Vince Kent, Board Chair & Founder
As SMBs abandon do-it-yourself AI experiments in favor of managed services, Synthreo announced the appointment of Callen Sapien as CEO. Sapien previously ran strategy at ConnectWise and Refactr (prior to its acquisition by Sophos) and most recently served as CPTO of Liongard, where he revitalized the company’s offerings and reconnected it to the broader MSP community.
The appointment comes as Synthreo’s MSP partners report a 343% increase in AI service requests over the past six months, with early adopters seeing 23% average monthly recurring revenue growth in the new business line.
Sapien, who led AI-powered security initiatives at Liongard that reduced CIS and NIST framework comparison times by hundreds of hours per MSP per month, brings both technical and personal perspective shaped by his early exposure to the ConnectWise build-out and long-standing relationships within the MSP community.
“I’ve seen both sides, the enterprise promise of AI and the SMB reality of implementation chaos,” said Sapien. “Most businesses don’t want to become AI experts; they want AI to solve their problems. That’s exactly what MSPs are positioned to deliver.”
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The Market Opportunity
The appointment comes at a pivotal time for the $390B managed services industry in 2025 (Mordor Intelligence report). Recent TechValidate research shows 78% of SMBs prefer to buy AI from their existing MSP, yet reportedly less than 10% of MSPs currently offer comprehensive AI solutions.
“Synthreo’s approach addresses a critical market gap,” said Vince Kent, Founder of Synthreo and former CTO of Lyra, the one of the world’s leading MSP groups. “The real AI adoption story is happening through the channel, not direct enterprise sales. MSPs who package AI as a managed service will capture disproportionate value in this transition.”
Synthreo’s Advantage
Synthreo’s no-code platform has processed over 100,000,000 tokens in the last month to support AI interactions across its MSP partners, enabling faster deployments and measurable results. Unlike Microsoft Copilot or Google Workspace AI, Synthreo gives MSPs vendor independence and solutions that work across any environment.
“Our clients don’t want another login or another training session. They want their existing workflows to get smarter,” said Matt Lees, CEO of CloudIT, a Phoenix-based MSP. “That’s what Synthreo delivers.”
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Three Flexible Engagement Models
• Self-Service: Full platform access for MSPs building in-house solutions
• Co-Development: Joint projects with Synthreo’s services team for guided success
• Fully Managed: End-to-end delivery for the fastest time-to-market
This model attracts MSPs from five-person shops to 500+ employee organizations, supporting use cases from automated support to predictive maintenance.
Experienced Leadership Team
Jeff Hirth, Chief Experience Officer – Former Network Doctor and Lyra executive who led development of AI-driven automation used by hundreds of MSPs.
Gregg Lalle, President – Former ConnectWise growth leader and MSP community builder with two decades of channel experience.
Ivan Sivak, CTO – AI researcher and founder known for advancing practical machine learning, automation and AI solutions for MSP operations.