Ryan Mortland grew up as a son of a CPA and small business owner. He would go into the office with his father as he grew up, assisting with various tasks and watching and absorbing business interactions and how to create a service to provide value to others.
Mortland founded MB Technology Solutions in 1999 right out of college as a complementary company to his father and brother’s accounting firm. MB initially implemented accounting packages and helped clients with their technology. Soon after the internet became widely available, the focus shifted to building networks and helping SMB clients expand their technology.
“The most important risk I took was starting MB out of college,” Mortland said. “This was a risk and a gamble. I had promising opportunities in corporate consulting. I chose to try it out knowing I could fall back to corporate if it did not work. I was excited but lacked confidence as I was learning everything as I went. I sold IT services, worked the tech tasks and then billed the work to start as a one-man IT shop.”
MB Technology Solutions is a managed IT solutions provider for St. Louis and Midwest businesses. It provides technology solutions and support for IT infrastructure and cloud solutions. The company designs, implements and manages its clients’ business continuity, disaster recovery and backup solutions.
MB plans to grow both organically and through acquisitions over the next five years, expanding its footprint throughout three to five additional cities in the Midwest. MB employs 25 employees and will have more than 50 after the expansion.
“MB continues to leverage technology to automate both our systems and integrations to enhance business processes and speed of service,” the company said. “Through IT strategic planning for our client, we are able to identify opportunities for technology to empower and impact their businesses.”
As the MB team and the client base grew, an ongoing focus for MB and Mortland was to give back to the community and nonprofits.
Mortland has served as a Children’s Home Society Board member, Childcare Aware of Missouri Board member, St. Agnes Home/Carmelite Event/Golf committee chair, St. Jane’s Community Center Board member and Entrepreneurs Organization Board member.
Mortland started the Mortland Golf Classic with his brother Jeff to help raise money for various charities. Over 25 years, the tournament has raised more than $350,000 for 23 charities.
