Today, we're recapping our episode featuring Cody Sunkel, Co-Founder and VP of Growth at Partner Fleet.io. Partner Fleet is evolving how SaaS companies approach partnerships through its innovative ecosystem marketplace platform (Partner Eco-System Management). Drawing inspiration from successful models like the Salesforce AppExchange, Partner Fleet provides a comprehensive solution for companies to launch their marketplaces, build ecosystems, and foster partnerships, ultimately creating a powerful flywheel effect similar to industry giants like Shopify, Salesforce and HubSpot.
Listen to the Podcast as we explore Partner Fleet’s founding story, GTM strategy, and product roadmap and more. TL:DListen highlights from the conversation below:
Founding Story Round: Solve your own problems, then everyone else's
Cody and his co-founder, Kenny Brown, founded Partner Fleet in early 2021 to address the challenges companies face in building and managing tech partner ecosystems after they faced their own challenges at Daxco, listen to their journey:
Taking Kenny’s background of building G2’s and Daxco’s marketplace and Cody’s partnership and sales experience they developed a product that not only provides a platform for companies to streamline their partnership efforts but also drives industry-wide innovation, pushing both established players and emerging startups to adapt and excel in the dynamic landscape of partnership management.
Demo Round: A Multifaceted Marketplace
Partner Fleet has three primary modules:
Public Marketplace: Lives on the brand website as a marketing asset
In-App Marketplace: Reflection of what’s on the website, but behind the log-in wall as a product adoption asset
Enablement Marketplace: To help get Sales & CSMs educated on each partnership as a sales asset
During the demo, Cody showcased Partner Fleet’s user-friendly backend interface, emphasizing the simplicity and flexibility of the platform. Through customizable templates, users can create and manage marketplace listings, tailoring content to different partner types, tiers or modules. The platform's intuitive visual configurator allows for easy drag-and-drop customization, enabling users to add or remove sections as needed without any coding requirements. Check out the full demo here:
Partner Fleet addresses various use cases, offering tailored experiences for different audiences. The platform's ability to provide customizations, including white-labeling and tailored branding, ensures that each marketplace reflects the unique identity of the brand, fostering a sense of ownership and cohesion.
Capital Round: Partner Tech is catching investors attention
Partner Fleet's journey in securing capital began with a modest friends and family round and has since attracted investment from angel investors as it gained traction in the market. Partner Fleet's customer base has more than doubled over the past year while their revenue has tripled. The current round aims to capitalize on growing investor interest and accelerate the company's growth trajectory by expanding the team, particularly in engineering and marketing, to support product development and enhance go-to-market strategies. As the company continues to innovate in the emerging category of partnership tech, securing additional funding will enable Partner Fleet to solidify its position as a leader in this evolving space.
GTM Strategy Round: Partnerships spreading across all "-led growth" motions
Partner Fleet's go-to-market strategy is anchored in delivering value through its diverse modules, catering to the specific needs of customers and enabling seamless collaboration across teams. Partner Fleet has been investing in marketing, sales and product-led growth, but they are mostly putting emphasis on partnerships even across all the other “led-growth” areas, hear more about this approach:
By building strategic alliances and integrations, Partner Fleet enhances its product offering, expands its reach, and drives value for its customers. This approach not only enables Partner Fleet to produce more marketing content while acquiring leads and customers more efficiently but also fosters long-term relationships and customer loyalty through a collaborative ecosystem.
Hear how Partner Fleet helps both their own and their customers’ GTM teams collaborate:
Product Development Round: Going into the API developer realm
Cody discussed how Partner Fleet's is introducing a developer portal aimed at democratizing the integration process for its customers. This portal will overlay existing API infrastructure, providing a streamlined pathway for third parties to build integrations and apps, track what’s happening with those apps/APIs and ultimately publish apps on the marketplace.
Partner Fleet is also exploring the potential of AI to optimize its processes and enhance the marketplace experience for both customers and partners. One key area of focus is leveraging AI for content development, streamlining the process of creating and curating listings on the marketplace. Additionally, Partner Fleet envisions implementing a recommendations engine powered by AI to assist customers in navigating the vast array of available apps and selecting the most suitable integrations for their specific needs.
Market(place) Trends Round
Hubspot recently published their Ecosystem Report that delved into why tech and service provider marketplaces across a single company are often disconnected. Cody shared his reactions, what Partner Fleet is running into and how they are helping join these two partnerships forces:
We also chatted through the shift toward partnerships in GTM teams as this efficient and scalable option becomes more and more appealing in a market where cash is expensive:
Talent Round: Interested in Revolutionizing the Ecosystem Space?
Partner Fleet has job openings for a senior SDR and a customer success manager, emphasizing the importance of scaling their team to meet the growing demands of their expanding customer base.
Are you a Partnership Person? Partner Fleet offers branded trial experiences for potential customers. Reach out to Cody if you are interested in learning more about job openings or a free trial of Partner Fleet.
Wrapping it up with a Hot Partnerships Tip from Cody:
Watch it:
Read It: “I think the smartest companies are the ones who have invested the energy into collecting the insights, like MindBody [who shows stats on their partner marketplace, such as] customers who use integrations earn 10% more revenue, see 40% more bookings, and have approximately 35% more client purchases compared to customers who don't use integrations. So while that is an impact focused on the value to customers, they also know that if they're benefiting their customers more, it's going to be stickier, they're going to be happier, there's a ton of business value in that.”
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