Read more from Working in downtown San Antonio

Chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder Luis Rodriguez shares how launching Modern Managed IT during the pandemic in the heart of San Antonio’s booming Tech District made perfect sense during a time when technology became critical for small-to-medium-size businesses (SMBs).

You hear stories from small- and medium-sized businesses every day about the IT challenges that impact their livelihoods.

It can be anything from upset customers who can’t access their accounts online, e-commerce websites that mysteriously stop working, or a new piece of office equipment that won’t work properly with what the business already uses.

If there’s something in an Information Technology (IT) setup that isn’t working for the business, it will impact the bottom line.

Modern Managed IT (MMIT) was specifically created to support San Antonio’s small business community and the IT obstacles they face. The idea for our company came from hours and hours of discussions between co-founder Jungle Disk’s CEO Bret Piatt and me.

Our original discussion focused on helping Jungle Disk find a Managed Service Provider (MSP) partner. Jungle Disk needed someone trusted to refer to their small business customers who were experiencing IT issues and needed cost-effective solutions for their small business needs.

After connecting with several MSPs, the Jungle Disk team ran into the same issue that troubles many small and medium-sized business owners. MSPs typically don’t service smaller customers.

E-commerce has shot up by nearly 40% since the pandemic started in 2020, adding even more pressure to this common pain point for small business owners. We learned that small and medium-sized businesses needed a “911 service for IT” providing the same level of IT service enterprises typically receive, yet structured at an affordable price without long-term contracts.

We discovered that the time was right for our company to launch.

This experience inspired Bret to create a business plan for an MSP with a mission to provide the highest-level IT expertise and service to small businesses. The next time Bret and I met, we began our planning to launch Modern Managed IT.

Modern Managed IT offers the highest-level IT expertise and service to small businesses who want the power and convenience of an in-house IT department at a fraction of the cost or commitment of hiring full-time IT employees.

We’re the first IT services firm to offer no-term contracts, transparent fixed pricing for end-to-end services, full-time certified employees who get to know the business client, dedicated customer teams, and the industry’s strongest, money-back guarantee.

Since September 2020, we have been operating from the sixth floor of the Geekdom co-working community in downtown San Antonio, and we’re making a difference already.

We immediately started onboarding and addressing our customer’s IT issues, many of which manifested because of the Covid-19 pandemic and 2021 Texas snowstorm. As a result, MMIT has been growing quickly since launch, adding our 100th customer in just nine months and growing from a team of three to a staff of 10.

This level of reliable IT service is even more critical for businesses adapting to how the pandemic has changed the way customers buy goods and services.

One customer had worked with a smaller IT provider unable to support the client’s growing internet demands as students enrolled and started returning to campus. As more laptops, tablets, and computers connected to their internet infrastructure, our customer noticed a significant slowdown in internet speed and efficiency.

Once we came on board, we were able to streamline their convoluted IT infrastructure. We set up a simpler, more accessible system that strengthened their IT resiliency as their business continued to grow and service more students and employees.

We strive to disrupt the traditional way managed IT service providers do business by offering our customers clear, transparent, and dedicated service at an affordable SMB price.

Working over 12 years with small to medium-sized businesses as the chief operating officer and vice president of economic development at the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and as president and CEO of the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce has taught me one thing.

What sets successful business owners apart is access to thought leadership and reliable guidance.

In that vein, we decided to headquarter our new business in the heart San Antonio tech district because this location aligns with our mission. We aim to help aspiring entrepreneurs and growing companies connect and collaborate with the right resources.

Many entrepreneurs are looking to start a new business, while those who survived the pandemic lockdowns are busily restrategizing their e-commerce approaches.  As we continue to learn from our clients, our entire team agrees Modern Managed IT couldn’t have launched at a better time.

The featured image is of the Modern Managed IT team, top row from left: Russell Mitchell, Alejandro Chavez, Jorge Rodriguez, Daniel Leal. From the left in the bottom row: Luis Rodriguez and Sean Wedige (no longer with MMIT). Courtesy photo.