redactedReliable IT for high-performing small businesses We love reading business books. We have a precariously large stack of them beside our bed. One pattern we've noticed is that many companies weren't built because some founder dreamed up a brilliant product out of the blue. Rather, they emerged because somebody tried to solve a problem inside another business and eventually realized other people had the same problem. For instance, Amazon didn't set out to become the world's largest cloud computing company. It was trying to run an online bookstore. As Amazon grew, its engineers repeatedly built infrastructure to manage servers, storage, databases, and computing power. Eventually, they realized other companies probably had the same problems. That realization helped lead to Amazon Web Services. Shopify began as an online snowboard store. The founders couldn't find software they liked to run the business, so they built their own. Before long, they realized the software was more valuable than the snowboards. This is not just a tech story. For instance, 3M was an abrasives company until, in 1925, an employee developed masking tape to help an auto-body customer get a clean line on a two-tone paint job. That ultimately led to Scotch tape and an enormous adhesives business. In the 1930s, Sears had direct relationships with millions of American households through its catalog and stores. The company realized those channels could be used to sell more than merchandise. In 1931, it launched Allstate to sell auto insurance. Sears spun off Allstate inredactedSears filed for bankruptcy inredactedIn 2025, Allstate generated roughly $68 billion in annual revenue. We're operating on a slightly different scale. But we think the same pattern applies in the world of small business. We’ve told the story before about having big PowerPoint ideas for our first acquisition, only to find out that our plans to take over the landscaping world would have to wait because the facility didn’t have functioning internet. Welcome to SMB. What we haven't talked about is that, despite not having functioning internet, the company was actually paying a local Managed Service Provider (MSP) a non-trivial monthly fee to "manage" its technology. As we did more acquisitions, a pattern developed. Each opco seemed to have a "tech guy" who "did tech." With a bit of prodding, we also found that many of these single-dude firms implemented questionable setups, provided inconsistent service, charged significant markups on pass-through commodities, and had conflicting interests. In consultant-speak, we came to believe many SMB-focused MSPs occupied the least attractive quadrant: high cost, low value. We just couldn’t stand it. So, in 2017, we hired a CTO. It was our first significant external HQ hire. We hired for technology before Marketing, Human Resources, Finance, Business Development, or any of the other typical "HQ" functions. Given our size at the time, it was a stretch. This role brought some serious expertise and we became increasingly convinced that relying on external MSPs for our technology needs was not going to work. We started to develop our own systems and called the project “ChenTech”. Gradually, we expanded the team. Eventually, ChenTech became its own entity, albeit one that, to date, has only served internal customers. But we didn't just copy the existing MSP model. We built our own infrastructure to manage tech stacks remotely, standardized hardware across our companies, invested heavily in cybersecurity, and developed repeatable processes for onboarding acquisitions. We've learned how to support businesses ranging from manufacturers to distributors to service companies. Through constant tinkering (and a bit of cynicism), our standardized setup now requires less support, which means our costs are 30–50% lower than comparable external providers. Rather than hierarchical helpdesk structures, we rely on engaged and skilled generalists who strive to actually understand the business. We don't charge markups on hardware and margins on third-party tools are transparent. Alignment. Today, ChenTech conducts tech-related diligence on all new Chenmark acquisitions, leads post-close integration, and provides ongoing endpoint management, cyber training, and tech support. It’s great. It has dawned on us that other SMB’s might have these problems as well. So, after months of preparation, we're excited to announce that ChenTech is now offering its services to companies outside the Chenmark portfolio. Right now, our services are invite-only, as we want to ensure quality over quantity. If this is something you’d be interested in learning more about, please contact us. Who knows where this initiative will lead. Maybe one day ChenTech will be more valuable than all of Chenmark. Maybe it will fail spectacularly. We have no idea. But we’re sure excited to find out. Have a great week, Your Chenmark Team