Why 616? Earth-616 is the main universe in Marvel comics. The comics inspired the name, and the red, the halftone dots and the off-register type on this page are a nod to them.
Julian
Gelfand
Founder & COO, Always Beyond Corp. I run operations at an employee-owned managed IT company in Calgary. I'm known for being good at my job, not being much fun, and a stomach with strong opinions.
About
I'm Founder & COO of Always Beyond Corp, an employee-owned managed IT company. We're based in Calgary and work with clients well outside it. I run operations, service delivery, client relationships and the people side of the business, which is a long way of saying I'm the one asking how that ticket is going.
Most of my week goes to the parts that decide whether an MSP is any good: how tickets move, how clients hear from us when something breaks, and whether the team gets a real life outside work and still delivers. I'd rather trust people to choose when and where they work than enforce a hard 5pm cutoff. Servers don't respect 5pm anyway.
I got here through sales and customer service, always with a tech flavour: running a sales team, then Matrix Orbital, TWT, and managing service delivery at Fully Managed before starting Always Beyond. Outside work I'm a lifelong nerd (Star Trek, Doctor Who, comics), which explains the 616 and most of my small talk.
What I can help with
MSP operations
Ticket flow, dispatch, quality review and the standards that keep a service desk consistent as it grows.
Scaling a services business
The structure, scheduling and process a small team needs in place before it doubles.
Leading technical teams
Hiring, onboarding and running a team on trust, with the flexibility people need for their lives outside work.
Client relationships
Resetting a relationship after something goes wrong, and communicating so clients never have to chase for an update.
Balance isn't a hard stop at 5pm. It's the freedom to move the line, and the trust to do it without asking.
From my post on work-life balance
Always
Beyond
Est. 2023 · Employee-owned
IT support, cybersecurity, cloud and technology planning for growing businesses. One package, one flat monthly fee, no long-term contracts.
We started Always Beyond to prove that working with an IT provider doesn't have to feel like a punishment. The people who answer our phones can fix the problem, usually before you hang up, and every client works with the same account manager and technical lead.
We're employee-owned. That's rare for an MSP and it's on purpose: people who own a piece of the outcome look after clients differently.
- <90s
- Average time to answer a call
- 99.2%
- Of requests rated awesome by clients
- SOC 2
- Type II certified
- 2025
- Calgary Chamber Emerging Growth winner
Our goal is to make work better for 25,000 end users through personal, boutique-level IT service.
What we run on
-
Relationships
Relationships matter more than IT. With clients and with each other, that's the part we work hardest at.
-
Freedom
We do our best work when we choose where we work, how we work and who we work with.
The one I write about most -
Innovation
Try new things, question how it's always been done, and find the faster, smarter way.
-
Do what's right
No easy way out. Do what's best for the client and get it right the first time.
Now
Updated September 2026
- Moving the Always Beyond team into a new office.
- Onboarding our fall intern.
Writing
Outside work
Let's
talk
The quickest way to reach me is a 15-minute call. Pick a time that suits you.