Authored by Jennifer Cunningham, a Go-to-Market Lead, Strategic Alliances at PolyAI and reviewed by the Metapress editorial team, this article was published following a careful evaluation process to ensure quality, relevance, and editorial standards.
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When looking at professional development, it’s common to say, “What got you here won’t get you there.” For companies looking to grow through a partner-led go to market motion, the same applies. From Series A to Series C, a startup undergoes a systematic refinement in the intricacies of its product, team makeup, customer requirements, and more crucially, go-to-market (GTM) strategy. One of the most overlooked changes in this journey is the development of partnerships and alliances.
At Series A, partnerships are primarily opportunistic, akin to cold outbound husting and ad-hoc testing. By Series C, they polish into advanced self-sustaining ecosystems. This change does not only happen because of internal maturing but also due to external factors. For example, the mainstream adoption of LLMs fundamentally changed public perception of, and trust in, AI technologies, creating space for more tech-forward GTM strategies for AI companies.
These shifts need to be captured for building intelligent forward-looking partnerships. In this article, we strive to map out the journey of partner ecosystems from Series A to C, highlight the most prevalent hurdles at each stage, and provide actionable insights on how organizations can scale partnerships in a timely manner without sacrificing agility characteristic of early stages.
Series A: Fail fast, see what sticks
At the Series A phase, startups are concentrating on trying to confirm product-market fit and begin the process of scaling customer acquisition. That sense of urgency alongside the experimentation is often a hallmark in the partnership strategy which is usually combined with a good measure of “ figure it out as you go.”
Outbound-Heavy, Opportunistic Plays
At this point, the majority of partnerships are outbound driven. Founders and initial Go-To-Market (GTM) leaders are fundamentally hitting their personal networks and using warm introductions to directly engage with industry stakeholders. At this stage, the primary aim is not crafting a self-reinforcing ecosystem, but rather, gaining early traction with pilot customers, innovation programs, or strategic tactical integrations.
This is the most critical time for companies to fail fast. Collaborating in the form of light co-marketing or other startup innovations is more about a rush than giving thought to a calculated strategy. Successful collaborations will typically have early signals of future commercial opportunities, while longer term partner plays that require more investment and enablement to uncover opportunities may end up ignored.
Minimal Process, Maximum Learning
Because of the rate of growth, the internal infrastructure, if any, is very basic. Most of the time there may not even be a dedicated partner manager for certain partnerships, no formal enablement materials, and definitely no playbooks for co-selling. Metrics are already stories; success for the most part is only anecdotal and makes up some sort of business yoga where it is tracked jointly via announcements or a limited surge of leads post Campaign Magic.
This part, even if informal, is very crucial. It defines how the culture is going to evolve, in shape and form, ethos around partnerships: as something to introspect and learn from, rather follow and execute. At this stage, many of the Startups deploy innovation hubs or optimise for innovation programmes, such as Mayo Clinic Innovation Exchange, Grow London Global, or Free Electrons for early level traction and establishing authority in industry.
Unlike some of these examples however, being able to show this type of agility in Series A is certainly a strength. But dial it back just a tad going into the next Phase and it is safe to say there are constraints.
Series B: Finding Repeatability and Building Frameworks
The company should also change its playbook upon reaching Series B. At this stage, the business should already be scaled, both predictably and repeatedly.The company should already have clear product market fit in certain verticals or use cases, and be looking at leveraging Series B funding to effectively scale. Effectively leveraging the partnerships function is crucial for this scaling success
The Rise of Structure
Moreover, achieving a closed Series A takes a great deal of outbound effort and ‘hustle’ compared to Series B, which adds more structure to processes. Outbound marketing efforts and hustle keeps the sales engines running, but now some company inbound interest thanks to recent wins and brand halo starts to materialize. Most companies at this stage formalize basic partner frameworks which are things like tiering systems, enablement decks, onboarding runs, and early co-selling processes.
This shift has certainly been accelerated by this recent spike in AI adoption. Companies both directly dealing with AI and operating in adjacent spaces suddenly became the epicenter of partner focus. With the newfound availability of generative AI tools like ChatGPT, the ease in creating clear joint messaging skyrocketed demand. Consequently the companies who found themselves struggling to explain their technology suddenly gained attention from resellers, system integrators, and channel partners willing to ride the AI wave.
Early Partner Marketing and Co-Execution
At this stage, organizations begin testing repeatable motion. New partner marketing experiments begin to spring up like joint webinars, referral programs, and shared case studies. GTM leaders shift their focus from logo-chasing to revenue attribution, closely monitoring both sourced and influenced pipeline to evaluate partner performance.
Not from lack of importance, but due to these stages not offering the innovation programs the scale or alignment needed to meet Series B goals takes the priority seat. Rather than exploring extensively, teams do purposeful partnering.
These partnering deals begin to scaffold assumptions that outline the boundaries around the expectations of scale for Series C.
Series C: Scaling Depth and Breadth of the Partner Ecosystem
Upon the receipt of Series C funding, the firm changes from growth mode to acceleration mode. The GTM motion has to facilitate entry into new markets, sectors, and channels across fundraising stages. At Series C, prior partnership experimentation evolves into a purposeful and powerful driver of growth, as established partnerships are better equipped to consistently facilitate game-changing revenue opportunities, and larger potential partners are more interested in working with more established startups at this stage
Strategic Focus, Measurable Outcomes
Collaborations are assumed to augment the pipeline and funds alongside the revenues. Both the business development and partner teams have become a fully fledged function with its own KPIs: sourced revenue, partner-led deals, co-sell win rates, ecosystem attributed growth, etc. Partnerships become an established function, with defined teams for specific partner types across resellers and technology ecosystems.
Furthermore, outbound exercises still apply, though they are complemented with inbound interest, strategic co-selling, and with more seasoned partners. If your company has been a part of a larger partner ecosystem, such as AWS or Azure Marketplace, you may start seeing more traction within these ecosystems, even if you’ve already been a part of them for years.
Building Partner Infrastructure
Constructing the infrastructure properly is critical to enabling scalable growth. This often involves establishing a clear partner operations function, complete with attribution models, deal registration processes, co-marketing calendars, and seamless CRM-to-CRM integration.
What is new at this stage is the degree of engagement from the partner. It isn’t just about reach or even generating leads anymore; it is about impact and integration. Strategic alliances are built on shared roadmaps that are plans created around the customer’s success, collective success, and product development feedback loops.
This implies that the partner ecosystem transforms to become a living part of the organism that is the business rather than simply a peripheral addition attached to the sales funnel; it becomes a component of the company’s strategy for enduring competitive advantage.
Conclusion
To conclude, Partnerships go beyond being passive assets; they are living, dynamic functions that require proper care and nurturing throughout the entire lifecycle of a startup. The energy that comes from early outbound activity, testing, engagement at an innovation hub, and Series A in general can turn into a liability if not adjusted during Series C.
The most effective teams structure the processes just enough to sustain success and sheer scale while not restricting flexibility or ease of movement. Those teams master the intricate balance of determining when to standardize and when to tailor, as well as when to shred the entire model.
Ultimately, the goal isn’t perfection, but adaptability, in other words evolving with your partners in step with shifting technologies, markets, and customer needs. In today’s real-time, AI-driven economy, the most valuable collaborators aren’t just those who extend reach, but those who expand your strategic possibilities.