Play It Smart

Dan Taylor built one of the most unusual MSPs in the world. It's Google-only, it serves international schools only, and it runs on a small remote team spread across five countries. No Microsoft, no local market, no office. Then he turned his own Google Workspace audit into a product other MSPs buy, and it took off almost immediately. We get into how he went from Deloitte to a failed recruitment agency and then stumbled into the Google-for-education world, why niching down twice made the business instead of limiting it, how Google quietly took the schools market from Microsoft with almost no salespeople, and what it really takes to turn a service into a product. What we cover: - Why "Google-only, schools-only" was the whole advantage - Running a seven-figure MSP on almost no external software - The jump from $6k manual audits to a real SaaS product - Whether AI and "vibe coding" threaten a niche tool like his - His honest take on where MSPs should niche to actually make money Chapters: 00:00 Intro 00:35 From Deloitte to a failed recruitment agency 02:26 The random tip that started a Google empire 06:49 Why international schools became the niche 10:17 How Google beat Microsoft with zero salespeople 12:41 Running a remote MSP across five countries 15:48 From $6k manual audits to WorkspaceAudit 23:22 Can vibe-coding kill his SaaS? 32:30 Lightning round 34:56 Where to find Dan Guest: Dan Taylor AppsEDU: https://appsedu.com WorkspaceAudit: https://workspaceaudit.com Dan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/appsevents/ Play It Smart is where I sit down with the founders and operators building in managed IT, security, and AI. New episodes on YouTube and every podcast platform.

What is Play It Smart?

Play It Smart is the show where Alexej Pikovsky sits down with MSP operators and business owners and takes apart how they actually do it: winning clients, pricing, staying lean, using AI, and building toward an exit worth having. Season 2 is dedicated to MSP operators. Past guests include Rand Fishkin of Moz and SparkToro and the founders of Chili Piper, Flowchat and 3DLOOK.