Interview: Neil Sethi on Building LOOP IT from the Ground Up
The Ivey Business Review is a student publication conceived, designed and managed by Honors Business Administration students at the Ivey Business School.
Neil Sehra, Ivey MBA '16, is the co-founder of LOOP IT, a Managed Service Provider that acts as a fractional CTO for new, existing, and transitioning businesses. What started out as tech house calls for close friends and family has since grown into a company that has doubled in revenue every year, with plans for further expansion.
IBR caught up with Neil to profile his work and find out why clients have dubbed him their ‘techy bff’, his storied friendship with his business partner, and whether a phone holster speaks volumes of its wearer (mostly just, “I’m a tech snob”). Read on.
Ivey Business Review: To start off, when you first started LOOP, how did you discover the opportunity, and what made you realize that there was a space for you to play in?
Neil Sehra: Let’s just say LOOP IT made it out of the proverbial group chat. In Computer Science 108, I met my business partner Arash, and I’d say it was a run-in with fate. As enterprising freshmen, we penciled in our close family and friends and made house (read: dorm) calls or set up shop at their place of business. It was an early preview of LOOP IT but the concierge-level care that we gave them earned us their trust and uncovered a major gap in the market. It wasn’t exactly a laid-out plan, but we had always talked about working together. Before we knew it, we had a rapidly growing portfolio of businesses that allowed us to become full time entrepreneurs and launch LOOP IT, formally (aka buy a URL, that’s when you know it’s real).
Arash and Neil, LOOP IT Co-Founders
IBR: At the start, what resources did you feel you needed to be successful, and how did you acquire them over time? I imagine going from just helping out friends and family to managing multiple businesses at once was challenging.
NS: There’re certain skills you need in your arsenal- but I’ll break it down into technical and professional. The technical part are the indispensable skills needed to get the job done like the wit to protect clients from Ransomware attacks, back-ups (non-negotiable!), ensuring a proper disaster recovery plan is in place, you know, just in case- some of these skills we had, others we had to go and learn, immediately. Professional skills are knowing the next thing a client needs before they do. That impulse was honed in our previous management consulting roles (cumulatively, we have 20 plus year credits), giving us an inarguable edge on the competition. Arash and I weren’t making tech decisions just because, we knew everything our clients needed and more because we knew what they expected at a business level.
IBR: I'm curious about the very beginning. What do you feel were the unique attributes that you brought to the table as a founder and what did your co-founder bring that complemented you?
NS: Our contrasting personalities and skills make for a perfect pairing. As our client roster has deepened, we’ve noticed that our different approaches help us service them better. Arash just happens to be all about the customer- his key metric is supplying his dialed-in attention to (recruit and retain) clientele. He draws upon that from his consulting background and industry experience (he’s held the CTO title for a publicly traded company) when we’re thoughtfully tailoring our offerings and advice. I’m more process-focused, measuring costs against benefit and combing the finer details to understand business value (ex-management consultant, that’s instinct). Layering data and context in a stack is my best attribute.
IBR: I'd be interested to hear about your growth now that it's been a few years. What were the major drivers of your company's growth at the start, and now that it's scaled up a bit, have those drivers changed?
NS: Whispered recommendations from our network (they really do have great taste) were the initial driver for LOOP. In undergrad, c. 2004, we got through to all manner of complicated tech issues- from viruses that aggravated classmates home screens to weighing the pros and cons of laptops vs desktops. Our stamp of approval on each piece of work had been known to elicit compliments and the distinction “techy bff”.
As LOOP grew up, formalized, and our rolodex was becoming sizeable we continued to invest in our growing clients, setting them up for whatever their next phase was in the form of scalable custom tech offerings. This co-growth model has been especially becoming to our triple bottom line. Word of mouth endorsement has built our reputation and influence in the industry, it’s taken time but all that’s changed is name-dropping has transitioned from “Neil and Arash get your tech on point” to “LOOP IT gets your tech on point”.
IBR: You mentioned the hurdle of going from the Neil and Arash stamp of approval to the LOOP stamp. What were the other hurdles along the way that you had to overcome to keep the company on a positive trajectory?
NS: The first hurdle was clients wondering if we were too small to handle them. But as we grew, we faced a newer, unpredictable one. When sales prospecting, now, smaller clients would ask if we’re too large. The questions circulating meetings and calls included if we would have time for them, will we overlook the smallest tech concern? The list goes on. That was alarming because it had always felt natural to grow (we thought it would take the edge off- that our scale would do the convincing for us). But as they say: the customer is always right. They didn’t want to choose a scaling MSP if they weren’t given the same guaranteed-to-please service à la larger clients. To remove the slightest hesitation (and its accompanying account tiering bias, whether small clients still get our full attention) we promise the same full coverage for each and every client in three ways: concierge-level care, quick response times, and instant results.
IBR: How have you found creating that buy-in for employees? It's easy as a founder to be super passionate about your idea, but convincing people coming into work to be just as excited must be difficult. What's been your approach?
NS: LOOP’s got nothing without the talent to match. We believe devoted employees are worth their weight in gold and that’s why we’re rigorous in our hiring process. We scour the job market for tech pros who simply refuse to do second-rate or periodic tech care and for whom percussive maintenance is verboten. And for those who appreciate that the diversity of our client list plus our flat company structure will give them new ways to fill their career with responsibilities and scenarios hard to find elsewhere, and that’s good value. We pride ourselves on our “no, corporate family is not an oxymoron"-level spirit here [at LOOP]– we take an active approach with our employees’ careers and set them up for meaningful success now, and into their future.
IBR: When you look at new opportunities while growing the company, whether it's a new customer or vertical, how do you decide if it's worth pursuing, or if it's going to take you away from your strategic focus?
NS: We are discerning with the type of work that we accept. We have our main services: help desk, cybersecurity, tech consulting, to name a few. If things fall within that roundup, then, yes, it’s worth pursuing. We have another side of our business that does full-on new builds. We use industry best practices to provide clients with flexible options for acquisition and setup of technology in their office, and we provide migration services for data and email so that a transition to a new platform is seamless.
We don’t want to compromise LOOP’s brand value by drifting away from factors that already catch our client's eye. We stay focused on continuing our growth strategy, continuing to double our revenue YOY, and providing them with the ultimate IT support– that's what we do best.
IBR: Have you found it easier over time to keep that discerning approach? Startups often lose focus at the beginning when they take anything that sticks, or later when the grass looks greener at the next opportunity. How has that looked for you?
NS: At the beginning we weren’t at all selective with the type of business we were pursuing– for two good reasons. One, we were growing and couldn’t afford to say no to opportunity. Two, to borrow a phrase, we saw the battery charge as half-full and trying something new became risk-appropriate. As we moved out of the discovery phase, we answered a client’s “help, please” with even more discerning standards.
IBR: Were those difficult conversations to have, when you had to tell a client that you didn't want to continue doing business with them?
NS: We have a strong portfolio of valued clients who have us on speed-dial. Of course we want to be an MSP worthy of monogamy, but on occasion we’ve had to part ways with clients because of different working styles or additional services required. If we ever can’t deliver or accommodate the change-up, purposeful avoidance of the situation is poor form, of course. There’s something to be said about honesty being the best policy to soften a breakup.
IBR: When you start a company, the risk profile changes completely compared to a 9-to-5 job. How did you navigate taking this big risk while keeping things stable and okay at home with the family?
NS: Confession: I poached my wife, Amrita, to join the team where she’s now a brand ambassador and the Creative. Fun fact: I always knew she was primed to join in… on our first date, my signature style was defined by a phone holster belt, which she found “cute” and it practically did the flirting for me (for a terrifying moment, I thought she was going to typecast me as a “tech snob”). I had the good fortune to snag a second date because LOOP would not exist the same without her font-selecting focus or photoshopping efforts. Because being my work wife is part of her job description too, LOOP IT gives new meaning to “though thick and thin”. For anyone who’s serious about or new to entrepreneurship consider this- it’s a high-maintenance pursuit. Long hours, late nights, and uncertainty are the customary risk profile.
IBR: What do you see as the future growth for LOOP in the next couple of years?
NS: We’re on track to gain popularity for LOOP, but in a way that is intentional and sustainable. Besides our resolve to provide clientele with high-touch service, we’re unanimous on this: growth for us isn’t just about scaling quickly– it's about building a company that has long-lasting grip in the tech space and gives back. Flexing our philanthropic muscles in support of local charities is just one of the ways we do this (cc: proudly supporting Unicode.Org, Ontario Science Center, and Museum of Contemporary Art).
IBR: My last question is, what do you think is the single word that characterizes you as an entrepreneur?
NS: In a single word: “calm.” At LOOP, we see a collection of different client scenarios. Quiet days (if there is such a thing) can fill up with pressing tech dilemmas in the blink of an eye. Stress happens; taking a slower approach is the best comeback. Staying grounded and focused changes everything so I don’t miss any details and can see through a sophisticated problem, especially when I needed a solution 5 minutes ago. Maintaining calm as a mindset reassures our clients that they’re in good hands, never mind the stressor(s). Admittedly, though, I think my psyche and outlook would be out of balance if I advanced from the vibrate to silent setting on my mobile.
