Acting as the Ecosystem Strategist, Not the Event Planner

Vivek Venkatesh on Unlocking the Secrets of GSI Partner Marketing

What does it take to turn a Global System Integrator into a true growth partner? In this episode, Vivek Venkatesh shares lessons learned from years leading partner marketing initiatives at Intel, Dell, and AWS, where partnerships with firms like Accenture, Deloitte, and Capgemini helped drive large-scale growth and customer adoption. Vivek explains why GSI partner marketing is fundamentally different from other partner motions, how to identify and activate internal champions, and why the best partner marketers often operate like the CMO of the relationship. The conversation explores the role of storytelling, customer-focused case studies, ABM strategies, sales enablement, and the operational discipline required to track influence across long sales cycles and multi-million-dollar opportunities. From startup products seeking credibility to enterprise-scale alliance programs, Vivek offers a practical framework for building partner momentum, earning internal advocacy, and creating go-to-market motions that scale far beyond your own sales team.

Jurija Metovic on Building Partner Credibility Before You Have Brand Recognition

What happens when you’re asked to build a partner motion for a company nobody’s heard of—inside one of the fastest-moving markets in tech? In this episode, Jurija Metovic from SurePath AI breaks down what startup partner marketing actually looks like when there’s no inherited brand credibility, no repeatable playbook, and no time to wait for perfect. Jurija shares why early-stage partner marketing is less about scale and more about signal: getting into the right conversations, placing smart bets on a handful of strategic partners, and building trust before pipeline even exists. The conversation dives into how AI is reshaping modern marketing teams, why partner incentives have shifted away from flashy rewards toward true collaboration, and what startup operators get wrong when they try to “build the whole program” too early. There’s also an honest discussion about mentorship, community, startup pressure, and the very human side of building in public while AI changes the rules in real time.

Acting as the Ecosystem Strategist, Not the Event Planner

Too many partner marketers are still treated as the team that runs the events, builds the co-branded one-pager, and executes the MDF spend. Nicole Steele wants that definition retired. A marketer who's worked at the intersection of field, digital, and partner at Sage, SAP, Aryaka, and F5 — where 95% of the business ran through partners — Nicole joins Rick to make the case that customers aren't buying products anymore, they're buying platforms, and platforms only deliver when there's an ecosystem behind them. That changes the job.  In this conversation, Nicole breaks down why field, digital, and partner can't keep running as silos, why the quarterly QBR cadence is killing partner relationships, and the business acumen skills that separate operators from strategists. The closing challenge: stop showing up as a support function and start operating as the ecosystem strategist your GTM motion actually needs.

Mercedes Villanueva on Reinventing Partner Marketing and Leading Through Transformation

Transformation sounds exciting—until you’re in the middle of it. In this episode, Mercedes Villanueva shares what it actually takes to rebuild a global partner marketing function while the entire company is rebranding, restructuring, and redefining how it goes to market. From prioritizing just three high-impact initiatives to reshaping partner programs around real customer outcomes, Mercedes explains how to cut through complexity and focus on what drives value. She also shares why flexibility matters more than perfection, how to let go of ideas that don’t work, and what resilience really looks like when nothing is fully under your control. A practical and honest look at building, leading, and adapting when everything is changing at once.

Austin Burningham on Why Partner Events Need to Be Smaller, More Targeted, and Actually Memorable

Big partner events are fading—and the teams seeing real pipeline impact are doing the opposite. In this episode, Austin Burningham from Atlassian breaks down the shift from high-volume events to smaller, highly targeted experiences that actually move deals forward. He shares why webinars still play a critical mid-funnel role, how executive roundtables and one-to-one experiences are driving bottom-funnel conversion, and what it takes to get the right customers—and sales teams—into the room. The conversation also gets practical on event strategy: securing customer speakers, aligning partners and sellers, and attributing real pipeline impact across multiple touches. The takeaway is clear: the best partner marketers aren’t choosing between digital and in-person—they’re designing both to work together, with precision.