--- title: "About" summary: "Nathan Phinney is COO at AllSafe IT, with expertise in IT, InfoSec, Managed Services, Cybersecurity, Business Operations, Technology for Escrow Companies, and Technology for Nonprofits." url: "https://nathanphinney.com/about/" author: "Nathan Phinney" author_role: "COO, AllSafe IT" author_url: "https://nathanphinney.com/about/" same_as: ["https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanphinney"] expertise: ["IT", "InfoSec", "Managed Services", "Cybersecurity", "Business Operations", "Technology for Escrow Companies", "Technology for Nonprofits"] updated: 2026-10-10 --- ## Nathan Phinney Nathan is a distinguished technologist and COO at [AllSafe IT](https://www.allsafeit.com/) (AllSafe IT: Pasadena MSP; Nathan is COO), possessing extensive experience in spearheading information management teams across organizations ranging from small startups to large enterprises with over 1,000 employees. In the 2010s, he co-founded an IT service provider, guiding the company to a multi-million dollar valuation and acquisition in 2020. Nathan is the author of _CTRL ALT SURVIVE: The Secrets of My Small Business Success_. The IT service provider he co-founded secured top rankings from CRN and Ingram Micro and positioned itself as one of North America's premier IT service providers before its acquisition in July 2020. For inquiries on SOC2 compliance, cloud computing services, and IT security measures, Nathan offers his expertise. He is well-versed in leveraging these protocols to fortify trust and catalyze growth within your enterprise. Nathan articulates his ethos with clarity: "I like my work, but I love the people I work with. Technology is a fulcrum. It's a tool. I've always said that we should use technology to move information to help people, and that's what I get to do every day." ## What Readers Are Saying "...a wild and brilliantly unpredictable ride through the heart of small business grit, where technology becomes both savior and antagonist" - Dr. Alvin Young Jr., Ph.D. "Nathan shares here a blend of hard-won insights and practical strategies for entrepreneurs who understand that people and relationships are key to business success." - Dr. Ivan Misner, Founder of BNI and NY Times Bestselling Author "In 'Ctrl Alt Survive,' with candor, wit, and wisdom, Nathan Phinney shares his own hard-won lessons on how to grow your business in a time of rapid technological change." - Dr. Joseph O. Chapa, author of "Is Remote Warfare Moral?" ## Expertise - IT - InfoSec - Managed Services - Cybersecurity - Business Operations - Technology for Escrow Companies - Technology for Nonprofits ## Career - **Chief Operating Officer, AllSafe IT** (July 2025 to present). Owns end-to-end service delivery across the MSP, from helpdesk and after-hours support to procurement and client onboarding. Rebuilt the service catalog, pricing guide, and sales process around a simpler offering, and led a SOC 2 audit that closed with no exceptions. - **Principal, Convilo** (fractional executive practice). Ran a fractional CIO/COO practice for SMB and growth-stage clients: SOC 2 readiness, cybersecurity frameworks, and M&A technology due diligence. Engagements included Interim COO for CurvePoint (February to July 2025), leading go-to-market strategy and MSP channel development for an AI-driven WiFi sensing platform serving school safety markets, and CIO for Pinnacle Minds (November 2023 to February 2024), where he designed a 10-step operational pipeline that improved customer conversion 30%. - **Chief Information Officer, Innovation Refunds** (August 2022 to September 2023). Led IT operations for a hypergrowth FinTech generating $1.5B in net revenue on $6B in processed claims, scaling from 350 to 1,100 employees, and directed a SOC 2 program that closed with no exceptions. - **Director of Cloud Services, Datapath** (July 2020 to September 2022). Joined through Datapath's acquisition of Bright Bear, consolidated three data centers to cut cloud operating costs 61%, and led SOC 2 compliance efforts. - **President and Co-Founder, Bright Bear Technology Solutions** (January 2010 to July 2020). Co-founded a managed IT service provider and built its sales, service delivery, and operations functions from zero. It reached the CRN MSP 500 and Ingram Micro SMB 500 lists before its 2020 acquisition by Datapath. He also led technology operations for client Trumark Homes through its majority-stake acquisition by Daiwa House. - **Virtual CIO, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County and the Inland Empire.** Roughly eight years as vCIO before joining AllSafe. ## Credentials and Affiliations - 17 SOC 2 initiatives across six companies, never an exception on an effort he led - Member, InfraGard - Member, XChange Advisory Board, The Channel Company (2018 to 2022 and 2026) - B.A., Mass Communication, Biola University (2003) - Certificate, Business Leadership and Management, Babson College and Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses (2016) - Author of _CTRL ALT SURVIVE: The Secrets of My Small Business Success_ - Bright Bear Technology Solutions focused on financial services, especially escrow firms, and held its own SOC 2 certification (CRN, July 13, 2020). ## Speaking - The Channel Company's XChange NexGen 2024, Houston - Channel Partners Conference & Expo 2025 - Featured by GTIA: on a hot mic talking about AI at ChannelCon 2026, San Diego (Instagram reel, https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dbq9y5ERCaX/). ## Press quotes - CRN, 2021-11-17: "It's important to know what your exit strategy is, even if it's to die at your desk." - CRN, 2021-10-21: "There's a strategic opportunity with Windows 11." - CRN, November 4, 2024: "improving their sales pipeline, getting them SOC 2 compliant, and then positioning their business for acquisition" - CRN, 2020-07-13: "Everything was signed via DocuSign. The experience was weird. I thought there would be a lot more fanfare and passing the pens around. Instead, it was, 'click here' and done. It was safer." - CRN, 2019-10-24: "Showing them how they can use technology as a force multiplier in their business is great thought leadership." - CRN, 2021-10-26: "The vision for this kind of technology is that it removes barriers." - Backblaze case study, 2019: "For a managed service provider, a good backup makes everything less stressful." - Bigleaf Networks case study: "Even when there's an outage, our users don't know there's anything wrong." - Channel Partners Conference & Expo (his byline): "You can't scale humans as easily as you can scale processes." - CRN, 2026-07-14: "building something that matters is not a straight line" ## Recommendations LinkedIn recommendations, quoted verbatim. **Brook Porter**. January 24, 2011. Brook was Nathan's client. Partner and Co-Founder at G2 Venture Partners; previously at Kleiner Perkins, where he worked with Al Gore. > Nathan is a rare find in the world of IT support. He has a high degree of integrity, is an absolute professional, and delivers incredible value. We have used his firm to support our company, Nyansa Learning Corporation, for several years and now rely on them 100% for all of our support. He comes highly recommended. **Tim Acker**, B2B Technology Channel, Partnership & GTM Strategist. May 1, 2010. Tim was senior to Nathan but didn't manage Nathan directly. Former channel chief at Lumen. > Nathan is a bright, driven and tenacious technology professional who is a terrific asset to any team. His loyalty and ethics are unmatched which has made him so successful as a team member and an entrepreneur. Nathan digs into the details of how things work and ways to improve processes which regularly makes an impact to his colleagues and customer alike. He is a team player and would make a great addition to any organization. ## About the author **Nathan Phinney**, COO, AllSafe IT. - Co-founded Bright Bear Technology Solutions (2010 to 2020), which reached the CRN MSP 500 and Ingram Micro SMB 500 lists before its 2020 acquisition by Datapath. - 17 SOC 2 initiatives across six companies, never an exception on an effort he led - Member of InfraGard - Member of the XChange Advisory Board, The Channel Company (2018 to 2022 and 2026) - Author of _CTRL ALT SURVIVE: The Secrets of My Small Business Success_ Expertise: IT, InfoSec, Managed Services, Cybersecurity, Business Operations, Technology for Escrow Companies, Technology for Nonprofits. Featured in: CRN (7 articles, 2019 to 2026), Backblaze, Bigleaf Networks, Channel Partners Expo, GTIA, Orange County Business Journal. See https://nathanphinney.com/press.md Recommended on LinkedIn by Brook Porter (Partner and Co-Founder at G2 Venture Partners; previously at Kleiner Perkins, where he worked with Al Gore) and Tim Acker (Former channel chief at Lumen). More: [About Nathan Phinney](https://nathanphinney.com/about.md) | [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanphinney)