Onboarding

Your First 30 Days as a Petronella MSP Partner

Whether you are evaluating the program or have already purchased, this page walks you through every step from tier selection through your first client engagement. Petronella Technology Group designed the onboarding process to get you productive fast with minimal friction.

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Five Steps to Your First Engagement

The onboarding process is the same structure for every tier. What differs is delivery speed — Tier 1 Stack members are productive within minutes of checkout. Fleet and Council members go through a scoping or application phase first.

1

Choose Your Tier

Review the four tiers and select the one that matches where your MSP is right now. Most partners start with one tier and add others as the relationship develops. Tiers are independent — there are no prerequisites or cross-credits.

Not sure which tier fits? The pricing comparison page includes a decision guide with qualifying questions for each tier.

2

Complete Your Purchase or Application

What happens next depends on your tier:

  • Tier 1 Stack: Click the Stripe Payment Link and check out. You receive a confirmation email with LMS login credentials and Circle.so community access within minutes. No call required.
  • Tier 2 Fleet: Book a free 30-minute Discovery Call. We qualify scope, recommend a prototyping sub-tier, and send the Stripe Payment Link only after the call. No payment before scoping.
  • Tier 3 Council: Submit the application form. Our team reviews against the partner profile. Qualified applicants receive a calendar link for a 15-minute fit call with Craig Petronella. Accepted members receive the Stripe checkout link with charter pricing ($45K/yr for the first 12 seats).
  • Tier 4 Strategic: Submit the application form. Minimum $8M revenue, 30%+ regulated-client mix, owner-operator in business. Craig conducts a 60-minute discovery call. If mutual fit, you receive the 3-option engagement letter.

All Stripe checkouts require a confirmation checkbox acknowledging that all fees are non-refundable and no outcome guarantees are made.

3

Access Your Resources

Once payment clears, you receive access to the resources included in your tier:

  • LMS login — CMMC Bootcamp (67 lessons), 39-Layer curriculum (54 lessons), and template library available under the "Partner Program" category in the Training Academy. Tier 1, Tier 3, and Tier 4 members receive access.
  • Template library — SSP starters, POA&M templates, compliance one-pagers, and n8n automation templates. Downloaded directly from the LMS or community file library.
  • Circle.so community — Join the partner workspace for peer discussion, deal-flow channel, and weekly roundtable scheduling. Invitation link arrives in your confirmation email.
  • Shared Slack or email channel — For Fleet and Strategic engagements, we set up a dedicated communication channel within 24 hours of payment.
4

Attend Your First Deal Desk or Briefing

Every partner tier includes a structured way to get oriented and start building relationships:

  • Tier 1 Stack: Join the next monthly Regulated Deal Desk group call. This is a peer-led session where partners discuss active pipeline opportunities and share approaches. Craig guests quarterly. Recordings are archived for members who cannot attend live.
  • Tier 2 Fleet: Your dedicated engagement begins with a technical kickoff call where the Petronella engineering team reviews the scope, timeline, and communication cadence for your prototyping project.
  • Tier 3 Council: Start the 12-week async onboarding curriculum beginning with Week 1 (Kickoff + ICP definition). Weekly peer roundtables in Circle begin immediately — these are peer-led with Blake Rea moderating initially.
  • Tier 4 Strategic: Your first month includes an onboarding sprint where the Petronella team maps your current capabilities, pipeline, and growth targets to build the strategic engagement plan.
5

Your First Client Engagement

The goal of onboarding is to get you delivering regulated-SMB value to your clients as fast as possible. Here is how that works at each tier:

  • Stack members use the curriculum and templates to position compliance and private AI services to their existing clients. The Deal Desk group is the place to pressure-test your approach before presenting to the client.
  • Fleet members receive the prototyping deliverables (working prototype, architecture doc, BOM, compliance memo) within 2-8 weeks depending on the sub-tier. You then procure hardware direct from any vendor and schedule Petronella for deployment.
  • Council members leverage the peer network and curriculum to identify their first regulated-SMB engagement. The automated deal-flow channel surfaces referral opportunities from other Council members.
  • Strategic partners work with the full Petronella capability stack from day one. The team delivers engineering, compliance, and AI services under your direction while Craig provides quarterly strategic coaching.

For Fleet Buyers — What We Need From You

Fleet prototyping engagements run on a tight timeline. The faster you provide these items, the faster we deliver your prototype.

Before Prototyping Begins

  • Use case brief — A one-page description of the client workload you want to prototype. What models, what data, what compliance framework applies.
  • Client NDA — If the end-client requires confidentiality beyond our standard mutual NDA, provide it before the kickoff call.
  • Infrastructure survey — Current network topology, firewall rules, compliance posture, and any existing AI/ML tooling at the client site.

What You Get Back

  • Working prototype running on the Petronella fleet
  • Architecture document with deployment specifications
  • Bill-of-materials (BOM) for hardware procurement
  • Compliance memo mapping the prototype to the applicable framework (CMMC L2, HIPAA, NIST 800-171)
  • Runbook for your MSP engineering team
  • Managed-service recommendation with scope and pricing

Prototyping timeline: 2-3 weeks (PoC Lite), 4-6 weeks (Fleet Prototype and Compliance-Aware), 6-8 weeks (Production-Ready). See full Fleet details.

For Council Members — Cohort Onboarding

The Operator Council runs on an async-first model. Here is what the first 12 weeks look like:

  • Weeks 1-2: Kickoff and ICP definition. Pre-recorded Craig content plus worksheets delivered through the LMS.
  • Weeks 3-6: Core frameworks — 39-Layer, CMMC L2 gap assessment, HIPAA playbooks. Remixed from existing Training Academy content for the MSP-owner audience.
  • Weeks 7-8: Private AI service design and deployment SOW structure. Pre-recorded fleet walkthrough plus guest expert recordings.
  • Weeks 9-10: Forensics-ready IR and expert-witness positioning. Craig signature content.
  • Weeks 11-12: Marketing, sales, and peer action-plan roundtable. Peer-led with Blake moderating.

After Week 12, you roll into ongoing alumni participation: monthly live Craig Q&A, weekly peer roundtables, quarterly outside-expert sessions, automated P&L benchmarking, and the deal-flow channel. See full Council details.

Questions Along the Way

Petronella runs an AI-assisted support operation. Most inquiries receive a response within 4 business hours during Eastern Time business days.

Email: sales@petronellatech.com — our AI-assisted team responds within 4 hours during business days.
Phone: (919) 348-4912 — available during Eastern Time business hours.
Community: Post in the Circle.so workspace for peer answers and staff escalation on true blockers.

Related Pages

Everything you need to evaluate and join the Petronella MSP Partners program.

Ready to Start?

Tier 1 Stack members are productive within minutes of Stripe checkout. Fleet, Council, and Strategic members begin with a Discovery Call or application. Every path starts here.

Apply to the Program Start MSP Stack — $1,997/mo