Partnerships
Stabilize Stage | $1-5M ARR | 10-30 headcount
Main challenge: Making growth repeatable. First hires, handoffs breaking.
Partnerships
Stage-appropriate approach: Still largely too early for formal partnerships. Focus on technology integrations that matter to your ICP, not channel programs.
Partnerships that make sense at Stabilize:
| Type | When It Works | Investment |
|---|---|---|
| Technology integrations | Your product needs to connect to X for ICP to get value | Engineering time |
| Co-marketing | Natural audience overlap, low commitment | Marketing coordination |
| Informal referrals | You know people who send deals | Relationship maintenance |
What to avoid at Stabilize:
- Formal partner programs — You don't have the infrastructure to support partners
- Revenue share agreements — You don't know your economics well enough
- Partner managers — Not enough partner activity to justify
- Channel deals — You need to own the customer relationship to learn
When technology partnerships matter:
If your ICP says "we only buy tools that integrate with X," you need that integration. Common examples:
- CRM integration (Salesforce, HubSpot)
- SSO/identity (Okta, Azure AD)
- Data/BI (Snowflake, Looker)
- Workflow tools (Slack, Teams)
What NOT to do:
- Don't build partnerships before customers ask for them
- Don't sign exclusive agreements — too early to know the right partner
- Don't expect partners to sell for the company — build the motion internally first
Playbook reference: → Partnership Success Platform (for later — when you have real partner activity)