He Built an AI Business From His MSP

About this episode

Ready to break free from limited vendor connectors? Check out the MSP Skills Repo and connect your entire stack to agentic AI: ➡️ https://compoundingteams.com/youtube In this week's episode, Shane Naugher, CEO of Innovative Automations, joins the show to unpack how he transformed his MSP experience into a new AI and automation business. He shares the hard lessons learned behind selling AI services, why project-based automation can destroy margins, how scope creep led to a 20x budget overrun, and why MSPs need to think beyond simply reselling vendor AI tools. We also dive into AI governance, recurring revenue models, automation ROI, internal team adoption, and why MSP owners need to lead from the front before their clients fall behind. Chapters: 0:00 - Intro 0:57 - Starting an automation company 17:53 - Governance + Assessing what they need 23:52 - Figuring out the ROI 28:57 - How do you keep up? 33:00 - Getting hands on 36:39 - Dealing with AI overwhelm 39:00 - What are clients wanting? 44:16 - What was impossible before? Connect more with Damien and Shane: Damien - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dstevens/ Shane - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanenaugher/