The Product Leap

I write weekly Newsletter on my journey from being a Software Engineer to a Product guy.

Writer

Sage

Building accounting mobile apps for accountants and their customers. Using data driven approach for product growth. 
- Roadmap creation and ideation
- Product analytics
- Cross functional collaboration
- Release management

Product Manager

Maropost

Led the team in successful launches in different areas of marketing product.

- Successfully launched bi-directional SMS marketing.
- Led the research for SMS marketing by closely observing the market trends, users
and competitors.
- Collaborated with the Product Marketing for GTM - giving demos and preparing content.
- Increased the customer acquisition with new customers engaging in SMS marketing.

- Successfully launched transactional messaging product. Managed the roadmap and shared the product goals.
- Collaborated with stakeholders to compile product requirements, prioritize features for alignment with product and business goals.
- Worked with the Scrum team, built trust and improved Sprint velocity leading to improved team performance.

- Successfully redesigned entire product.
- Heard customer feedback on old UI and usability. Worked with UX team on new Brand
design.
- Collaborated with UX team on A/B design testing.
- Worked with Scrum Team to deliver redesigned features based on feature usage. Launch resulted in improved customer satisfaction and NPS.

- Led the team of mobile developers towards successful product launches.
- Advocated the mobile first approach in product development leading to more focus on mobile area.

Team Lead

- Successfully released increments to mobile SDK.
- Led the team on iOS and Android developers in collaboration and code reviews.

Senior iOS Developer

SPADEZ SOLUTIONS PRIVATE LIMITED

- Led the team of mobile app developers in various mobile app projects.
- Received positive feedbacks from various clients leading to improved portfolio that led
to more project acquisitions.
- Requirement gathering

Senior Software Engineer

SPAN Systems

- Successfully launched Norwegian and Swedish mobile app projects.
- Successfully launched ASP.NET technology based web application for US client.

Software Engineer

Ionnor Solutions

- Successfully launched 2 mobile applications for Norwegian client. 
- Completed various POC's for organisation's portfolio.

Software engineer

After working almost 7 years as a Software Engineer in different roles, I was offered an opportunity to work as a Business analyst. The opportunity that I took. I always envied product roles and their contribution in Product Development. And it was my turn to be one.

For around 6 years, I have worked in different product roles, learning new things and product areas. I have failed, learnt and achieved in this period. There were challenges, but with right support, process and actions, I faced those head on.

Deciding to take that leap was not easy. Simply because I was leaving behind my technical experience and embracing a new one. With time I have realised, that is just a mindset. With proper research and process, you can take "The Product Leap" with confidence.

With my experience of moving into product role, I am here to share those experiences and help the professionals who are at that stage now.

Follow me to know about my experiences and how that can help you in similar times.

I write a weekly Newsletter on my learnings and the actions I took, that helped me take that leap.
Subscribe to my free Newsletter - https://www.nitishrana.net/subscribe

Nitish Rana

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

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

Account Executive

-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

The hardest part of building partnerships at scale?

Not what you say yes to — but what you’re willing to say no to.

We’re deep into 2026 planning at Instantly.ai, and everyone loves the part where you map out growth curves and project ARR like it’s a choose-your-own-adventure.

But this year taught me something different:

Growth doesn’t come from adding more.
It comes from protecting what matters while scaling what works.

Inside partnerships, we had countless “easy wins” we could have grabbed:

– Quick affiliate bumps that weren’t aligned with quality
– Integration requests that would inflate numbers but drain support
– Co-marketing people asked for that didn’t serve our roadmap

On paper, every one of those decisions would’ve made a dashboard somewhere look prettier.

But great partner ecosystems aren’t built on adrenaline hits.
They’re built on trust, distribution, and compounding leverage.

So we said no.
A lot.

We focused on the partners who could actually grow with us.
We doubled down on integrations that improve the user experience — not the vanity metrics.
We tightened activation instead of chasing volume.

And weirdly… that discipline became our advantage.

Because here’s the uncomfortable truth:

Revenue is a metric.
But reputation is a moat.

In the partnership world, anyone can spike numbers.
But sustaining growth? That requires boundaries.

As we plan for 2026, here’s the hill I’m staking my claim on:

Partnerships aren’t just about stacking logos.

They’re about stacking leverage.

More partners, yes — but only the ones that actually move the needle.

If we get that right, the revenue takes care of itself.

P.S. If you’re a SaaS founder, agency, or GTM platform and want to plug into our ecosystem next year — integrations, co-marketing, or affiliate:

👉 Comment “PARTNERSHIP”

 and I’ll DM you the form to join the 2026 partner roster.

We just rolled out our native integration with Trigify — and it reminded me of case study from one of our creators.

They ran a hyper-targeted Instantly campaign to 363 people.
Small list. Zero fluff. All high-intent buyers.

By day 3:
15 replies → 7 real opportunities → 2 closed clients.

Why did it work?

Because he wasn’t emailing the whole world.
He was emailing people who actually cared — people actively hiring, actively searching, actively in-market.

That’s the belief system behind the new Instantly.ai and Trigify.io integration.

When someone shows intent on social — asking a question, comparing tools, commenting on a problem — that signal only matters if you act on it fast.

The new workflow makes it automatic:

⚡ Trigify identifies & qualifies the signal
⚡ Instantly activates the lead 
⚡ You reach them while the intent is still warm

Outbound becomes unfair when it's real-time.

This is a big step toward the future we’re building.

If you’re a SaaS founder, agency, or GTM platform and want to plug into our ecosystem — integrations, co-marketing, or affiliate —
apply here: 

https://lnkd.in/dNiN2qkb

Most companies don’t have a traffic problem.
They have a visibility and activation problem.

You can have thousands of ICP buyers hitting your website every week…
and unless you know who they are, that demand is invisible.

This is why I’m excited about what we just shipped with RB2B.

Now, you can turn anonymous intent → identified contact → outbound campaign in seconds.

No spreadsheets. No manual work. No missed opportunities.

Here’s the flow:

📩 If RB2B finds the email → Instantly drops them directly into a campaign
🏢 If RB2B only finds name/company → Instantly can enrich + find contact details once sent to an Instantly list.

🔥 Result: More warm leads entering your pipeline on autopilot

This is the future of outbound:
Intent + Identity + Instant activation.

And integrations like this are exactly how we’re turning Instantly.ai into the most connected outbound platform in the market.

Partners who build with us grow faster.
Users who integrate get a compounding advantage.
Everyone wins when the ecosystem gets stronger.

AI companies looking to connect your value to a massive outbound userbase — let’s talk.

We’re building aggressively, and we want partners who move with the same speed.

If you’re a hungry affiliate or technology partner who actually ships, fill out the form in the comments.

Check out the RB2B integration inside Instantly under Automations → RB2B.

This is only the beginning. 🚀

P.S. Big thanks to the entire team on both sides (you know who you are 😊 )

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

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.”

Some weeks in partnerships feel like you’re doing the work of 8 people… and yet it can still feel like nothing happened.

You’re building systems, creating outreach momentum, testing integrations, writing specs, running partner calls, hiring, unblocking dev, chasing reporting that didn’t exist, and plugging operational gaps.

And the crazy part?
You can do all of this right… and it may not show up in the numbers yet.

No matter how fast I move, I want to move faster.
No matter how good our rhythm gets, I want it tighter.
It’s the same mindset as training — no matter how strong you get, you always want to be stronger.

And because revenue is the only scoreboard that matters (and honestly, that’s how it should be — if people won’t pay for the problem you’re solving, you’re solving the wrong one), everything before the number can feel invisible.

That’s the hard part of partnerships at scale:

You can be making massive progress under the surface, but until the metrics show it, it can feel like standing still.
A lot of startups and small businesses feel this way even when they’re doing all the right things.

Here’s the truth, though:

This is the job — and I genuinely love it.
This is where you get forged.
The pressure, the bottlenecks, the problem-solving… it’s what makes you sharper.
It’s what builds real GTM muscle.

Partnerships sit at the intersection of every department at Instantly.ai.
If one piece stalls — product, BI, dev, onboarding, marketing/comms — the whole system slows down.

A big part of the role is understanding why something can’t be delivered yet… and then building the muscle, systems, and processes so it can next time — better and faster.

Every bottleneck removed becomes leverage.
Every system built compounds.
Every expectation clarified speeds up execution for the next wave of partners.

The speed I strive for requires:

– Clear systems
– Clear ownership
– Clear expectations
– And partners who move fast and actually ship

This is the work my team and I are in every day: tightening systems, clarifying ownership, and making expectations unmistakable so integrations ship fast.

And the best part?
All of this creates enormous long-term value.
This is how you build a partner engine that compounds.
This is how you scale.
This is how you win.

And the reason I push this hard is simple:

When you’re building inside a platform like Instantly.ai — one that’s scaling fast, shipping fast, and giving founders, agencies, and companies real leverage — the work matters.

We’re not building “just another integration.”
We’re building the ecosystem companies run their outbound infrastructure on.

If you plug into this engine, you grow faster.
If you help extend it, you win with us.

If you’re a fast-moving software company, AI company, or affiliate who cares about execution over talk —
we want to hear from you.

Fill out the form below and let’s ship something real:

https://lnkd.in/dNiN2qkb

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 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

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

One of the biggest leverage points in SaaS isn’t product.

It’s who you choose to build with.

Great partners don’t need hand-holding.
They ship. They promote. They compound.

That’s what we’re leaning into right now inside Instantly.ai.

Not just more partners —
but deeper ones.

People who:
– bring real demand into the ecosystem
– ship content and workflows that activate users
– think in long-term systems, not short-term launches

That’s how ecosystems scale.

If you’re building in sales, GTM, data, or automation and believe partnerships should earn their leverage — not be given it — we’ll probably get along.

Friday thought.
Back to getting things done.

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 last couple weeks of building a high-velocity partner ecosystem continue to   remind me of one thing:

momentum beats everything.

Here’s what we’ve been focused on — and why it’s working:

• Speed: integrations are going live faster because the bottlenecks are being removed.
• Activation: more affiliates are becoming active weekly because the system is built for momentum.
• Alignment: partners (integrations and affiliates) are already seeing growth because the distribution engine is taking shape.
• Leverage: we’re shifting from manual coordination to more scalable systems and repeatable workflows (it's far from perfect but this is something we continue to work on)

This isn’t about doing “a lot.”
It’s about doing the right things with intensity and zero friction.

A few truths became obvious very quickly:

1. Speed comes from removing myself as the bottleneck.
If I want more partners in a given month, it can’t rely on me manually unblocking everything.

Systems + automations = scale.

2.  Leverage > effort.
Partnerships run on a predictable loop: data → reasoning → action → output.
If something repeats, it should have a system for it.
If it requires judgment, I step in.
That’s how you make “speed” scalable.

3. Momentum has a half-life.
New channels move fast.
When there’s energy in the ecosystem, you ship during the moment — not after it passes.

4. Prioritization must be signal-based, not gut-based.
Traffic, audience reach, and user overlap tell you where distribution lives.
That’s where we focus first.

5. Embedded distribution flips the script.
The fastest way to scale isn’t waiting for users to find us —
it’s inserting Instantly.ai at the exact moment someone is launching or growing their product.

What this all means:

My role becomes orchestration and execution
Systems, signals, and tools should help handle the repetitive load so I can focus on strategy, outreach, and high-leverage partnerships.

We’re just getting started — but the direction is clear.

The next six months are about scale, distribution, and building a partner engine capable of driving meaningful impact for everyone involved.

Great tools deserve distribution. If you see alignment, start the conversation below.

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 204 other attendees

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

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The Battle

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