The managed service provider (MSP) industry faces persistent challenges with tight profit margins ranging from 8% to 12%, largely due to steep vendor fees consuming up to 35% of revenue and labour costs accounting for an additional 25–35%, especially for repetitive tasks like password resets and system monitoring.
To address these issues, Miami-based startup Flamingo, founded by cybersecurity veteran Michael Assraf, officially launched its innovative OpenFrame platform in 2025.
Michael Assraf, founder of Flamingo, told TFN, “MSPs are squeezed by high vendor payouts and labour-intensive operations, which depress margins even as client expectations rise. Michael saw forward‑thinking MSPs quietly replacing commercial tools with enterprise‑quality open‑source to reclaim margin-proof that a unified, AI‑orchestrated FOSS stack could bend the cost curve at scale. Flamingo exists to make that transition safe, practical, and automated for mainstream MSPs.”
Today, Flamingo closed a $2.2 million pre-seed funding round led by Focal VC and Array VC to accelerate platform development, expand its sales, support, and engineering teams, and scale the business to meet growing market demand.
Flamingo claims more than 1,000 MSPs have joined its waitlist, representing roughly 3% of the global managed services market, while over 150 early adopters are already testing the platform through Flamingo’s Slack community.
Open source meets autonomous AI
Michael Assraf, with deep experience in both the MSP and cybersecurity sectors, founded Flamingo to help MSPs escape vendor lock-in and automate labour-intensive workflows that limit profitability and scalability.
“MSPs are paying twice for the same problem: once to vendors and again to technicians. OpenFrame fixes both: open source cuts the vendor tax, and AI eliminates repetitive work. The result is freedom, efficiency, and real profitability,” said Michael Assraf, CEO and founder of Flamingo.
Assraf aims to fundamentally transform the economics of managed services by combining cutting-edge AI with open-source infrastructure, making it easier and more cost-effective for MSPs to operate profitably without sacrificing control.
Assraf added, “OpenFrame is an AI‑driven, open‑source operating system for MSPs. It unifies the MSP stack behind a single data model and API, with both self‑hosted (open source) and managed (SaaS) paths- no lock‑in. Core integrations include Tactical RMM, FleetDM, MeshCentral, and others.”
Flamingo’s OpenFrame platform stands out technologically by deploying two autonomous AI agents(Fae and Mingo) that automate a broad spectrum of MSP functions. Fae tackles customer-facing issues like password resets and disk alerts, while Mingo manages backend operations, including threat detection and routine maintenance.
Unlike competitors such as ConnectWise, Datto, and Pulseway, which either rely solely on costly proprietary software or require complex expertise to deploy open-source tools, Flamingo blends autonomous AI automation with open-source flexibility.
Technicians retain oversight on sensitive actions, ensuring a balance of efficiency and control. The platform is offered both as a free self-hosted model for complete infrastructure control and a managed services version priced per device.
What’s next?
Looking forward, Flamingo plans to leverage its recent funding to accelerate AI advancements, grow its operational teams, and scale adoption across the expanding MSP market.
With over 1,000 MSPs already on the waitlist and more than 150 early adopters actively engaged via its community Slack, Flamingo is poised to disrupt the $380 billion MSP industry, enabling providers to significantly boost EBITDA margins from current single digits to potentially 50–60%.
“MSPs have been forced to choose between healthy margins and great service. Flamingo makes that choice obsolete. By merging open source with autonomous AI, they’re attacking the two biggest pain points in the industry head-on. Michael’s background and the momentum we’re already seeing make this one of the most exciting shifts in the MSP space in years,” said Pascal Unger, Managing Partner at Focal VC.
