{"id":16361,"date":"2026-07-29T14:41:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T18:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itbd.net\/live\/?p=16361"},"modified":"2026-07-29T14:41:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T18:41:18","slug":"the-pe-playbook-the-exit-math-and-the-conversations-msp-owners-arent-having","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itbd.net\/live\/the-pe-playbook-the-exit-math-and-the-conversations-msp-owners-arent-having\/","title":{"rendered":"The PE Playbook, the Exit Math, and the Conversations MSP Owners Aren&#8217;t Having"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Most MSP owners can tell you their MRR to the dollar. Fewer can tell you what a buyer would actually pay for their business, or what it would take to buy the MSP down the street. That gap is where Build IT LIVE 2026 is spending real time this year.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559739&quot;:200}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Growth-stage MSPs hit $10M, then $20M, and the questions change. Should you sell? Should you buy someone smaller and roll them in? Is your MRR growth actually building enterprise value, or just building revenue? Most conferences don&#8217;t touch this. Build IT LIVE built three sessions around it.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:0,&quot;335559737&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:200,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The PE Playbook<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> breaks down what private equity is actually looking for in MSP acquisitions right now. Not the version owners assume from three-year-old LinkedIn posts. The current version, from people sitting on the other side of the table.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559739&quot;:200}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Pair that with two sessions built for opposite ends of the same decision: <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Selling Your MSP<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> and <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Buying Another MSP<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">. One is for owners quietly weighing an exit. The other is for owners who want to grow through acquisition instead of grinding out MRR one client at a time. Both get real math, not theory.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:0,&quot;335559737&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:200,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The MRR Growth track ties it together, because not all MRR is built the same. Multi-year contracts read differently to a buyer than month-to-month agreements. Margins that hold up under a quality of earnings review read differently than margins that only work on paper. And MRR with vendor rebates baked in isn&#8217;t the same number once a buyer strips those out. Baxter Lanius covers this directly in his session on AI and margin, walking through which automation investments actually show up in EBITDA and which ones just look good in a deck.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:0,&quot;335559737&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:200,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Bring the math. Run it in front of people who&#8217;ve done this before.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:0,&quot;335559737&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:200,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><span data-contrast=\"none\">Register now at <a href=\"https:\/\/itbd.net\/live\/\">itbd.net\/live<\/a><\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559739&quot;:300}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most MSP owners can tell you their MRR to the dollar. Fewer can tell you what a buyer would actually pay for their business, or what it would take to buy the MSP down the street. That gap is where Build IT LIVE 2026 is spending real time this year.\u00a0 Growth-stage MSPs hit $10M, then [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[148],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-build-it-live"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>PE, Exits, and MSP Acquisitions | BuildIT Live 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"PE Playbook, Selling Your MSP, Buying Another MSP: three sessions on exit math and acquisition value at BuildIT Live 2026. 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