch investor Strikwerda Investments, is a platform for MSPs. These keep their own name and identity, but benefit from all kinds of collaboration advantages. Meanwhile, the Your.Cloud family consists of more than 25 companies , with a total of more than 1,400 employees and over 7,000 customers. “In terms of size, we are now the number one MSP in the Netherlands in our segment,” Reynders proudly points out. “Last year we welcomed 15 new companies into our family. The positive stories of member entrepreneurs create a growing interest from others. Momentum creates momentum, we notice.”
He is pleased with those new acquisitions, but also with the fact that companies that have been affiliated for some time continue to grow. “We have a decentralized approach, but with central support. This allows member companies to accelerate their organic growth. This is especially successful because we can help them increase their customer satisfaction. Customers now give us an average of 8.8. That’s something we measure continuously. Last year I indicated that we want to be a 9+ organization. So we are not there yet.”
Future-proof businesses
In the spring of 2024, the name was changed from TSH to Your.Cloud. “That better fits who we are and what we do,” says Reynders. “We described our underlying promise as ‘build to last.’ We continue to build sustainable, future-proof businesses. We have three deeply held beliefs at Your.Cloud. First, we believe you should let entrepreneurs be entrepreneurs, not integrate everything and turn it into a one-size-fits-all. Second, we believe you should turn your customers into fans through high quality service. Our third belief is the importance of engaged employees, who can learn from each other.”
With those beliefs in mind, Your.Cloud launched several initiatives. “We help companies to be able to give their customers and employees the best experience. We invest heavily in our customer service and continuously map employee satisfaction and engagement. With the help of a good feedback loop, we always try to make small improvements in this. To let employees learn from each other, we build all kinds of communities. For example, we have the Your.Cloud Universe: a digital platform where all our colleagues, divided into different communities, answer each other’s questions and exchange ideas. This includes topics such as AI, automation and security, but also how to be more successful with sales and marketing. There are also physical meetings for each community, where people can network. That’s also where we see a lot of synergy developing.”
Need for freedom
The entrepreneurs behind MSPs need freedom, which is precisely why they choose Your.Cloud, Reynders notes. “They don’t want to be swallowed up in a large group. They value their own identity and they are looking for a way to retain freedom and continue to be able to do business. With our decentralized approach, we offer that. Entrepreneurs who join us can transform their businesses into an even more beautiful version of what they already were. Smart things we see happening somewhere at our companies, we compile them into so-called playbooks, which we make available to everyone.”
“You additionally see that entrepreneurs want to grow not only on a company level, but also on a personal level,” he continues. “As a DGA, you sometimes have quite a lonely existence. It’s hard to find suitable people with whom you can spar openly. At Your.Cloud, you suddenly have about thirty like-minded people next to you. You also get new career opportunities, such as the role of Portfolio Director, with which you become responsible for a group of companies.”
Your.Cloud’s decentralized approach is key to its success, Reynders concludes. “Without that model, we would never have such enthusiastic entrepreneurs. The decentralized model in itself is not unique, but the combination with adding value centrally is. You don’t see that anywhere else.”
Two megatrends
Major social developments are having a big impact on the market, according to Reynders. “There are two megatrends that carry a lot of responsibility for MSPs. The first has to do with labor productivity. In 2023, total labor productivity in the Netherlands will be down 1.3 percent compared to the previous year, CBS concluded. If we don’t start working differently, this will continue. This is a big problem, with an aging population, among other things, continuing. With technology, including AI, we as MSPs can make a substantial contribution to that challenge. That’s why with Your.Cloud we are investing heavily in that kind of development. We apply AI a lot within our own companies, so we can translate the findings into services for our customers.”
The second big development is cybercrime. “That is potentially society-disrupting. The number of phishing attempts alone has increased tenfold in a year! Thanks to AI, cybercriminals can rapidly increase the quality and quantity of their attacks. Without knowledge and expertise, it is very difficult to guard against this. An MSP has a key role in security for many SMBs. But many especially small to medium-sized MSPs often have the knowledge, but not the time and resources to, for example, set up their own SOC or offer other specialized scans and solutions. That’s why, as Your.Cloud, when we engage with a business owner, we look at how we can help them take advantage of our economies of scale as quickly as possible. We already have that 24×7 SOC that they can tap into right away, we already share between almost 1,500 colleagues all the new security insights and learnings with each other on a daily basis. So those are benefits that the entrepreneur and his customer can quickly reap.”
European adventure
Despite the robust growth of late, Your.Cloud is just getting started, according to Reynders. “We have the dream of becoming Europe’s number one premium MSP. We will continue unabated in the Netherlands by connecting more MSPs and building the best customer and employee experience. I am also involved in building teams in other countries. We believe that we can translate the journey we are on in the Netherlands to other markets in Europe. It is a wonderful adventure that I am looking forward to immensely.”