Most GTM leaders today are making decisions on partial information.

Not because they lack data.
But because the data underneath their GTM motions — direct, partner, channel — isn’t complete or comparable enough to trust.

Over the past few years, I’ve worked closely with hundreds of GTM and ecosystem teams and seen the same pattern repeat: smart, experienced leaders forced to operate with blind spots they didn’t design and can’t clearly see.

At Zugit, we’re building a way to surface where GTM data is incomplete before insights are acted on — so leaders can make decisions with confidence, not assumptions.

The companies that get this right move faster, invest more precisely, and waste far less effort.

Curious how much of your GTM picture you actually see today?

Naomi Dreifuss

Elena Zapolyanskaya

Head of Partnerships

B2B | Strategy | Partner-Led Growth | PARTNER2B

Building Bonobee, an AI Partner Marketplace Infrastructure that makes invisible ecosystems visible (because hidden partners generate hidden revenue, which is just fancy talk for zero revenue).

I also advise B2B teams on making ecosystems visible and measurable, not vibes-based. Turns out when partners can actually be found, they show up and perform. Wild concept, I know.

17+ years of cross-functional B2B experience across marketing, sales, partnerships, finance, and logistics. I chose breadth over climbing the traditional career ladder because I wanted to understand how organizations actually work, not just one silo of them.

Come say hi ✨ ez@bonobee.ai

Strategic Marketing Consultant

Elena Zap.

I don't join communities. Like, ever. But Rob Moyer is building a free community for partnership and ecosystem people, and I'm in. BlueThread Collective. 

No selling, just practical thoughts and daily chats with people who actually run partner programs.

Rob doesn't just talk, he fixes what's broken. He's curating this for partner managers, GTM leaders, and vendors who do the work, not collect LinkedIn badges.

Most communities die in a month. Rob builds things that last because he's lived through the chaos when your partner program is falling apart and nobody in your company gets it.

If you're running partnerships and tired of being the only one who understands why everything is cross-functional hell, request access - there's a waitlist.

Link in comments.

𝐈 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐡𝐲𝐩𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐈 𝐡𝐲𝐩𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐞𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐞.

Co-founder & CEO @ Bonobee | B2B Partner Marketplace Infrastructure

"Hire for attitude, train for skill." I've heard this a thousand times. Never bought it. Ambition without execution is just noise. And at the early stage, noise is expensive. Here's what I learned: 

𝐬𝐨𝐟𝐭 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫. 

Professionalism without attitude gets you mediocrity. 
Attitude without professionalism gets you chaos.

The best "attitude" someone can bring to your team? 

Taking full responsibility for their area. 
Delivering what they said they'd deliver. 
Not needing hand-holding because they already know their domain.

Early-stage startups don't have time to train basics. Every minute you spend teaching fundamentals is a minute you're not building, selling, or shipping.

I want people who show up ready. Who challenge me because they know their craft. Who bring both the skills AND the drive to use them.

𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐠𝐮𝐲𝐬 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐨𝐫𝐲-𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬. 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐨.

That's how we're building Bonobee, and that's how we win one step at a time. Thank you amazing Bonobee team!!!

Partner program visibility isn't something VP of Partnerships can fix alone. That's where most B2Bs get it wrong. They dump it on the partnerships team, expect magic, and six months later wonder why there's no pipeline attribution.

Because the problem isn't the person. It's the infrastructure.

𝐎𝐥𝐝 𝐖𝐚𝐲: 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬' 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦

→ VP of Partnerships "owns" visibility 
→ Partner page sits in a PDF or static web page 
→ Marketing treats it as partnerships' job, not a channel 
→ Sales doesn't know which partners influence deals 
→ Product builds integrations but doesn't showcase them 
→ Finance can't measure partner-influenced revenue 
→ Attribution is a black box 
→ ROI conversations are hand-wavy 
→ Partnerships operates in a silo

𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐖𝐚𝐲: 𝐂𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬-𝐅𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞

→ Partner visibility is built into GTM infrastructure 
→ Marketing tracks partners like any other channel 
→ Sales uses partner data in their workflow, not as optional context 
→ Product showcases integrations where buyers actually look 
→ Finance measures partner-influenced revenue in the same system 
→ Attribution is automated and accurate 
→ ROI is provable with real numbers 
→ Partnerships drives growth with company-wide alignment

𝐈𝐧 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔, 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐩 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠.

→ Bonobee transforms partner ecosystems into SEO-optimized, discoverable marketplaces.

Does your infrastructure make space for partner visibility to work?

VP of Partnerships used to succeed at relationships. Now they succeed being great at systems. The skill set changed and companies still hire for 2019. Here's what the best partnerships professionals are adding to their toolkit:

𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬 - because your ecosystem needs to be discoverable. Partners won't join a program they can't find. Your partnerships person needs to think like a marketer: SEO, positioning, messaging, content strategy.

𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 - because partner journeys are funnels. Application → approval → activation → revenue. Every step needs conversion optimization. If you can't measure it, you can't improve it.

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 - because partner programs are products now. Your partners have a user experience. They need dashboards, resources, analytics. Someone needs to design and build that.

𝐒𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧 - because relationships don't scale, infrastructure does. The partnerships professional who can build a system that works without them is worth 10x the one who can't.
_____

The relationships still matter. 

You still need strategic thinking, negotiation skills, business development instincts.

But now you also need to build.
_____

The partnerships professionals who combine both? They're building competitive moats for their companies right now.

And the companies recognizing this shift early are moving fast while everyone else is still posting job descriptions from 2019.



P.S. Partnership infrastructure shouldn't require a dev team. Start powered by Bonobee. Built for partnerships professionals who want systems without the technical complexity.

You know those moments when something just feels right? No overthinking. No pros and cons lists. Just... yeah, this makes sense. That's how Teodora joining Bonobee as CMO felt.

𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐭 𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐬, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧. 

We've been talking for about a year. Marketing stuff, partner ecosystems, where B2B is actually going. And somewhere along the way, she just became part of what we're building. No formal decision point. No "let me think about it." It just clicked.

I'm grateful when life works like this. When things flow instead of force 🤍 

Honestly, that's how this entire Bonobee team came together. People who just get it. Who feel like they've been here all along even when they haven't.

_____

Building something is hard enough. Having people who naturally fit into the chaos? That's the part that makes it worth it.
_____

Teodora, welcome to the official unofficial team you've already been part of. Thanks for being someone I can actually delegate marketing to without my brain exploding 🙃 

To everyone building teams right now: sometimes the best additions aren't planned. They just happen. And when they do, you know.

I'm building Bonobee without VC money. But I keep watching founders crash at fundraising for stupid reasons. 17+ years in B2B, three startups, more investor meetings than I can count. 

I have incredible advisors, a team that knows what they're doing, people who remind me I'm brave when I forget. I'm lucky.

I've made a thoughtful decision not to go the VC route with Bonobee right now. But I keep watching other founders with good products get stuck at fundraising. Not because their business is bad. Because they don't know how VCs think. The ghosting, the "we'll circle back," the rejections that feel personal but aren't.

I've been through this. Multiple times. It's exhausting.

So when Kevin Chavanne (10 years at Tenity and Funderbeam, thousands of pitches reviewed) told me he built something to fix this, I paid attention.

𝐇𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐔𝐠𝐥𝐲 𝐁𝐚𝐛𝐲, 𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐕𝐂 𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐞𝐞. The real questions. The real framework. The stuff that happens in the room after you leave.

No pitch coaching. No making your deck prettier. Just: here's how your startup is actually being analyzed and here's what's breaking.

(Also their website is beautiful. The marketer in me never sleeps haha.)

Sometimes your baby is ugly. Better to know early.

I'm sharing this because if I'd had access to how VCs actually think during my first two startups, I would've saved myself so much confusion and time.

Kevin's one of the good ones who actually wants founders to succeed, not collect fees.

If you're fundraising or thinking about it, look at what he built. Worth it!

Remember that ebook I dropped last week? The 50+ page beast on ecosystem-led growth for B2B marketers? Turns out people actually read it. Not just skim. Read 🙃 

Honest truth: it was one of the spontaneous things I do 😉

I wasn't planning some big content play. I just looked at all the posts I've been writing about partner visibility, ecosystem infrastructure, why your partner program is invisible... and realized I'd basically already written the damn thing.

So I gathered it all up, organized it into something that makes sense, and designed it to actually look good (because why not).

The messages I'm getting are wild. 

Marketers forwarding it straight to their CMOs. People saying they've been trying to make these exact points internally for months but couldn't get traction. One person told me it changed how their leadership team talks about partnerships.

I'm genuinely proud of how it turned out. The content is solid. The design is clean. And it's actually helping people reframe conversations that needed reframing.

50+ pages. Real data. No fluff.

Sometimes the best content happens when you stop overthinking and just put what you know into the world.

If you haven't grabbed it yet, link in comments. Not gated. Wasn't planning lead gen, haha.

Video walkthrough attached. Happy Friday 🤗

Saturday mood = watching our Bono the Bee fly ✨ Sometimes you just need to see your logo come to life.

Partnerships are hard. Building visibility infrastructure is harder. But forward motion hits different on a Saturday morning.

Keep flying, keep building, keep making invisible ecosystems visible.

Happy Saturday from the Bonobee team 🐝

The 2026 ecosystem gap is opening right now. Your partner ecosystem is about to become your biggest competitive advantage or your most expensive blind spot.

𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐬
78% of B2B buyers can't find your partners when they're evaluating solutions. That's qualified pipeline walking straight to competitors with visible ecosystems.

𝐀𝐭𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 
Your board can't see partner-influenced revenue, so they're not funding the programs that could 3x your pipeline. Meanwhile, companies with Partner RevOps infrastructure are getting the investment and strategic priority you're fighting for.

𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
Your partner marketplace exists in isolation while your competitors are connecting theirs into network effects that create actual category moats.

𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐑𝐚𝐜𝐞 
Companies building ecosystem visibility infrastructure right now will dominate their categories. The rest will spend years playing catch-up with fragmented programs that boards won't fund and buyers can't find.

This isn't about partnerships being "strategic." It's about whether your ecosystem infrastructure can compete when visibility becomes table stakes.

What are you building?


P.S. We're building Bonobee to solve the visibility infrastructure problem: turning invisible partner ecosystems into discoverable, measurable revenue engines. DM me if you want early access.

Match your partner type to your business model and growth stage. Not your wishlist. Not what your competitors are doing. What actually fits your GTM.

- Need market reach without building a direct sales team? 
Channel partners with deal registration and partner portals.

- Buyers won't demo without seeing your integrations first? 
Technology partners with a public marketplace and API/SDK infrastructure.

- Selling complex solutions that need expert implementation? 
Agency partners with certification programs and co-sell materials.

- Going after transformative enterprise deals? 
Strategic partners with executive sponsorship and joint business plans.

Most B2B companies pick partner types based on what sounds impressive. Then wonder why their partner program isn't driving revenue.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐞 𝐢𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬. 𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐲𝐩𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲.

You can't run a channel program without margin structures. You can't scale tech partnerships without integration attribution. You can't activate agency partners without certifications.

Wrong partner type = wasted time and zero traction. 

Right partner type + right infrastructure = compound growth.

Which partner type actually fits where your business is today?

You can't scale without systems. Everyone knows this. So partnerships teams buy PRMs. Automate partner management. But they start at the wrong step. Missing the infrastructure that comes BEFORE you have partners to manage.

Partner discovery is still manual. Outreach, one conversation at a time. Visibility lives in static directories at best.

𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲:

𝗣𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝗯𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱
Every partner gets an SEO-optimized profile. Buyers searching for solutions find your partners with your brand attached. Your ecosystem becomes a lead generation engine that compounds through search.

𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳-𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲 
Partners research your program like buyers research products. Applications flow inbound, partners self-qualify. Strategic conversations happen because both sides see opportunity, not because someone cold outreached.

𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹-𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗿𝘀 
AE pulls up marketplace mid-call, filters by industry, sees exactly which partners serve that vertical. Zero manual updates from partnerships team.

𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 
Which partner profiles get views? Which integrations generate leads? The system tracks it without building reports.

𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 
Not sending recruitment emails or updating partner lists. Building high-value relationships. Designing programs that scale.

I'm watching teams build visibility infrastructure first. Their partner programs become discoverable. Recruitment becomes inbound. Growth becomes scalable.

𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗿𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗯𝘆 𝗼𝗻𝗲.

Then wondering why PRMs don't solve their growth problem. You can't manage a network you haven't built yet.


PS: Bonobee turns partner ecosystems into discoverable partner marketplaces. Built specifically for teams who get that visibility comes before management.

taplio

The Battle

Naomi Dreifuss

Elena Zap.

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreElena Zap.'s LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Naomi Dreifuss

Elena Zap.

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

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);}Elena Zap.'s LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreElena Zap.'s LinkedIn Performance