Buying MSPs at 1-2x Profit While the Market Pays 5-8x
with Peter Moriarty, founder of itGenius. Google-first, cloud-only MSP; Australia's #1 Google partner for small business
Peter Moriarty built itGenius, a Google-first, cloud-only MSP, from a $20-an-hour teenage side hustle into Australia's number one Google partner for small business. His growth playbook breaks every MSP convention: he serves the under-20-seat clients nobody else wants, buys distressed competitors at 1-2x profit while the market pays 5-8x EBIT, gets 90% of new clients from YouTube organically, and keeps 95% of acquired customers with a “give love” onboarding philosophy.
We also get into the AI bot that's already eating his help desk, the labor-arbitrage model behind his “AirAsia of IT” pricing, and why he thinks level-one support is disappearing.
What we cover
- The origin story: charging $20/hour at 15 because McDonald's paid $7
- Going all-in on Google in 2011 and becoming Australia's #1 SMB partner
- The accidental YouTube channel that now drives 90% of new business
- The M&A playbook: 11+ acquisitions, bootstrapped, at 1-2x profit
- Post-acquisition churn: the “give love” philosophy and the break-lease analogy
- Serving under-20-seat clients profitably: the “MSP Lite” model
- Albert, the in-house AI bot resolving tickets before humans see them
- Why level-one support is disappearing, and what MSPs should do about it
What's inside
- 00:00 Cold open: the “give love” churn philosophy
- 00:33 Intro
- 01:12 Origin story: teenage IT hustle to founding itGenius
- 02:42 Picking a lane: going all-in on Google
- 04:17 Scaling through partnerships and speaking
- 07:46 How YouTube became the #1 growth channel
- 10:50 The M&A playbook: buying at 1-2x profit
- 16:00 Keeping churn low after an acquisition
- 21:25 Cracking small clients at scale: the MSP Lite model
- 27:40 Bots eating the help desk
- 32:48 Staying ahead of Google's own AI
- 34:20 Quickfire round
- 40:31 Where to find Peter
The guest
Related reading
Built something the industry should hear about?
A niche you own. A pricing change that worked. A near-death moment you survived. Just the story of how you actually built it.