Cristian Dina

Tekpon

CEO @ Tekpon AI Summit & Tekpon Awards

Co-Founder

Chief Revenue Officer

Chief of Staff

Account Executive

Website Manager

Social Media Manager

Forbes

Forbes 30 under 30

SaaStock Local

City Leader

SaaStock

I was a jury at the SaaStock Global Pitch Competition, where the winning startup got an investment of $500.000.

It was an opportunity to show off your up-and-coming SaaS in front of the region’s most influential VCs and funds and the wider SaaS community.

Jury

Startup Wise Guys

Alumni SaaS Batch

carVertical

Affiliate Marketing

Co-Founder & Managing Partner @ Tekpon | City Leader @ SaaStock | SaaS Podcast Host

We rise by lifting others!

Cristian Dina is the Co-Founder of Tekpon and the CEO of Tekpon AI Summit.

His work has positioned Tekpon as a trusted software buying platform used by thousands of companies worldwide.

As the CEO of Tekpon AI Summit, he's bringing together over 1,000 B2B SaaS and AI leaders, solidifying his impact on the artificial intelligence and software community.

Cristian has personally interviewed 300+ industry leaders and authored the best-selling book King of Networking, establishing himself as one of the most connected and respected voices in the ecosystem.

At just 23 years old, Cristian was named Forbes 30 Under 30 2025, representing a new generation of tech builders, bold thinkers who move fast, build with purpose, and create real impact.

Founding Member - Right Hand to CEO

> Strategic support
> Building and nurturing relationships

⚠ This will be our last event in Romania.

Tekpon AI Summit 2026 will be hosted in London.

If you ever planned to join us in Romania, this is the moment.

One last chance to feel the atmosphere that shaped everything we built.

See you all in 7 days 👋

CEO @ Tekpon AI Summit | Forbes 30 under 30 | Co-Founder @ Tekpon

It doesn’t matter if you land at 2 AM

If you’re flying in for Tekpon AI Summit, we take care of you ✈️

At Tekpon, leadership is service, not status.

When brilliant minds travel thousands of kilometers to join us, we show up

In person. No matter the hour.

👉 Flying in and need a ride? Drop a comment or DM.

👉 Are you a Romanian founder or executive and want to help bring global SaaS and AI legends to Romania?

🤝 This is your chance to welcome them and connect before the summit even begins.

This is how we do things at Tekpon AI Summit, together, from the very first step off the plane ✈️

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We just hired Cezar on Monday, and what does he do in his first day off?

It's Saturday and he's picking up guests from the airport, arriving for Tekpon AI Summit 

Not because someone asked or because it was expected

But because this is what leadership looks like at Tekpon 

You serve first. You take initiative.

Most companies wait months to see if someone is a cultural fit. We saw it in five days :)

Cezar turned a simple airport pickup
into a powerful first impression of Romania
and a meaningful connection with one of our speakers, Angeley Mullins

This is the standard we operate on. This is the culture we protect

And this is why Tekpon keeps growing as a global community

Bcause people like him don’t wait for titles to lead

If there's something that I learned about hiring is that the most important trait is hunger

As Cristiano Ronaldo says it, 'hunger is the most difficult'

See you all in 4 days at Tekpon AI Summit

🚨 New Speakers Just Dropped

Tom Hunt, Founder & CEO @ Fame 
Angeley Mullins, CEO @ Aetheris Ventures
Oren Greenberg, GTM Advisor
Mike Korba, Co-founder & CCO @ User.com by Positive  
Alex Baldovin, Founder & CEO @ Authbound  
Valentin Radu, Founder & CEO @ Omniconvert 

At Tekpon AI Summit, we bring together the people shaping the future of SaaS & AI

They’ve built brands, led teams, and reshaped the SaaS & AI landscape

And now, they’re bringing their expertise to our stage

We can’t wait to hear their stories at Tekpon AI Summit 🚀

Our unofficial "Chief Compliance Officer" has inspected all Tekpon AI Summit badges

He concluded they are extremely comfortable

If you’re joining us, please know:

Your badge has been rigorously tested for softness, durability, and nap-compatibility

We work hard. But this guy clearly works smarter

Big news for us at Tekpon

We’re welcoming Cezar Nitulescu, our new Strategic Partnership Manager to the team

Yes, he is only 21 years old

He comes in with a strong drive, a sharp mind, and a focus on performance.

Partnership growth.
Relationship building.
Market understanding.

Being the youngest in most rooms never stopped him

From sales meetings to events, he gets the same question:

“How old are you?”
“I’m 21.”
Silence. Then he lets the work talk.

I see a lot of my own early journey in him. The same hunger. The same energy. The same drive to prove yourself through action

Can't believe we're only 2 weeks away from Tekpon AI Summit 🤯

From the bottom of my heart, thank you everyone for joining Tekpon AI Summit  

Still need to process everything that happened

Yesterday we announced Tekpon AI Summit London, June 2026

Will you be joining us?

Thank you for believing in our mission and supporting us ❤️

Why we keep a Business Formal dress code at Tekpon AI Summit

Some people ask why the summit follows a business formal dress code

The short answer is that we are hosting global AI leaders, investors, and operators who fly in from all over the world.

A formal look helps us:

→ Set the tone for meaningful exchanges
→ Keep a focused and respectful environment
→ Build a sense of occasion for speakers and attendees

Step into a room full of people who are here to build the future

See you all in 5 days. And be ready for the pictures 📸

Look for these beautiful flags when coming to Tekpon AI Summit

See you in a few hours

Tomorrow you can listen to my podcast on Radio France Internationale Romania

93.5 FM in Bucharest, from 17:30 to 18:00, and again on Saturday after the 11:00 news

I’ll be sharing more about Tekpon AI Summit 2025, the story behind Tekpon, and how we’re bringing 1,000 AI and SaaS leaders from around the world to Bucharest this November

At 23, being part of the Forbes 30 Under 30 community and leading one of the most exclusive AI events in Europe is both humbling and inspiring

A big thank you to Mirel Bran and the RFI Romania team for the invitation and the inspiring conversation about technology, community, and the power of authentic networking 🙏

If you want to scale without hiring fast, this is the session you watch.

Vincent Jong, Founder @ Poolside Ventures, brings the AI-First Playbook to Tekpon AI Summit

He’ll walk through how AI reshapes product, GTM, sales strategy, and operations for extreme efficiency

With real examples from Poolside companies, you’ll see how high-traction startups operate with minimal headcount

A must-attend for anyone building lean, profitable, AI-driven companies

The most competitive companies in the next decade will be AI-first by design.

graphical user interface, text, application

Read the latest Tekpon Magazine tomorrow

Featuring Jeko Kolev, the founder and CEO of Nextoria 

See you all in 16 hours

A mentor sees the version of you that you can’t yet see yourself.

For me, that mentor has been Alexandru Stan

My co-founder, partner, and guide through every challenge of building Tekpon.

His insight, belief, and leadership have shaped not just the company, but the way I lead and think every day.

Being included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list is a milestone I’ll always be proud of,but it’s also a reminder that no achievement stands alone.

Behind every step forward, there are people who push you, challenge you, and inspire you to aim higher.

Thank you, Alex, for your mentorship, guidance, and partnership. This recognition is as much yours as it is mine.

We’re partnering with BizzyNow as the Official Networking App for the Tekpon AI Summit

All participants will be able to connect, match, and collaborate directly through the BizzyNow app

This will create real opportunities for meaningful conversations and partnerships in the AI ecosystem

Download the app using the link below 👇

This guy is the reason why we’re doing Tekpon AI Summit

Last year, Kazik kept pushing me to let him speak.

I told him Tekpon Awards doesn’t have speakers.

He didn’t accept that. For a month, he kept insisting.

He even said he wouldn’t attend unless he could teach something real.

Because of that persistence, we added Day 3 at the UiPath office, our first-ever workshop day.

It was experimental. It wasn’t planned.

And his session became a turning point.

He taught people how to build and use AI agents, and everyone walked out with their mindset changed.

That moment made everything clear. This is what the ecosystem actually needs.

And that’s why Tekpon AI Summit exists today.

This year, Kazik is coming back with The Human - AI Collaboration Playbook.

You’ll learn how to eliminate frustrating AI interactions, compress weeks of research into hours, and know when predictable workflows outperform autonomous agents.

Kazik Pietka. The person who pushed us to raise the bar. And the perfect person to take this summit’s stage.

graphical user interface, text, application, chat or text message

Todd Paris is flying all the way from the US to teach how AI search visibility really works

He will show why top Google pages rarely appear in AI answers. Less than ten percent overlap.

The gap is real and it is reshaping how brands get noticed.

What we'll learn tomorrow:

✅ How AI engines pick their sources
✅ Why GEO and SEO tell different stories
✅ What brands must change to stay visible

Thank you IQRush.ai for supporting the event. You can head to IQRush.ai to take their AI Readiness quiz 🚀

💸 56% savings. One smart move.

When Clym, a fast-growing digital compliance SaaS, decided to scale through partnerships, they needed a reliable affiliate marketing platform to power their new program

They found the perfect one, an enterprise-grade solution used by global brands.

But the annual cost? $30,000 👀

Instead of compromising on quality or settling for a cheaper tool, they turned to Tekpon’s procurement service for help.

✅ We ran a full discovery call to understand the needs and goals
✅ Saved them $16,800 and weeks of back-and-forth
✅ Negotiated the price down to $13,200 /year

Today Clym’s affiliate program is live and thriving, without burning through their budget.

This is what smart software buying looks like.

Real companies. Real savings. Real results.

👇 Full story by Ana-Maria Stanciuc below

Opening the stage at Tekpon AI Summit,

Sara Maldon sets the tone for Artificial Intelligence

As Head of Business Automation & AI at Make, she knows what it takes to scale AI

It all starts with one question, what actually works?

She will share the playbook on how they built scalable agentic systems that deliver real outcomes

Expect lessons from real-world experiments, failures, and successes that turn AI into action

Don't miss this rare session for anyone serious about operationalizing AI 🚀

Marc Gaudett

Founder

Helping family offices in Canada provide their high net worth investors with preservation of their capital through a closed-end value added fund that seeks to identify and take advantage of opportunities to redevelop and improve on existing real estate assets while achieving strong risk-adjusted returns for investors.

Details:
Targeted net returns 12-18%

Disrupt Real Estate Investments Inc

Maropost

Partner Channel Advisor

Maropost is the leading provider of on-demand email, digital marketing, CRM and Ecommerce solutions. Our Software as a Service (SaaS) technologies provide organizations with integrated platforms to connect with customers via email, mobile, social, automation, display on Marketing Cloud and CRM, Ecommerce, Sales Automation, Sales Management on Sales Cloud.

-Helping to improve the deliverability of high volume email senders sending up to 1 billion emails a month
-ISP and compliance strategy provided to run a world-class email and multichannel marketing strategy
-Consultation provided to highly regulated industries and those requiring HIPAA and HITRUST Compliance
-Provide Guidance on set up, strategy, implementation and how to keep on top of the best practices that your competitors are using to increase engagement rates

Some of my achievements are
- Helped scale the company from 20-50M in Revenue
- Helped scale the team from 4 employees to 35+
- Consistently add the most net new revenue to the company each year helping Maropost keep its momentum as one of the fastest-growing companies in Canada
- In partnership with other departments helped design sales, marketing, pricing, and overarching go-to-market strategy
- Helped Develop referral and partner program and brought the first partners into the program
- owned and managed implementation of Hubspot and Salesforce implementations

Senior Enterprise Account Executive

eSSENTIAL Accessibility

eSSENTIAL Accessibility is a comprehensive digital accessibility-as-a-service platform. We help organizations create inclusive web, mobile, and product experiences through digital accessibility testing, evaluation, and remediation.


Some of my achievements are:
- Brought on the largest enterprise customer that contributed more net new and expansion revenue than any other company in 2022
-Led the organization in net new business sales while maintaining the highest quota in the organization
- In partnership with other departments helped design sales, marketing, pricing, and overarching go-to-market strategy
- Helped Develop referral and partner program and brought the first partners into the program contributing to an additional 15% in revenue
- Created outbound strategy that generated more qualified meetings from my SDR/BDR team than any other territory in the company

Strategic Enterprise Consultant at eSSENTIAL Accessibility WCAG, AODA, ADA, Sec. 504, Sec. 508

Gymnut

Gymnut, 'The iTunes of Fitness', empowers trainers, athletes, and brands to connect with fitness enthusiasts in innovating ways, making it the best place to find a personalized workout, nutrition, and training plans they need.

-Created new Vertical extending our offering into Studios and Gym Franchises expanding our offering into a multi-billion dollar industry.
-Created Short and Long Term Partnerships that set the stage for Gymnut to earn 7 figures in 12 months
-Delivered our First Enterprise client

Advisor

Salesforce

-Reached out to and engaged both cold and warm prospects in the SMB market to form long term relationships and generate sales
-Consistently helped my team surpass our monthly team revenue goals by more than 20%
-Leveraged skills developed as a top-performing BDR to consistently generate the most outbound activity and new business pipeline
-Consistently negotiated commercial contracts across multiple products with C-level Executives contributing to over 30% year over year business growth.
-Coached and mentored up and coming Account Executives

-Reached out to and engaged with cold prospects to prompt conversations about how salesforce.com could be leveraged to manage, grow and scale their business
-Sourced and created deal sizes of 25-300k in value
-Consistently exceeded monthly quotas (155% on avg.)
-Lead the Mid Market Sector in pipeline generation of over $4 Million in annual revenue 
-Broke the record for most pipeline generated amongst a mid-market AE
-Member of the interview committee to assist in hiring selection
-Audit Committee Member- Ensure compliance and data quality before submitting opportunities and deals for approval-including accuracy of dollar amount, timelines, Decision makers involved and close dates
-Team Lead and Mentor, involved in sharing of best practices, successful on boarding strategies, training sessions, and maximizing team productivity

Sr. Business Development Representative

Physique Factory

We are a fitness company. We work with people of all ages at improving and manage their own health so they can use the improvement in energy and focus to get the most out of themselves in each other area of their lives.

We Specialize in:
-Bootcamps and group training fitness classes
-Body Transformation Coaching
-Nutritional and Workout Program Design
-1 on 1 personal training

Owner

World Trade Group (WTG)

Responsible for growing two of the companies largest events, The American Manufacturing Summit and Global Pharmaceutical Summit.

-Consistently cold-called  C-Level Executives of Fortune 500 Companies regarding investing in sponsorship packages for World Trade Group Summits
- Performed market research to identify and target key niches contributing to the growth of The American Manufacturing Summit by approximately 50% from the previous year.

Project Director

Scholars At Your Service

In charge of recruitment, hiring, training, coaching and overall franchise operations (marketing, sales and production) for the Lawrence Park and High Park regions of Toronto.

Results
-Two 6 figure businesses produced over the course of the each summer
-Recruited, Hired and Trained over 20 employees
-Mentored and Assisted in Coaching 7 Other Franchisees


Skills Developed:
-Operations Management
-Personnel Management
-Project Management
-Marketing Management
-Stakeholder Management
-Sales Management
-Market Research Forecasting and Planning
-Brand Management/Marketing
-Business Planning
-Commercial Strategy
-Customer Service

Senior Franchise Owner

Sears Canada

Provided support to the various buying teams comprising the Craftsman and Electronics  and Leisure and Sports divisions

Marketing Business Associate

We've been helping B2B SaaS Founders grow profitable businesses over the past decade

Imagine your calendar filling up with sales appointments, hiring a salesperson or team, your revenue increasing, cash accumulating in your business checking account, getting your next round of funding, or seeing a clear exit from your business.

That’s what most DREAM about, yet cease to ever accomplish…

After working with and speaking with hundreds of Software Companies and Startups,

I’ve noticed a pattern of why most SaaS founders can’t scale in their early stages and I’ve distilled it down to three key forces:

Force #1: Generalism: Not solving a specific problem for a specific person or specific business

Without this specialization, the SaaS founder can't capitalize on one of the most powerful Economic forces - Desire. This results in generic marketing and NO demand generation. 

Force #2: Systems: No systems in place to generate consistently qualified meetings that turn into REAL pipeline.

The Founder needs to do all prospecting and sales with inconsistent results each month. 

Force #3: No Sales Operating Procedures - No predictable sales process or sales team in place.

Without a high-converting sales process, it's impossible to scale, let alone remove the Founder from the sales process. Most SaaS Founders haven’t developed the necessary sales skills, or the documentation needed to effectively remove themselves from the sales process.

Now if you are facing any of these forces, I have good news! These are completely avoidable and reversible if you just follow the right process.

At MarcGaudett.com, we are client-obsessed helping SaaS Founders succeed by filling these gaps. Our “North Star” is our clients. Helping them get their first 1M in revenue and then grow to 10M+ in ARR in the fastest, most predictable, and cost-efficient way possible. Our hygiene standard is to help our Founders go from 1-10M in ARR in their first 4 years without any paid advertising.

We’ve spent the last 10+ years dialing in a process that just works!

Some of Our Results
→ Created a 6 figure + business in less than 12 months from scratch
→ Generated Over 4.5M in pipeline in less than 12 months
→ Generated over 4M in sales in a single year and 10M+ in net new business revenue in less than 5 years

If you are a SaaS Founder and want to learn more you can book a time in my calendar (located in my featured section). Alternatively, you can join my weekly newsletter (The Saturday SaaS Founder) which highlights SaaS founders who are actively growing their ARR (see my featured section).

Partner Engine energy.

I was reflecting this morning on what we’ve been building across Partnerships at Instantly.ai (my colleague Aaron. Reid did the same for VIP) — and it hit me how wild the momentum has become.

I don’t have a giant team photo like Aaron posted.

But what we do have is something just as powerful:

👉 Partners who build with us
👉 Teammates from all departments who show up every day to push the ecosystem forward
👉 Integration teams shipping fast
👉 Affiliate/Referral and Integration partners scaling and pushing fast with us
👉 Product & Dev turning the impossible…into infrastructure

And in just the last few months:

⚡ LinkedIn automation partners (Aimfox, HeyReach.io, Valley) helping redefine multi-channel outbound
⚡ CRM platform integrations lining up co-marketing + connected accounts
⚡ Data and enrichment partners expanding what’s possible inside Instantly
⚡ Internal rockstars — Eli Lubimov, @Jose, @Indrek, @Dan Lupasco — building the backbone of the ecosystem
⚡ Dozens of affiliates + agencies driving real revenue every single week

At this point, it feels less like “partnerships”…
and more like a movement.

Ideas flying.
Integrations going live faster than ever.
Co-marketing stacking up.
Everyone rowing in the same direction.
Real passion. Real ownership. Real momentum.

Proud of what we’re building — together.
And honestly? We’re just getting warmed up.

The next chapter starts here. 🚀


(If you want to partner, integrate, or co-market with Instantly — DM me. The ecosystem is wide open right now.)

PS — The image was made with A.I., so Eli Lubimov,Aaron. Reid, Augustin Rialan, Dan, Hans Dekker, Indrek Stern, Jason Kim, Marija Crnojacki, Vadim Smirnov, Yaroslava Tensina… can you guess who is who with some extras? 😂

Jose is missing — and so many others who are part of this growing engine

Leading the Partnerships Team at Instantly | Building $100M+ Partner-Sourced ARR+ Case Study

I made a mistake early in my partnerships career that almost cost me millions in pipeline.

And I still see 90% of SaaS companies making it today.

They treat partnerships like a channel.
Not a system.

Here’s what actually happened:

A few years back, I was working inside a fast-growing SaaS company. We were signing partners fast. Big logos. Big excitement.

But revenue wasn’t moving.

Why?
Because we were doing partnerships the way everyone else does them:

recruit a partner
give them a link
pray

And then blame the partner when nothing happens.

One day a partner told me bluntly:

“Marc, promoting you isn’t the problem…
there’s just nothing compelling or sticky keeping you top of mind.”

That hit hard.
Because he was right.
We weren’t setting them up to win.

So I rebuilt the entire motion from scratch.

And here’s the part nobody talks about:

You don’t get $10M+ partner-sourced ARR by signing partners.
You get it by making sure every partner sees you as a distribution channel.

That’s the shift I’m applying again right now as we work with strategic partners.

Here’s the 3-part system I use (and am still building):

1. Activation beats acquisition
If partners can’t win in 14–21 days, you lose 80% of them forever.

2. Ecosystem > channels
Affiliates, integrations, agencies, and referrals must feed each other — not live in silos.

3. Your partner program is a product
Products need onboarding, positioning, outcomes, and feedback loops.
Most partner programs don’t have any of those.

If you build these three things,
you don’t get a “partner program.”

You get a GTM engine that compounds every month.

And no — attribution won’t be perfect.
If you wait for 100% accuracy, you’ll never scale.
Act on the 80% signal that’s obvious,
and improve the last 20% as you go.

I’m building this system in public as we scale partnerships at Instantly.ai.

If you’re a SaaS company, or a top creator/affiliate and want access to the frameworks as I publish them — or want to work together — connect and DM me “PARTNERS.”

Partnerships don’t scale from one big move.

They scale from 100 small ones done consistently.

The last 60 days at Instantly.ai proved it again:

– Ship integrations fast
– Fix attribution where you can
– Activate affiliates daily
– Remove blockers for dev/marketing
– Keep standards high even when speed is the pressure

That’s the real engine behind partnerships

This quarter we focused on 3 things:

-Speed
-Systems
-Activation

And it’s working: integrations are going live faster, more affiliates are activating every week, and partners are seeing real growth from working with us.

2026 is simple: scale what’s already working

 Let’s build the next wave.

P.S. Great tools deserve distribution. if you think there is alignment - reach out to me.

Most SaaS companies underestimate how much distribution they’re already sitting on.

This week I talked to three different founders — all building great products — and every single one had the same bottleneck:

They weren’t using the distribution they already had.

Affiliates sitting idle
Integrations that weren’t activated
Communities that wanted to promote them but didn’t know how
Partners who loved the idea of collaborating… but had no playbook

What I’ve learned building partnerships is this:

Your product isn’t the growth engine.
Your ecosystem is.

And the moment you get affiliates, communities, integrations, and co-marketing running in one direction, growth becomes predictable.

Here’s the simplified version of the flywheel we’re building right now:

→ Launch integrations fast
→ Build the co-marketing motion and an additional revenue stream for both sides
→ Help each other promote (assets, workflows, playbooks, creator intros, affiliate intros)
→ Track what you can — even if the tracking isn’t perfect yet
→ Improve attribution as you add more tools and bandwidth
→ Highlight wins publicly
→ Repeat

This compounds. Every partner you activate increases the reach of the next.

The number one thing my team focuses on: momentum beats perfection.

Yes, there are things we want to do. Yes, we want cleaner tracking, better dashboards, tighter attribution. But those things take dev work, tools, time — and while you build them, the opportunity window is moving.

So we ask one question consistently:

“Is what I’m doing right now moving the flywheel forward?”

If the answer is no, it’s usually because something “feels” important but is actually an excuse — waiting for X, waiting for Y, waiting for the perfect conditions.

Growth doesn’t wait.
You create it by moving the conversation forward today.

And honestly, if we had waited for everything to be perfect, you wouldn’t be seeing the LinkedIn integrations we just shipped — Aimfox, Valley, HeyReach.io — plus the AI workflows powering it all behind the scenes.

Those came from momentum.
Not perfect conditions.
Just relentless forward motion


Instantly.ai

Resharing this because it’s a big milestone for us Instantly.ai
 — and a huge step forward for Partnerships at Instantly.

Coordinating multi-channel outreach across platforms has always been a challenge. Bringing Aimfox, HeyReach.io, and Valley together with Instantly for our first version of this is a major step toward a fully unified outbound ecosystem.

This took weeks of collaboration across Partnerships, Product, Engineering, Marketing, and each partner’s team — so thank you to everyone involved in making this happen.

Excited for what this unlocks for users, and even more excited for the next partners coming into the automation layer we’re building.

Multi-channel outreach just got way simpler 🎉

Instantly Automations are live! And so are our first integrations with LinkedIn outreach platforms: Aimfox, HeyReach.io and Valley.

These integrations let Instantly connect your email workflows with your preferred LinkedIn outreach tools, so everything stays synced without manual work.

Here’s what this means for you:
☑️ One clean workflow
Email → LinkedIn steps happen inside one system, while all LinkedIn actions are handled by your connected Aimfox/HeyReach/Valley account.
☑️ Fewer manual steps
No more exporting lists, copying profiles, or moving leads between platforms. Instantly sends the right leads to your connected LinkedIn tool automatically.
☑️ Follow up at the perfect moment
If a lead replies or shows interest, Instantly can route them into the correct LinkedIn sequence inside your connected tool, while they’re still warm.

Build your first workflow → instantly.ai

Most teams think their GTM engine is “cold.”

But usually the signals are there — they’re just invisible.

We recently jumped on a call with one of our ecosystem partners and within minutes we were breaking down the real indicators that show whether a market is alive or dead:

Awareness Signals → people consuming content
Interest Signals → people checking out your team
Research Signals → people comparing tools
Intent Signals → people engaging with alternatives
Buying Signals → multi-stakeholder behavior + activation

Here’s the part no one talks about:

You can’t scale GTM without a partner ecosystem amplifying these signals.
Not anymore.

On today’s call, we dug into:

➤ How to capture and attribute signals without killing social reach
➤ How partners drive hidden demand you otherwise miss
➤ How joint workflows (LinkedIn → Email → CRM) create compound momentum
➤ Where co-marketing + community offers outperform ads
➤ How integrations + content let users activate faster
➤ The tools they’re rolling out internally that tie directly into our next steps (more to come)

And the momentum was obvious.

Ideas, distribution, workflows, attribution — everything clicking in real time, with simple ways to level up immediately.

This is what the Instantly.ai Partner Engine looks like in motion:
Two ecosystems aligning around signals, activation, and shared growth.

If you’re building a SaaS tool, CRM, automation platform, or you teach GTM at scale…

and you want to plug into an ecosystem that boosts distribution + activation + revenue…

DM me “PARTNER” or fill out the form:

Open article: General Partner Intake Form (Step 1) by 1al11eb0evx.typeform.com

I’ve done the same “back-of-the-napkin math” a hundred times:

“If we ship 10 integrations…
 if we activate 200 affiliates…
 if each partner sends X leads…
 we’ll add $___M in ARR by December.”

The math always looks perfect on paper.
But here’s the real lesson that December is forcing me to internalize:
Momentum doesn’t come from math — it comes from action.

Partnerships only grow when:

we’re shipping integrations weekly, not quarterly
we’re activating partners today, not “after the holidays”
we’re building co-marketing loops in real time
we’re following up immediately, not “when things slow down”

P.S. A reminder of what we’re building — and why the right partners can feel the momentum from day one.
we’re creating quick wins, not waiting for the perfect plan

Everyone loves to forecast.
But many forecasts are just productive procrastination.
If you want explosive growth, it’s not just about modeling it…

It’s about earning it with action.

That’s the December mindset at Instantly.ai:

Small wins daily → compounding momentum → massive Q1.
Run the numbers if you want.
But don’t expect them to be right.

What will be right is the outcome if you take action consistently.

P.S. A reminder for myself and the type of partners we attract

The Partner Flywheel I Wish I Built 5 Years Earlier

Most partner programs die because there’s no flywheel.
Just a list of names and a prayer.

Yesterday I talked about the mistake that almost cost me millions in pipeline.

Today, here’s the system I built after fixing that mistake — the same one I’m applying right now while scaling Instantly’s ecosystem.

It’s simple, but it compounds fast when you execute it with intention:

The 3-Layer Partner Flywheel (that actually scales ARR)

1. Recruit for fit, not volume
Most SaaS companies recruit everyone.
I only recruit partners who have an audience, a distribution engine, or a workflow overlap.

If they don’t already have a “why now,” they won’t perform later.


2. Activate in the first 14 days
The biggest unlock I learned:

If a partner doesn’t win early, they likely won't win later.


My activation sequence is simple:

-a co-branded post we can both use immediately,
-a plug-and-play promo they can deploy today,
-and a clear path to their first 5–10 signups so they feel momentum fast.

Partners need to feel momentum immediately — 14 to 21 days max.


3. Turn their success into distribution
Once they get wins:

feature them
send them more exposure
co-market their workflows/do a webinar
build integration stories around them

Every win becomes a marketing asset.
Every asset attracts the next partner.
Every result can be shared with your affiliates/creators to give them something to engage with

The flywheel spins faster each month if you keep being consistent.

The truth no one tells you:

You don’t scale partner-sourced ARR by collecting partners.

You scale by engineering early wins, then using those wins to pull the next wave of high-quality partners into your ecosystem.

This is how you turn partnerships from “random channel”…
into a GTM engine that feeds itself (and guess we are still building this bigger and better).

The only way this works is when everyone rows in the same direction —
 marketing, sales, creators, affiliates, and the partners themselves. I

If you’re building a real ecosystem (not a directory), DM me “FLYWHEEL” and let’s talk.

Instantly.ai

Multi-channel isn’t a “nice to have” anymore — it’s the new baseline for modern outbound.

This is why I’m excited about the Instantly.ai × HeyReach.io integration.
We’re not just adding features… we’re connecting entire ecosystems.

LinkedIn + Email → automatically synced
Triggers → flowing both ways
Partners → combining strengths instead of competing

This is exactly the type of integration the outbound world has been waiting for — and the kind I’m committed to bringing into the Instantly partner network.

If you want to see how it all works, join the live session 👇

Getting started with multi-channel outreach doesn’t need to be complicated.

We’re hosting a session on Dec 3 to give you a clear, practical look at how the new Instantly.ai × HeyReach.io integration works, and how to use it to simplify your outbound workflow.

Register here 👇

Hans Dekker, Brandon Charleson and 191 other attendees

Your New Outreach Engine: HeyReach × Instantly Live Demo & Use Cases

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The Battle

Cristian Dina

Marc Gaudett

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Cristian Dina's LinkedIn Performance

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