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Our Story The Outset Starport was founded in 2005 and has since grown to have over 20 staff members, a head office located in Toronto and a supporting office in Chennai, India. The two founders of Starport, Brian Everest and David Poulson, originally met in 1995 at Toronto based United System Solutions Inc. – a mid tier IT provider with 115 staff and two locations. Subsequent to United’s sale to CGI in 2001, Brian went on to work with CGI in a senior technical role leading the rollout of IT Managed Services to some of CGI’s largest clients, including names such as Purolator and Canada Post. David, who had been a co-founder of United, took some time to pursue other business and personal interests – but he never lost interest or touch in the people, companies and connections he had made in the IT business. Our Target Niche By 2005, Brian had come to realize that the IT managed services model being rolled out to large enterprises, would have just as much, if not more value, being rolled out to small and mid sized enterprises… a market which he learned was largely underserved and ignored by the large IT service shops. According to Brian, “I’d see opportunities with smaller companies come along, but we’d turn them down because the projected monthly cash flows didn’t reach the six-figure minimums … Serving the small to mid sized business market with IT managed services was not a priority for the big IT companies - it occurred to me that this might be an opportunity for a new business strategy.” Brian approached David with the idea of seizing this opportunity by filling the SME void. He reasoned that there must be a market for organizations willing to invest from $500 to $15,000 per month in order to avoid building out their own in-house IT department. The two began work on creating what is now Starport Managed Services, a leading provider of IT infrastructure consulting services and managed services targeted at small to medium sized enterprises. By 2006, the “virtual doors” were opened, and Starport’s first two clients, Epic Realty Partners and Nexus Investment Management had signed up. Both of these firms remain among Starport’s best and most loyal clients and like Starport, have continued to grow to this day. The Expansion In 2009, Starport moved from its virtual head office to its present location in the Laird & Eglinton area of Toronto. It also signed on with two bank-grade data centres to host all of its private cloud services; one in Mississauga, and the other in Toronto’s core at 151 Front Street. In 2012, Starport opened a third office; this time in Chennai, India. Now, with a staff of 15 in Toronto, and 5 in India, the resultant team has a wide set of technical and industry specific skills. With the addition of India, the ability to truly cover the clock, 24/7 had become a reality. Although the Starport growth story continues; its core industry remains the same. Founders David and Brian, along with all the staff, remain committed to staying on top of industry best practices, to keeping clients’ needs front and centre, and to have fun doing it.

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