Aaron McCarthy spent 20 years in corporate IT before deciding he was done climbing someone else's ladder.

In 2018 he convinced his wife for them to take a SBA loan and started Maven IT out of a borrowed front office in exchange for free support. No staff. Just him and a laptop.

In this episode we covered:

→ Why he picked recurring revenue as his model before he even had a business

→ How a cold call to a Smoothie King franchisee turned into a 50-location relationship

→ What actually happens operationally when you acquire a business

→ The cybersecurity basics small businesses skip until they get hacked

→ What he's looking for in his next acquisition strategy

Aaron’s got a simple filter: will it produce recurring revenue? Can I improve the operations? Can I learn it myself first? When those boxes check, he moves.

Aaron, thanks for coming in and sitting down on Beyond The Hustle. Appreciate you dude!

Chapters

0:00 - Intro

1:00 - Who Aaron is and what Maven IT does

2:30 - 20 years in corporate and the recurring revenue light bulb

5:05 - Why he bought a commercial cleaning company

6:15 - Transitioning ownership and what he inherited

9:00 - Starting Maven IT at 40 with an SBA loan

12:25 - How the Smoothie King relationship started

15:15 - How the MSP space has changed and where new growth comes from

20:05 - AI, cybersecurity, and what's actually happening in the space

25:34 - What small businesses should do right now about cybersecurity

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