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Kirk Tech Solutions – IT Services Provider for Large Global Companies Dealing with Complex Technical Challenges
Nate Tennant
Founder
Kirk Tech Solutions
Interview conducted by:
Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor
CEOCFO Magazine
Published – May 25, 2026
CEOCFO: Mr. Tennant, what is the overall vision behind Kirk Tech Solutions?
Mr. Tennant: We started out over 20 years ago developing basic websites. We gradually moved up the value chain and got into very complex banking sites, transactional sites, Shopify experiences for very average brands, pharmaceutical companies; large brands that most of your readers would be familiar with.
About 3.5 years ago, we needed a strategic shift beyond that to move into tech transfer, cloud, large database development, and then finally AI. We are very fortunate to have several senior members of our team which were doing talks on early AI in the 90s. They have multiple patents in the space and large language models.
We see ourselves positioned kind of in the middle where you have a lot of large global IT service providers like PWC, Capgemini and Accenture. Those companies are north of $10 billion in revenue and servicing like size companies like Delta Airlines. There is this tier of companies below that, let’s say $50 million and up to a billion plus. Our belief is that those companies desperately need advanced technical help in all those areas that I just mentioned and they are just being priced out of the rates which are garnered by some of those larger firms that I mentioned.
CEOCFO: How do you know when it is time to leap forward and make a change in strategy?
Mr. Tennant: You just have to constantly read and be ahead. There is a book by Geoffrey Moore called Crossing the Chasm. A lot of that book talks about constantly being aware of your environment, and it is constantly changing whether you are a farmer, a hunter, or in technology. If you are not aware of your environment and how it is changing and how it is going to affect your present or your future, it is going to be a tough road.
CEOCFO: One of the first things I see on the Kirk Tech Solutions site is “We Thrive on the Tough Stuff.” Would you give us a few examples of what that means for you?
Mr. Tennant: Over the history of our company, we would often get projects thrown to us where they had gone to multiple companies. For example, it could have been a Shopify instance, where they are trying to integrate with multiple back ends like a NetSuite or other accounting system. They threw up their hands because they couldn’t figure it out. After two or three vendors, it would end up with us. Knock on wood; we would always solve that problem.
In the AI space, we are working with a number of global logistics companies where particularly right now with tariffs and fluctuating fuel prices fluctuating by the hour and minute, a lot of those companies are still managing their quoting systems by spreadsheet. That works fine in a relatively stable world but when you have such a volatile marketplace particularly where it pertains to fuel, they are getting crushed. They came to us and told us they needed a real-
They had previously talked to some of those larger companies that I had mentioned. We are certainly much smaller than them but we have a massively talented team. They told us we were ten steps ahead of those guys.
CEOCFO: How do you know when someone is a right fit for the company?
Mr. Tennant: The bottom line is that everyone has to be a good person. We are all in this big row boat and everyone in the company loves technology. I hear this at least once a week, “I can’t wait to get to work.” It is that exciting. We are non-
I think when you take that pulse off of it, whether you are a senior architect or a CIO-
CEOCFO: Are there particular industries you focus on more?
Mr. Tennant: I would say we are going after all of them equally. We have a lot of clients in the MedTech space, the financial space, large automation companies, and B2B. I think we are representative across the board. Now is the opportunity to scale those up because there is a lot of business out there.
CEOCFO: How do you reach out to potential clients that may not be aware of Kirk Tech?
Mr. Tennant: We do not have the brand recognition of the larger companies, which have been around for 75 or 80 years. We get a fair amount of inbound inquiries that come from different content that we have posted out there on specific technical areas. We have a target list and usually do a C-
CEOCFO: What are you surprised we can do with technology, and what are you surprised we cannot do?
Mr. Tennant: This is one of those strategic or structural inflection points. Maybe the first one is the stone tools, the wheel, industrial revolution, and the use of petrochemicals both for energy and chemicals and everything that we use day to day. Certainly there is the advent of AI and robotics and a combination of those two. One hundred or a thousand years from now, people will remember IT before AI and robotics and after AI and robotics. We are right at that pinnacle. In terms of what we can’t do, whatever we can’t do, I am sure it is right around the corner.
CEOCFO: How do you help your clients who obviously are coming to you because they needed change, but have some trepidation when it comes to implementing a system?
Mr. Tennant: There is the technology change, the structural change in terms of how it may impact the people individually. We don’t do this per se but we certainly help educate the HR department and the department heads. We do a lot of education when we get into some of these projects of what this is going to mean in the day-
A lot of times, we will map out before we even start the project of what the end result is going to look like for the individual. So here’s how you currently do your job, and here’s is what it is going to look like 12 months from now. Getting that buy-
CEOCFO: Once you finish a project, do you maintain the relationship with the client? Might they come back for another project? Do any of these implementations have an ongoing feature?
Mr. Tennant: I would say 99% of them have an ongoing component to them. The technology today is so complicated and so interwoven with other aspects and technology aspects of the company. It is like electricity, you have to keep that electricity on all the time or the whole grid fails. It’s not like deploying one piece of software, the stuff that we work on could be for example a reservation system or like the system I described before to manage accurate shipping quotes. You can’t just turn that off because there are always updates, glitches, or someone says they have a new variable they want to add in. There is always a minimum maintenance to keep those live.
CEOCFO: When you are talking with a potential client or calling to introduce yourself, how do you know when someone is serious or just picking your brain?
Mr. Tennant: Knock on wood; I would say I have not had anyone pick my brain. We have been fortunate that most of the clients we have are serious people and don’t have time to shop around. They are specific about what they want and where they want to go. The discussion quickly delves into how to get there, and a rough idea of the cost.
CEOCFO: When you are taking on a project and your team is working on how to do the implementation, what might you look at that less knowledgeable people might not recognize should be considered?
Mr. Tennant: There are a couple of areas. One, probably about half of us come from a security background, me included. That is an area we are always looking to, to be secure and protected as we can make it, given the current technology, and the game plan to keep that technology moving forward. So it is protecting data in transit, protecting data a rest, protecting access points, who has access, and how do you revoke access.
We always look at where the technology is going to be used. Is it something internal or a larger product launch, and if it is, whether we have to worry about competing patents from competition. That is an area that comes up a lot and no traditional tech company would likely look at that, they would just build it. We are always building it with the mind of what the competition is doing, and whether we are doing something that maybe is starting to tread over an existing patent. I don’t think many tech companies come at it from that perspective.
We are proactively looking at where we can prevent this company from being burned, not just technologically but on the whole project.
CEOCFO: Do your clients recognize the depth of what you do or is it something they realize as time passes?
Mr. Tennant: They realize it during the first conversation they have with us. We have a brilliant staff. I have been in technology since 1995 and I can say I am working with the brightest people I have ever worked with. I have worked with some large technology companies in the securities space, in general internet space, Lotus Development, IBM, RSA Security which is still one of the larger security firms in the internet, as well as some firms overseas. We have a sold team.
CEOCFO: What does the next year or so look like for you, and what might be different a year from now at Kirk Tech Solutions?
Mr. Tennant: We finally have gotten to that point on the mountain where we can actively go after those billion-
CEOCFO: Did you think you would enjoy this as much as you do? Your enthusiasm comes through loud and clear!
Mr. Tennant: I was an English major, so one of the things I learned how to do really well, and I think that is probably where I can take some credit for this, is being able to take complex solutions and translate them into English so that people can understand. I went on to get a Master’s, and I don’t write code but I certainly understand the technology at a deep level, deeper than most people. I did anticipate that I would enjoy this because I internally made that decision that if I wasn’t enjoying it, it would be time to move on.
CEOCFO: What else should our readers know about Kirk Tech Solutions that sets you apart?
Mr. Tennant: We are honest to a fault. When you are dealing with these complex technologies, it is very easy to throw large bills towards these corporations without any backup. We try to run it like we are providing a service to a small town in New England where every dollar and every hour counts. People definitely appreciate it and it builds a level of trust where people don’t get rid of us. We become integrated with a company, we are not employees of that company but it sure does feel like it.
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