When I joined Clearbit as VP of Partnerships and Alliances, I entered one of the most saturated markets in SaaS: MarTech. There were hundreds of tools competing for attention, budget, and mindshare. Many of them had great products but few had sustainable leverage. This was so different from my most recent role at Microsoft where I had built an invitation-only program called Pegasus for high-growth startups, and demand was through the roof.
My mandate in my new role wasn’t just to drive new revenue. It was to build a scalable growth engine, one that could differentiate us in a crowded space, unlock net-new go-to-market pathways, and make Clearbit more valuable, not just more visible.
What we built was an ecosystem-led growth motion, and it became one of the defining drivers of Clearbit’s evolution and ultimately, its acquisition by HubSpot.
Clearbit had a strong foundation. We had an API-first architecture, real-time data infrastructure, and a customer base of fast-growing GTM teams. But we hadn’t yet fully capitalized on the power of partnerships. And we knew that to grow faster, more efficiently, and with long-term defensibility, we had to shift our strategy.
As a high-growth revenue leader with experience at Microsoft, Intel, and Qualcomm, I had seen the power of ecosystems firsthand. I knew we could no longer rely solely on product roadmaps or direct sales. We had to turn Clearbit into more than just a marketing and data intelligence platform, one others could build with, sell with, and scale with.
I developed a partnership strategy grounded in three principles:
We embraced the idea of being the connective layer across the GTM stack. That meant prioritizing integrations with tools our customers already used, CRMs, conversational platforms, marketing platforms, and reducing friction for any partner that wanted to plug into our data.
We didn’t just allow integrations, we actively encouraged and invested in them. This openness created a network effect: the more partners built with us, the more valuable we became to customers and future collaborators.
It wasn’t enough to integrate, we had to go to market together. We created co-marketing assets, co-selling playbooks, and joint value propositions that helped partners articulate the “better together” story.
We structured our program to make it easy for partners to monetize, whether through referrals, reselling, or embedding Clearbit into their own offerings. We enabled them to win and in doing so, expanded our reach far beyond what we could’ve done alone.
We measured success not by how many partners we had, but by how much growth each one unlocked. We focused on deep, strategic partnerships that could scale, ones where joint solutions, shared customers, and mutual incentives created compounding returns.
This wasn’t a one-off integration shop. It was a platform play designed to multiply both top-line growth and bottom-line efficiency.
The impact of our ecosystem strategy was felt across the business:
New revenue channels: We unlocked partner-sourced and partner-influenced pipeline, helping us scale without growing our direct sales org at the same pace.
Lower CAC: Co-marketing and ecosystem awareness drove high-intent inbound traffic and expanded our customer base organically.
Increased stickiness: Customers who came in through partners or used us across multiple systems had significantly higher retention and LTV.
Strategic clarity: We went from being seen as a MarTech utility to being a data platform with distribution, trust, and reach.
When HubSpot made the decision to acquire Clearbit, it wasn’t just for our data enrichment technology. It was for the platform and integration ecosystem we had built around it.
By embedding ourselves in the workflows of GTM teams, and by becoming a core layer of the broader marketing and sales stack, we created a strategic moat. We had mindshare, momentum, and distribution, all things that make a company not just valuable, but urgent to acquire.
If you’re an executive or on the board of a growth-stage software company, especially one eyeing an IPO or strategic exit, here’s what I’d encourage you to consider:
Are you building distribution and defensibility at the same time?
Is your partner strategy aligned with your product’s core value and your customers’ evolving needs?
Can your ecosystem create growth that compounds, not just scales?
Because in today’s market, growth isn’t just about what you build. It’s about who builds with you.
Ecosystem-led growth is no longer optional. It’s how you stand out, scale fast, and maximize long-term value.
📩 Curious how this model could apply to your company? We're always open to conversations with founders, GTM leaders, and board directors exploring new growth strategies. Contact us today and let's get started.