Discover how Brenton Johnson built Uptake Digital into a purpose-driven Managed Service Provider that prioritises human-centric company culture over massive scale. Tune in to learn actionable strategies for small businesses to navigate digital transformation, embrace AI, and build resilient tech teams.
People First, Technology Second: Building Uptake Digital with Brenton Johnson
Episode Description:
What is the secret to scaling a tech company while ensuring it stays human-centric, unique, and intentional? In this episode, we sit down with Brenton Johnson, founder of Uptake Digital, to explore how he built a thriving Managed Service Provider (MSP) by putting people and purpose before "gazillion-dollar" scale.
Brenton shares his entrepreneurial journey—from fixing computers for slabs of beer to guiding SMEs through complex digital transformations. We dive deep into why your IT partner is now your most critical infrastructure, the "missing middle" of AI adoption for small businesses, and why culture belongs on your balance sheet.
Whether you are an MSP owner, an SME founder navigating tech changes, or an entrepreneur thinking about how to build a highly sellable and resilient business, this episode is packed with actionable insights on leadership, psychological safety, and the future of work.
Key Takeaways:
Chapters & Timestamps:
Connect with Brenton Johnson:
Michael (01:21)
What's the secret to scaling a tech company while ensuring it stays human-centric, unique, and intentional about its growth? Well, you can build a culture that's a mix of golden age hip hop and blend it with traditional country values from Regional Victoria. That's the way Brenton Johnson built his business, Uptake Digital. The get-out-of-jail card you had, Brenton, was if you weren't quite sure along the way, you'd always turn and ask, "What would Biggie do in this situation?"
Brenton (01:48)
Yeah, I get made fun of all the time now, Michael, for that.
Michael (01:52)
I reckon that's great. Welcome to the podcast, Brenton. Can you give us a couple of minutes on what Uptake does, and then we'll get into your journey building this business?
Brenton (02:05)
We're the IT department for people who generally don't have IT departments. Most of our customers are in that ten to a hundred people range. They might have someone internal that does some IT, but they don't have a full IT technical department. That's our role. Anything the light touches, anything with a light on it, anything that plugs into the wall seems to be our problem. Even if we've never seen it before, never heard anything about it, or weren't involved in the procurement of it, it's still our problem. I think it mirrors IT departments exactly.
Michael (02:39)
It sounds like you're pretty mission-critical to a lot of those SMEs. When you talk about things that flash and plug into the wall, a lot can happen if that goes wrong, right?
Brenton (02:50)
Yeah. Back in the day, it was less of a deal because people knew how to operate without technology. But now, the whole business is a technology platform, and everything happens on this platform. So your IT partner has become more important than your accountant, more important than your lawyer—assuming you're not getting sued or going through a divorce. We're a critical piece of infrastructure in that business. We're almost as important as the people, because if you lose the people or you lose the technology, you can't run the business. It's been an interesting journey watching that change over the years and become such an important part.
Michael (03:29)
We're going to talk about the aspiration to have sticky relationships with clients, and it's because it is so mission-critical; it's not optional, it's not discretionary. When we first met, you said you're not trying to build the biggest managed service provider (MSP) nor make a gazillion bucks. So what are you ultimately trying to build and why, Brenton?
Brenton (03:55)
For me, it's just about doing good work. This is an industry that's very sticky, and anyone who's been in those monopolistic or sticky industries knows the customer service and outcomes aren't always great. I liken it to a restaurant: you eat there for three years, and then you have one bad experience, you don't go back. We're the opposite of that. There's not a huge incentive for IT providers to execute at a very high level from a customer stickiness perspective, whereas we want to just execute really well. We want to do it for companies and organizations that have some greater purpose. If they're just out to make money and not really contribute, they wouldn't be a good fit for us. Most of our customers are mission-driven. We have a lot of not-for-profits, people who give back to the community, and people who invest back in to make the place better. That's where we like to play.
Michael (05:03)
Right, so you're very clear on who you work with, and it sounds like that is just a more natural fit for you and the team.
Brenton (05:15)
It goes back to when I was thinking about starting my business. Why do I want to start it? It came down to choosing who I want to work with. There are a few other advantages to running your own business—not a lot in the first five years—but once you get going, there are perks. But the number one thing for me was, if I don't want to work with someone, I don't want to be in a position where I have to. I want to work with people doing interesting, amazing things, and learn from, teach, and grow with them. The business is purely motivated by working with great people, hiring great people, developing great people, and keeping great people, which I think we've done a fairly good job of.
Michael (06:07)
How many staff is your business now?
Brenton (06:11)
We're at seven, just hiring for eight. We've got one offshore and a service delivery manager who basically does all the tickets. We have the whole Lion King meme on his monitor: anything the light touches is ultimately his responsibility. He does all the operations for our customers.
Michael (06:29)
Brenton (06:32)
He's the eight-armed person trying to do everything. Then I have Chris, who's the tech lead. He does the complicated level-three technical work and provides advice back to the business. He has a unique perspective and is the mirror opposite of me. I'm the extrovert who loves talking to people, and he finds that tiring. Then we have Anne, who helps us out four days a week. It doesn't always make sense when you look at the P&L conversations, but it makes a huge amount of sense if you look at the long-term balance sheet position. She's doing a lot of organizational development, helping us implement EOS, helping me and Rendo be better managers, and uplifting the capability of the business. It's very hard being on your own and not knowing whether you're doing a good job. It's good to get external perspectives to come in and remind you that maybe you haven't got it all together all the time—just most of the time.
Michael (07:55)
It sounds values-driven and culture-driven. You talked about something I don't hear often, which is the balance sheet as opposed to the profit and loss. If you were going to put culture somewhere into the assets of the organization, there's a place for it on the balance sheet. That long-term perspective shows up ultimately. When you first got into Uptake, was it accidental, or a long-term aspiration to be a business owner in the MSP space?
Brenton (08:47)
I started off just helping people with their computers around age 20 or 21. People started giving me slabs of beer and cash. When I moved to Bendigo, I figured I had better go get a job. I looked around and didn't find anywhere I wanted to work. They were doing the NEIS program at the time, so I signed up for that. I had a really good teacher, completed the Certificate IV in Business, and hung out with other similar people. My teacher, Frank, pointed out that young people in these rooms often look at each other and think, "I thought I was a weirdo." But what you realize is we're all similar entrepreneurs. At school, we look a bit like black sheep. We just have a different perspective on how the world should work. We are problem-solution focused, which isn't necessarily nurtured in a school environment. I didn't wake up one day and decide to be an entrepreneur; I'm probably still learning.
Michael (11:08)
It strikes me that at school, it's not one of the encouraged pathways. There are a lot of kids who could be better business owners if there was more exposure through the curriculum. But programs like NEIS are excellent post-school encouragement. It sounds like Frank was a real mentor for you.
Brenton (11:52)
He was really a cultivator of an environment. His core strength was bringing people together. Years later, he invited me to present to a CEO group. I was talking about digital transformation around 2016.
Michael (12:44)
At what age were you?
Brenton (12:46)
Maybe 26.
Michael (12:46)
You upstart.
Brenton (12:51)
The CEO of the council invited me up to his office and asked, "How do I get digital transformation at the council?" I told him I could explain what it is, but getting people to think in digital terms is difficult. Their data was locked up in proprietary systems. We could see this digital transformation journey coming. We're still implementing things like e-signature solutions in 2026, when I was suggesting it ten years ago. The rate of technological change feels fast, but the implementation is often slow.
Michael (14:23)
I wonder if it's the rate of human change not keeping up with the technology. Executives have a lot of responsibility, so it's hard to be the innovator when you don't want to make a mistake.
Brenton (15:03)
They're not rewarded for risk-taking. We're rewarded for following regulations in Australia. This is why I like the small business space and don't go to enterprise. I could make more money in enterprise, but you miss out on the people willing to give things a crack. I think of one of my clients, Mel Buchanan in family law. She started a fixed-fee practice, which is really exciting. A 50-seat law firm wouldn't be able to move out of the old way of doing things. There's not enough risk-taking in Australia. Compliance gets in the way of innovative solutions.
Michael (16:49)
Behind the scenes, there are blockages. Any insight on why she was prepared to take a different approach?
Brenton (17:30)
I think that's pure entrepreneurship—the courage to step out and step up. Small businesses reflect the founder. If you walk in and the place is spotless and on time, that's the founder's personality. If it's a bit ragtag and laissez-faire, that's them. There's not really a wrong way to design a business, as long as it works financially, for the staff, and for the customers.
Michael (18:41)
As long as you don't get swept along by the noise about having to scale 10x. But the cost of housing is prohibitive and inhibits entrepreneurial behaviours.
Brenton (19:38)
Yes, the 20-year-olds I talk to are worried about their future. This is the most educated generation ever. They know housing is 10x what it was for their parents, but wages are only 3x. They don't have that "she'll be right" attitude. If we want to encourage risk-taking, we need to provide a safe environment. Google did a study and found psychological safety is the only thing that matters in culture. When people feel safe, they step out and give things a crack. I always try to make sure everyone feels safe and part of the energy of the place.
Michael (21:03)
We met at an employee ownership event, which I see as a gateway. Having a share increases productivity and might seed more entrepreneurs. Do you have a long-term plan? Where do you see the business in 30 years?
Brenton (22:28)
Who knows? In technology, at the start of the year, we didn't even know if AI was going to take our jobs. Our business has moved from mechanics to governance and specialists. With agentic AI, we don't trust it entirely yet—one wrong script can bankrupt a customer overnight. However, AI brings a lot of value in things like change documentation. Tasks like human oversight, decision approval, and sense-checking are where we spend our time now. We're documenting our decisions constantly.
Michael (26:06)
AI is both a threat and an opportunity.
Brenton (26:51)
Some businesses won't survive, but for others, it’s a huge asset.
Michael (26:53)
Enabling small organisations to do what bigger ones do, like intense documentation, is great for SMEs, especially when thinking about succession.
Brenton (27:41)
I'll give you a million-dollar tip. We realised that standards like ISO 27001 (security) or ISO 9001 (quality) are already known inside-out by AI. Instead of reinventing the wheel, we align with big standards and ask the AI to align our processes with them. We're actually starting an AI consultancy business. The missing middle will be the defining problem of the next few years. People going up-market and down-market are fine, but businesses in the middle that don't adopt AI won't be competitive. We want to bring businesses along on that journey.
Michael (30:00)
It's a natural evolution. You enjoy a trusted advisor role already, so taking something new to them is well received.
Brenton (31:37)
Before we hired our first staff member in 2020, I was doing pure consulting. That's how I learned what customers actually care about. They have a clear vision of what they want to achieve, and technology is a barrier that needs to be optimized. With AI, whatever you spend on tools, you'll spend five to ten times that on implementation. We sell Copilot, and clients say it's not saving them time until they learn how to use it effectively.
Michael (33:35)
You were on a podcast recently discussing why people and relationships are the real future of MSPs. With all this AI capability, are people becoming the most important asset?
Brenton (34:10)
In professional services, it's the only asset you really have. Everything else is a commodity. The magic sauce is the people who drive innovation and customer conversations. Our clients talk with warmth about when our team goes on-site. The differentiator is the human coming in and asking, "Is this working for you?" AI isn't super helpful from a proactive, human-touch point of view. We want anything transactional automated, but we want the human in the loop to understand our clients' needs, especially regarding cyber risk.
Michael (36:58)
It's about combining AI with the human element. What's going on at an industry level? Is there a lot of consolidation?
Brenton (37:41)
We're in a sexy business at the moment; everyone wants to be an MSP. Printer and telecommunications companies all want to do IT because that's where the power sits. The independent operators are largely going away. MSPs are relationship-driven, like accountants. Building an MSP takes 10 to 15 years, so there's a real moat around the industry. Many established business owners are getting older and want to take chips off the table due to the constant stress and risk. There are high multiples and private equity coming in, making it a good time to own an MSP.
Michael (42:01)
It's a core reliance. You can switch out an insurance supplier, but it's difficult to switch someone who knows your system so well.
Brenton (44:53)
Onboarding is the most expensive thing we do; we lose money every time and hope to make it up in the long run. There's a concept called the service recovery paradox, where a strong recovery from a bad incident can make a customer happier than if the incident never happened. But we prefer to just execute well. We haven't had a negative CSAT score in 18 months.
Michael (47:03)
I wanted to ask about M&A activity. How do you handle calls from potential acquirers?
Brenton (48:01)
We get approached all the time. I'm 37 and still have fight left in me, but I appreciate them reaching out because it helps me keep a pulse on the industry. A group of us around the same age have a growth mindset, which is very different from someone who's 60 and looking to get out.
Michael (49:54)
Taking the call is healthy. You learn what's going on in your industry.
Brenton (51:43)
My saying is, when you need a relationship, it's too late to start building one. We do build the business to sell—not because I'm looking to sell it, but because a business built to sell is well-documented, well-run, and not dependent on one person with a hero complex. I get satisfaction out of solving problems, but I'm moving towards empowering my staff and building systems so I'm not the only one who can do things.
Michael (53:25)
If you're building it to be sellable, you're building it to be less dependent on the owner. It puts you in a position where you don't actually have to sell, because it's running well and producing profits without you working crazy hours.
Brenton (56:02)
Right. You can't just assume it's your business to do whatever you want with. Once you have staff with mortgages and clients fully integrated into your systems, you have a lot of responsibility and multiple stakeholders. We treat risk very carefully when it comes to our core business operations.
Michael (59:33)
If you were called up to Canberra as the head of Australia's small business department, what's the first thing you would do to ensure we have more enduring small businesses?
Brenton (59:33)
The level of risk tolerance a small business owner has to endure is too much. Young people can't get capital, and older people have golden handcuffs. We need to make the settings easier for people to get started. Programs like NEIS, which provided income support for a year, are a great example. It allows people to take the leap without immediate financial terror. Maybe we could offer an option to forfeit tax concessions at the end of a business sale in exchange for support at the beginning. It would help people build fulfilling careers, bring innovation back to Australia, and create small businesses that care about more than just shareholder dividends.
Michael (1:02:51)
That NEIS program is a great example. Thank you for digging into the meaty stuff today. If aspiring entrepreneurs want to reach out, where do they go?
Brenton (1:03:42)
Reach out on LinkedIn. Don't be shy. I'll gladly have coffee with people pitching ideas. I'll be honest with you!
Michael (1:04:07)
Brenton Johnson on LinkedIn. Great to chat, thank you.
Brenton (1:04:26)
Thank you, it was a dream to be on the podcast.