In this article 6 sections
How Netstar got to £8M in revenue
Paul Green and Mit Patel get into the detail of how Netstar grew from nothing to about £8M in revenue before its private equity exit. Mit’s summary: the consistent thread through that growth was a real passion for sales and marketing, especially marketing, and a willingness to keep spending where it worked.
The marketing that actually worked
The first channel was pay-per-click. Mit says Netstar invested heavily, up to five figures a month, and that over the years he spent close to a million pounds on paid advertising and learned what converts. It generated enough leads that the business could be selective about the clients it took on.
The second was vertical specialisation. Concentrate on a few sectors and your marketing message gets sharper, your operational delivery gets easier, and your margin improves. Netstar focused on specific verticals, and Mit says it at one point held 14 clients on a single London street.
Sell on the client’s problem
Mit’s strongest practical lesson is to lead with the client’s business pain. His example: before pitching a hotel, the team checked TripAdvisor, spotted Wi-Fi complaints, and found the hotel’s gigabit connection had been capped at one meg without anyone realising. That conversation was about guest experience and review scores, in the client’s language.
He scaled that thinking across a 60-person team with two habits: run sessions so the sales team truly understood the customer persona, and measure the right things. Measure whether the right people read the blogs. Set a clear definition of what good looks like and people generally find a way to hit it.
The lesson most MSPs get wrong
Asked what he would do differently starting again, Mit would put money into marketing from day one, spend consistently, and above all not stop too early. Most MSPs start a marketing initiative, give it 3 months, decide it does not work and move on. Patience usually wins. Before you tweak or kill a channel, ask whether spending more on what is already delivering would give you more of it.
Why Mit built Assurix
The conversation turns to what Mit is doing now. As chairman of a small MSP he saw a new client onboarded with a shared admin password of welcome123, then the same thing again months later from another provider. He saw an MSP friend with an ISO 27001 badge whose documentation had been written cheaply for them and never understood internally. And he was getting message after message about the incoming Cyber Security and Resilience Bill. Three signals, one conclusion: the trust signals in the industry were broken.
Assurix is the live trustmark for MSPs. It assesses 40 security controls aligned to the NCSC Cyber Assessment Framework 4.0 and 19 operational controls built for MSPs, using evidence from the MSP’s PSA, RMM and security tools. Live-measured controls are checked every six hours and the rest on a set cycle. Assurix independently assesses 59 controls, both pillars must pass, and an Assurix assessor signs off, with a 30-day window to fix a failure and public suspension if it is not fixed. A prospect can open the MSP’s Trust Portal to see what is checked, and its current status shows on the Trustmark Directory.
Common questions
What marketing worked best for Netstar?
Consistent investment in pay-per-click, then deep vertical specialisation. Concentrating on a few sectors sharpened the message, simplified delivery and improved margin.
What is the biggest marketing mistake MSPs make?
Stopping too early. Most give an initiative 3 months then move on. Patience usually wins. Before tweaking or killing a channel, ask whether spending more on what already works would give you more of it.
How should an MSP sell to a client?
Lead with the client’s business problem, in their language. Research their world first, find the pain that costs them money, and open the conversation there.
Why did Mit build Assurix?
He saw how broken the industry’s trust signals had become. The aim is to help the good MSPs win.
What is the Assurix Trustmark?
The live trustmark for MSPs. Assurix independently assesses 59 controls: 40 security controls aligned to NCSC CAF 4.0 and 19 operational controls built for MSPs. Live-measured controls are checked every six hours and the rest on a set cycle. An Assurix assessor signs off. A failure left unfixed for 30 days suspends the Trustmark publicly.
