When Keith Bamford co-founded Daystar 25 years ago, he was involved in every aspect of the managed IT service provider from onboarding new team members to closing deals with clients. That’s not the case today, a sign of how much the company has grown, says the CEO.
“It’s really exciting to do that,” Bamford says. “It’s nerve wracking if you can’t get your control genes under control and trust your team, but we focus so hard on culture in our organization that we trust our team because we know they’re living by our values. We hire by them, are fired by them—they’re in everything we do.”
Daystar works with small to mid-sized organizations in New England and employs about 30 people. Most of their clients are within three hours of the company’s headquarters in NH. They also have virtual offices in Massachusetts, and Maine.
Started by Keith and his brothers Dan and Eric in 2000, Daystar is now a multigenerational company, with three of the founder’s children involved in the business.
A handful of companies that started with Daystar 25 years ago are still customers. “In business, that’s a long time to have clients that are still with you,” Bamford says.
The leadership team at Daystar also has longevity, Bamford says, with members having 10 years or more experience with the company.
About 15 years ago, the company reinvented their model from a break-fix model where clients called when they needed Daystar’s support to a managed services model, supporting client’s strategic IT needs. Now, Daystar is guiding their clients through a time of significant change for all businesses with questions around AI.
“This is faster than what happened with the internet,” Bamford says. “This is unprecedented how it’s impacting businesses.” Still, Bamford says the focus on culture and values has helped the team avoid shiny-object syndrome and navigate a fast changing industry.
As part of their 25th year celebration, Daystar made donations to all of their nonprofit partners.
