TechTrust is owned by a parent company, The Comtel Group Inc., which was founded in 1993. For decades, we operated like any other MSP, Reseller, or VAR helping clients make better technology decisions, maximizing ROI, mitigating risk, and driving toward the outcomes that mattered most.
That’s why we were involved, and how we earned our keep.
But as we moved upmarket into the mid-market space, something didn’t add up.
These weren’t small businesses that needed hand-holding. Mid-market companies had strong IT teams of smart and capable people who knew what they needed. Yet many providers still required them to buy through resellers like us. Whether we added value or not, we got paid.
At the same time, providers were throwing bigger incentives at resellers than ever before. Cloud platforms had massive sunk costs, and providers were desperate to capture market share. So they paid resellers more to push their solutions regardless of whether those solutions were the best fit for buyers.
It was designed to extract maximum cost from them.
What if we created a wholesale option for buyers who don’t need a middleman and used the research and leverage we’d built inside the channel to drive down not just the sales cost, but the technology cost too?
That question became TechTrust.
Today, we operate as your buyer’s advocate inside the tech supply chain. We take the same compensation providers pay to resellers and leverage it differently: to deliver radical transparency, aggressive negotiation on your behalf, and proof that you bought right.
Bob didn’t set out to become a tech innovator. He set out to avoid having a boss!
Back in 1989, fresh out of UC Davis, he started what would become The Comtel Group, mainly so he could work on ideas that truly made sense to him. It turns out many of those ideas resonated with others as well.
From the start, Bob recognized Telecom providers were, to say the least, difficult. They made life harder for customers. He didn’t want to just “sell” telecom contract, he wanted to transform his client’s experience. Bob’s ambition was to protect his clients from having to deal with the large telecom providers and their dysfunctional ways.
This thinking eventually led to the creation of audit software and frameworks like Carrier Management™ and Migration Science™. Practices that delivered the desired outcomes of lower costs, less downtime, greater peace of mind.
Truthfully, at the heart of the matter, Bob is driven to create more value and WOW his customers! Both Comtel and TechTrust take what the provider offers in terms of seller compensation (which is a lot of dollars) and leverage those funds to create unique value and the basis for a long-term relationship.
These days, when he’s not obsessing over how to improve TechTrust’s business model, Bob is usually with his wife Kim, and their grown kids, Kathyrn and Jack. Chess, cooking experiments, and experiencing the beauty of the great outdoors on a hike with Kim; that’s his idea of a weekend!
Over the years, we’ve earned some pretty cool recognition from people we respect, especially at the Midsize Enterprise Summit hosted by The Channel Company. It’s a tight-knit, high-impact community of CIOs and tech leaders, and we’re honored to be part of the conversation (and occasionally the awards ceremony).
Our proudest moments? The ones where peers and clients come to us and say, “What you’re doing is really unique…and it works! Thanks.”
That said, we’ll gladly take the hardware. We’re humbled to have been named Best Solution Provider every year since 2021 and have twice captured the top prize for Best Midmarket Solution: Services.
Want to see how this all translates to your world? We’re happy to show you. Reach out today!
We’re happy to show you. Give us a few minutes and we’ll map the conflicts around your providers, what they’re costing you, and what your options are.
No commitment, no runaround, just clarity.
