(This is part of a series of stories on 2026 MSP 501 companies)
Unlike most leaders on the 2026 MSP 501 list, Brian Strong didn’t start his MSP – No. 201 TenHats. Nor did he have a technical background when he joined the company to head sales. What he did have was a strong sales leadership track record and great determination to succeed.
Strong was regional sales director for IT Services and IT Consulting firm Claris Networks from 2008 to 2012, helping it grow beyond $10 million. He then started a SaaS company called Vendor Registry in 2012 and sold it in 2020. A few of his former co-workers were at TenHats and offered him the position of director of sales and marketing. “I was looking for something to do, so I joined,” Strong said.
He didn’t like what he saw at first. TenHats’ revenue hovered around $8,000 per month for his first six months on the job.
“I was frustrated,” Strong said. “The company was losing money, we were building a data center, and it was chaotic. I told the team, ‘We're going to sell $10,000 a month for the rest of the year, come hell or high water — scratching, clawing, fighting. I don't care how, we're just going to do it.’ One of the guys said, ‘That's impossible.’ I said, ‘Why? I did it by myself.’
His sales team hit the $10,000 per month goal for eight of the next nine months, falling short by $1,800 one month.
“Then the CEO left the company, and I got promoted to CEO,” Strong said. “From there it was just head down, working hard, growing like crazy.”
Brian Strong
TenHats has increased sales more than tenfold without M&A since Strong joined.
“I think there's a big misconception in this space that organic growth is too difficult — that you can't get above $10 million without M&A,” he said. “I wanted to say: no, there is a different way. I'm not opposed to M&A, but it's not the only path. There's a sales process, a methodology, a way you market yourself, and it can be done — we've done it twice now with essentially the same formula, and it keeps working. We hit almost $19 million last year and we're on pace to hit $23 million this year.”
What’s his secret for such growth numbers?
“Part of it is having a methodical sales and prospecting process to get into accounts, combined with a disciplined focus on growing account size over time,” he said. “Second, on the operations side, there's a maturity that has to go along with growth — and the team has to understand that when you're growing fast, things are going to bend, not break. Processes need to change and get upgraded, and the team has to be OK with that.”
In this business, even people with a tried-and-true successful process must be flexible enough to keep up with change. Strong said he noticed customers have looked at technology differently in the past year or so.
“There's been a shift where customers are asking about technology more than ever,” he said. “In the past, MSPs were always pushing new technology on customers. Now it's a pull — customers are asking, ‘How do we do this better? What is AI, how do we start using and implementing it?’ They don't always have a good reason why they need it, but they're curious about automation. It's a seismic shift in the industry.”
TenHats, owned by a healthcare company called Covenant Health, focuses on clients within 90 miles of its Knoxville, TN, office. Around 20% of its customers are in healthcare, with the others mixed among manufacturing, retail and non-profits. One of its customers owns a chain of boot stores.
TenHats’ priorities for the rest of this year include continued investment in a subsidiary company focused on Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) verification, and also in what Strong calls the “modern workspace.” That includes but goes beyond AI.
“It's really about moving up the stack and being prepared,” he said. “We’re doing a lot of spinning wheels there now but we think it's a good investment because once it's figured out, we want to be first to market with those services for our customers.”