Aharon Chernin Creates Startup Rewst to Improve Automation for MSPs – Channel Futures

The startup promises to change workloads for the better.

Aharon Chernin is no newbie to the world of managed service providers. Last year, Perch Security, the entrepreneurs successful five-year-old, 24/7 cybersecurity operation, was acquired by Tampa-based ConnectWise. Now, Chernin is in the startup cycle again, this time with $3.5 million in backing to create Rewst. The new venture which will launch the first quarter of 2022 streamlines robotic process automation, or RPA.

Rewst (pronounced Roost) is a SaaS company that focuses entirely on MSPs.

Chernin, who is CEO, spoke to us about what makes Rewst unique, what drives his work ethic, and why its important to simplify RPA technology to make it more accessible to all.

Channel Futures: Whats it like creating a startup and one specifically for MSPs?

Rewsts Aharon Chernin

Aharon Chernin: Starting a startup is not fun. Youre basically willing a company into existence. And you must have some greater goal in mind and that goal cant be money. It has to be a bigger goal, and for me its the MSPs, who are like my people. I worked in a ton of different industries and the MSPs are the most down-to-earth, real folks out there. So, whenever theyre happy, it makes me happy. Ive got this desire to make sure folks are happy. Its like my operating system.

CF: How did you establish the idea for Rewst?

AC: When I started Perch, we didnt have a 24/7 security operations center (SOC), at least not for the first year. There werent a lot of 24/7 SOCs with security information and event management (SIEM) out there already. So the entire industry was learning at the same time. However, one of the things that we learned is that while MSPs were reselling 24/7 SOC, they didnt have a 24/7 SOC on their end for us to escalate to.

For example, if there was an incident, they may not have had a security person working at 3 a.m. to receive that information. I started to notice a pattern of what we were escalating, and I realized a lot of it could be automated. And those were the early thoughts about what Rewst might be. There are already SOCs and SIEMs out there. However, no one has ever built an automation platform like Rewst before. It was really enticing.

CF: Why hasnt robotic process automation been adopted to a greater degree?

AC: I dont feel RPA has been figured out yet. You can tell that by the adoption. I would say every fortune 500 company has RPA in some way. If you look at the count of companies that exist in the U.S. or North America, its way greater than 500. And the adoption of RPA in those companies is very limited. Most of these companies are taken care of by MSPs, and only somewhere between 2% and 5% of MSPs use RPAs. Its not the MSPs fault. Its the RPA industrys fault. They think theyve simplified automation; however, they havent simplified it enough because it hasnt moved down market. Just because youre simplifying something doesnt mean youre trying to dumb it down.

CF: Will Rewst make it financially feasible for MSPs to adopt greater automation?

AC: It goes back to the money thing. Money is such an easy thing to point the finger at. Theyre not buying it because its too expensive. In my experience cost is a factor, but its not the primary factor. For example, if it costs $10,000 for a product but you need to hire an employee at $150,000 to use the product, then the cost might be prohibitive. Yes, we want to keep the price low, but price isnt

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Aharon Chernin Creates Startup Rewst to Improve Automation for MSPs - Channel Futures