It was June 5th, 2014 and it was really, really hot out. I had met up with a lawyer - Doug Bend the week before who advised me that I could save time and drive up to Sacramento and file my LLC in person to get my company set up with the state.

So I drove up to Sacramento - my first time ever visiting the city, and to the state office I went. Afterwords I remember pulling up Yelp on my iPhone and searching for “Grilled Cheese” looking for a cheap dinner (I had a very lean budget back then) and ending up going to this amazing little wine bar. My grilled cheese was fantastic, as was the wine I treated myself too. With that Tech Plus was born.

Hard to believe it is 10 years later now, that we have 5 employees, have been ranked in the top 500 MSP’s in the country, and the Next Gen 100 list twice - beating out over 140 competitors in the Bay Area alone. Back in 2014 I started out Tech Plus knocking on doors and being chased by security out of buildings in downtown Oakland for soliciting (I used to walk into random offices and offer IT help on the spot when I couldn’t afford advertising, and apparently that sorta thing is frowned upon in many class A office buildings). Those were the days!

Fast forward and 90% of our clients are from word of mouth and referrals . We have a small but efficient team that can tackle just about any IT challenge and I am excited to see where we will be in 2034. It has been an honor over the last decade to serve Oakland, San Francisco, Berkeley, Alameda, Castro Valley, Emeryville and other Bay Area small businesses. I’ve had the privilege of working for law firms, venture backed startups, manufacturing, grocery stores, breweries, distilleries, restaurants, property managers, accountants, engineering firms, security firms, import companies, construction, electricians, optomotists, you name it. I feel like I’ve just about seen it all.

Over the last decade I’ve learned that small companies with 25-75 employees is our sweet spot. Those firms that are just large enough to hire a dedicated IT person we can really deliver some serious savings too. Our team approach is able to combine multiple people each with their own specialty to bring more skills to the table, and we can often beat the price of a direct hire as all the tools - Salesforce or Jira, Splashtop or LogMeIn Rescue, etc become super expensive to buy for a 1 person department not to mention the difficulty it is to manage technical people, and the logistics of covering PTO, or replacing someone if they leave the company.

I am looking forward to continuing to grow Tech Plus organically and take on more projects, larger clients, and bring on new team members. IT and Cybersecurity is my passion. I have no plans to sell the company (despite the 2-3 spam emails I get per week from private equity groups looking to acquire us for some reason) I just want to keep working on it and growing.

Lastly special thanks to all our amazing customers, vendors, partners, and staff for your support over the last 10 years.

Cheers, Chris Stovel.
- Founder & CEO

Announcing our 10th Anniversary

Win a trip to Venice!