Flamingo, a Miami-based startup, has come out of stealth with OpenFrame, a platform combining AI automation with open-source infrastructure to rewrite the economics of managed service provider (MSPs), companies that provide IT support to small and medium-sized businesses, to help MSPs slash costs and increase productivity. Flamingo combines open-source tools with autonomous AI agents. Backed by $2.2M in pre-seed funding in a round led by Focal VC and Array VC, MSP-centric Flamingo says that they had over 1,000 MSPs on their waitlist before the launch, representing roughly 3% of the managed services market. They also had over 150 early adopters actively testing and collaborating through Flamingo’s Slack community. Their goal is to use the founding round to accelerate platform development, expand their sales, support, and engineering teams, and scale the business to meet growing market demand.
The $380 billion MSP industry that Flamingo is targeting is stuck in a profit squeeze. Most providers operate on razor-thin 8–12% net margins, caught between steep vendor fees consuming 25–35% of revenue and labour costs eating another 25–35% for repetitive tasks like password resets, disk alerts, system monitoring and troubleshooting. Flamingo built OpenFrame to flip that equation and empower MSPs to break free from vendor lock-in and scale profitably.
“MSPs are paying twice for the same problem: once to vendors and again to technicians,” said Michael Assraf, CEO and founder of Flamingo. “OpenFrame fixes both: open source cuts the vendor tax, and AI eliminates repetitive work. The result is freedom, efficiency, and real profitability. Flamingo changes the equation by replacing expensive point tools with one unified data model and API across existing open-source tools – self-hosted or managed – plus a pre-baked multi-agent AI layer that takes on the mundane, repetitive tasks. That lets MSP teams focus on scaling, not the simple stuff.
Assraf has found that MSPs in cybersecurity often have a difficult time coping with the economics of the managed services industry. His solution was to get MSPs involved with open source tools. The problem was that most of them were not very familiar with these tools, and found them hard to work with. So Assraf went on a two-pronged offensive to overcome this. One was founding and incubating Flamingo, which has just now come out of stealth. The other was the creation of the OpenMSP project.
“We started building in May 2025, shipped an alpha, and we’ve been working closely with our OpenMSP community and 1K-strong waitlist we opened in July.,” Assraf stated. “30 MSPs are already deployed, and we’re iterating fast to deliver the best experience for these hardworking pros. If you run an MSP and want higher margins with fewer tools and more automation, the beta is open – I’d love to get you onboard on OpenFrame.”
Traditional MSP platforms focus exclusively on either software infrastructure or automation, but can’t address the underlying economics. Legacy vendors provide comprehensive tooling but at steep costs that compress margins. Meanwhile, open-source alternatives exist but require significant technical expertise to deploy and integrate, making them inaccessible to most MSPs. The siloed nature of these approaches prevents MSPs from solving both the vendor cost problem and the labour efficiency problem simultaneously.
“The US runs on SMBs, and SMBs run on IT delivered by an often-overlooked industry: MSPs,” Assraf said. “These outsourced IT & security providers are the invisible backbone of the economy — too often neglected by innovation and VC dollars – while margins get squeezed by software price hikes and consolidation-driven competition.
The MSP Open Source Alternatives Directory says it can reduce MSP software costs by 30-50% with their comprehensive directory of open-source alternatives, transparent vendor pricing, and community-driven implementation guides. It lets MSPs build an MSP technology stack and then compare it to open-source alternatives.
Flamingo, the other part of this, is for MSPs who are done paying vendor taxes and clicking tickets all day. “Swap bloated tools for open ones. Automate the boring crap. Take your margin back,” Flamingo declared on their website.
“We’ve been losing time and money to expensive software licenses while our technicians spend hours on repetitive tasks that should already be automated,” said Stephen Garriques, CEO at SecureTokens. “OpenFrame eliminates both bottlenecks and cuts vendor costs while boosting productivity. The ability to self-host and maintain full control of our infrastructure makes it a true game-changer for how we run our business.”
“OpenFrame is an AI‑driven, open‑source operating system for MSPs,” Assraf told Tech Funding News. “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.”
OpenFrame uses two autonomous AI agents, Fae and Mingo, which automates both customer-facing and back-end operations, from password resets to threat detection, turning MSPs into lean, high-margin software-like businesses. Fae handles client-side tasks like password resets, low disk space warnings, and system patches, while Mingo manages MSP operations, including threat detection, suspicious process monitoring, and routine maintenance. Unlike traditional AI assistants that only provide recommendations, these agents take action autonomously but require technician approval for sensitive operations, striking a balance between automation and oversight.
“For years, MSPs have been getting squeezed between vendor payouts and labor costs. From my experience as a CEO working with MSPs in the cybersecurity space, I understand the pain and frustration of not having a viable alternative,” Assraf said. “By replacing both, OpenFrame helps MSPs potentially transform their business economics from today’s 8-12% net margins to 50-60% EBITDA margins.”
At launch, the OpenFrame platform includes Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM), Remote Access and Mobile Device Management (MDM) and an integrated SIEM. Beta access is free through February 2026
“MSPs have been forced to choose between healthy margins and great service,” said Pascal Unger, Managing Partner at Focal VC. “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.”