Rob Forman

The New Attack Vector CEOs Aren’t Watching: Calendar Invites Most CEOs in Central Texas know email is the biggest cyber threat in their business. But there’s a new attack vector slipping past security tools — and it’s hiding in plain sight. Your team’s calendar. Hackers have figured out they can use simple calendar invites to sneak in fake meeting links, impersonate trusted contacts, and get around security filters that normally block dangerous emails. These invites look normal. They land directly on your team’s calendars. And when the reminder pops up, people click. Here’s why this works so well: • Calendar invites don’t look suspicious • They often bypass traditional email filters • Outlook and Google sometimes add them automatically • Your team trusts anything that feels like a “work meeting” For a business, that means one thing: A single click can expose accounts, data, finances, or customer information. At CTTS, we’re helping Austin-area businesses stay ahead by tightening calendar settings, blocking risky invites before they hit the calendar, and removing suspicious events that slip through. Most business leaders never think about securing the calendar. But hackers do. If you want a second set of eyes on your Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace settings, schedule a free strategy session with CTTS. https://lnkd.in/gRnYBBbw #CTTSonline #AustinTX #RoundRockTX #GeorgetownTX #TaylorTX #Cybersecurity #ITSupport

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Confidence rarely collapses overnight. It erodes when IT becomes reactive instead of strategic. When oversight is episodic, reporting lacks direction, and recommendations stop before risk appears, control quietly shifts away from leadership. Here’s the question that matters: If your environment were evaluated objectively today, would it confirm your confidence or expose structural gaps? Click the link. Review it privately. You’ll know quickly whether your foundation holds under pressure. https://hubs.la/Q043GwVQ0 #CyberSecurity #ShieldHQ #Mindcore

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𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗗𝗼𝗲𝘀 $𝟴𝟰𝟯,𝟭𝟱𝟬 𝗟𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗟𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗮𝘁 $𝟱.𝟱𝗠 𝗶𝗻 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲? What does a $843,150 growth strategy actually look like for a $5.5M MSP? This isn’t theory. It’s pulled directly from the Blueprint & Roadmap Report: 9% allocated to marketing 2% to business coaching 1.52% to sales training And five other strategic focus areas It’s all based on what top-performing MSPs are already doing to scale faster and increase valuation. Whether you’re at $50K or $10M+, this report shows how to spend smarter, not just more. 📰 Dive into the full report here: 👉 https://lnkd.in/enJKnFrC 💬 Drop a comment with “5-Blueprint Reports” at the top of your message to get the report free. Limited to the first 5. #MSP #MSPStrategy #GrowthBudget #Leadership #BlueprintReport #MSPEvaluator #ManagedServices

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Too many founders with compliance requirements still treat cybersecurity like a “big company problem.” You’ll hear things like: “We’re too small, people will understand.” “We don’t have the budget for that yet.” But if your business touches sensitive data—HIPAA, PCI, or anything else— you’re not just taking a risk. You’re violating an expectation. One that regulators, clients, and your future acquirer will not overlook. Cyber requirements aren't an IT line item. They are in fact a regulatory requirement. The cost of getting it wrong goes far beyond ransom payouts or downtime. You’re putting your team, your customers, and your valuation at risk. Boards need to push harder. Founders need to act sooner. Because if you’re waiting until something breaks— you’re not just behind. It is called willful neglect and it can result in much more than a slap on the wrist. #cybersecurity #founders #leadership #riskmanagement #compliance #startups #scaling

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Salesloft and Clari announced a merger. I call it a surrender. The legacy SaaS Unicorns are dying. Creative mergers and cap table restructuring is what happens when you burn through $937m in venture money and cannot grow sustainably. The VCs are paying for their mistakes. Employees equity will be crushed. Welcome to the new era of SaaS Wealth Destruction. But don’t worry, there’s a silver lining on the other side … BACKGROUND: When Salesloft acquired Drift in early 2024, I wrote: “To me, this is a merger that marks the beginning of many such mergers across all VC and PE portfolios that will play out in the next 1-2 years.” The Clari + Salesloft merger is another signal that the current winner take all investment and operating model no longer works. Over-capitalization no longer justifies premium pricing. The biggest and loudest conference booths no longer guarantee margins. The game has changed. Expect few years of “Creative Mergers” just to survive what’s coming.  Let’s first review the merged company: Drift + Salesloft + Clari + 9 other smaller acquisitions raised a total of $937M in venture funding and at its peak it had a combined valuation of $6.2 billion. Since the cap table was restructured with this merger; Clari’s real valuation is likely far lower - meaning investors and employees on both sides took a big hit. This is both a warning shot and a beginning of what’s coming. AI is going to accelerate such creative mergers and associated SaaS wealth destruction. Many Unicorns have to undergo this process to stay relevant or slowly fail. Ironically, the smartest Unicorn founders will choose valuation-crushing deals & rush to merge with other Unicorns. While such mergers destroy wealth and indicative of surrender, they are healthy for the overall ecosystem moving forward. Roughly 350 unicorns raised capital in the last 5 years. Many need restructuring. Why Salesloft + Clari merger make sense for the future? The real battleground of the future is CAC. CAC has already exploded in the past few years (60% for large SaaS). A platform like Salesloft + Clari has the potential  to subsidize CAC across multiple solutions and platforms while premium end point solutions will find it hard to survive and justify the ever rising CAC. Buyers are moving away from “Best of Breed” to “All in One” platform purchases. This also helps with the rising CAC. Every vertical will see the rise of multiple MEGA platforms - often a result of combining multiple Unicorns. With Clari + Salesloft’s combined product portfolio, data exhaust and high-quality customer base, Clari has a good shot at positioning itself as one of the MEGA revenue platform of the future. I hope more Unicorn founders have the courage to admit their mistakes and restructure before the music stops. But in the meantime, buckle up and get ready. We will see many more deals like this in the next 12-18 months. Welcome to the era of SaaS Wealth Destruction.

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The biggest mistake in choosing an IT partner: Buying a relationship. Instead of buying a system (process, reporting, escalation, documentation). Especially in regulated environments, “trust me” doesn’t pass due diligence. Comment CHECKLIST and I’ll DM the guide we use for evaluating providers.

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It takes conviction to start an MSP. It takes humility to scale one. Most $10M+ MSP owners don’t want to hear this. But it’s the truth. The same drive that got you here is now holding you back. Early on, your conviction was everything. You believed you could deliver better service. You trusted your instincts over process. You ran through walls because no one else would. That conviction built your first few million in revenue. But here’s what happens at scale: Conviction without humility becomes the ceiling. You’re still the one making every critical decision. You’re still the one clients ask for by name. You’re still running through walls instead of building leaders. And your business can’t grow past what you can personally touch. I’ve worked with dozens of MSP owners through this exact transition. The ones who break through $10M all make the same shift. They stop being the hero. They start designing the system. They let go of controlling how things get done. They trust their leadership team with outcomes, not just tasks. Here’s the pattern I see: The MSP owner who scales learns to lead through people, not around them. So ask yourself this question: Where are you still running through walls instead of building leaders who can? Because the answer to that question is your growth constraint. Your conviction got you started. Your humility will get you scaled. Which one are you leading with today? If you’re ready to move from hero to architect, let’s talk about what that actually looks like in your business. Real scale requires real humility. 𝗣𝗦 If your leadership team can’t make decisions without you, you don’t have a leadership team. You have highly paid assistants.

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