Greg Portnoy's Recent LinkedIn Posts

On my way to SHOPTALK. 36 hours. 30+ customer meetings. And 1 BIG announcement. Then straight to NYC for Rob Moyer's PE x ISV Growth Workshop on March 25th. One of my favorite weeks of the year 🚀 If you're going to be in Vegas or NYC this week, let's meet up! Drop a comment or DM me.

No one sets out to be in Partnerships. Myself included. Here’s my partnerships origin story: In 2003, my brother handed me a copy of Dale Carnegie's, "How to Win Friends and Influence People" and told me I should go into sales. I was 18 years old. I had a natural sales instinct.  And it quickly became one of my favorite books. After college I spent a few years grinding in Management Consulting. It wasn’t for me. So I hit the reset button and got into SaaS sales. But I quickly realized that the salesmanship of Dale's era had become largely transactional in tech. The relationship-first approach I had fallen in love with as an 18-year-old didn't really exist in direct sales anymore. Then a Partnerships role fell into my lap. The more I learned about it the more excited I got. This was the true business development I had read about in Dale's book. Building real relationships based on genuine rapport and mutual value. Taking the time to understand each other's goals, motivations, and interests.  Then finding a way to align them. No one sets out to be in partnerships. There's no major for it. No set career path. But if you found your way here, you're exactly where you're supposed to be, and I'm honored to be on the journey with you.

I just spoke to another top partner leader who is leaving their current company. Not fired. Not laid off. Leaving voluntarily. This is an incredibly exciting trend. More companies are starting to take partnerships seriously. They're investing properly, they're allocating resources, and they're giving top partner leaders what they need to be successful. So when a great partner leader gets a chance to leave a company that isn't doing these things for a company that is, it's a no-brainer. The status quo is dead. We are in a moment where businesses are realizing that partner GTM is critical. No more backseat or sidecar. Partnerships as a core GTM strategy. And top talent is starting to be recruited as such. So if you've got a great partner leader at your company, give them what they need to be successful, or expect them to leave for greener pastures.

WOW! That's all I could say, as I felt a rush of pride, when Tai Rattigan called to let me know that their 2026 State of Partnership Leaders report revealed EULER was the #1 PRM leaders intended to use in 2026. Above Salesforce! Contrary to what my LinkedIn posts may lead you to believe, Dave and I are terrible at stopping to appreciate the wins and milestones along this journey of building an industry-changing partnership management platform. As with many founders, we hyperfixate on what has not been done or accomplished, rather than appreciating what has. But this was one of those few moments that has come along where we definitely stopped and took pride. It was truly a milestone moment. In a survey of hundreds of top partnership executives across all company sizes, stages, and industries they ranked EULER as the #1 PRM they planned to use in 2026. We beat out the 2 biggest companies in the space - most importantly, the 800lb gorilla - Salesforce. We couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve built to date, nor more excited about what we’re going to build in 2026 and beyond. And incredibly grateful to all of our team members and customers that have gotten us this far. Let's go! 🚀

Anthropic just committed $100 million to their partner network. One of the most valuable AI companies in the world just made a massive, public bet on partnerships as a core GTM strategy. They're: - Scaling their partnerships teams 5x - Building trainings and certifications - Investing directly in partner co-selling and market development - Creating dedicated technical support for partners on live customer deals This is what it looks like when a company takes their partnerships strategy seriously. Everyone's talking about AI replacing sales reps, automating marketing and eliminating headcount across GTM. But you can't automate trust. You can’t make human relationships agentic. You can't “prompt-engineer” a partner bringing you into a conversation you didn’t even know was happening. Anthropic is making a $100m investment to prove it. And they're not alone. Every major player in tech and AI is doubling down on ecosystems. Because a strong ecosystem can never be commoditized. The companies that figured this out years ago like Salesforce, Hubspot and Microsoft are already reaping the rewards. The ones still treating partnerships like a nice-to-have are falling behind. The signal is clear. Partner GTM isn't the future anymore. It's the present. Welcome to the Golden Age of Partnerships.

This is wild behavior. If we’ve never met, don’t DM me on LinkedIn asking for a referral to someone in my network! I thought maybe this was an isolated incident, but after hearing the same complaint from Doug Landis last week, I realized this is a common practice on LinkedIn. People that we’ve never met, worked with, or even spoken to will send us DMs asking us to refer them to someone in our network (often for a job or sales opportunity). Does anyone else find this ridiculous? I love helping people, but asking someone you don't know at all to vouch for you is absurd on so many levels. How can I possibly represent someone I don't know? What happens when the other person asks me about you? Why would I leverage my social capital for you? What do I get in exchange? There are rules to referrals. First and foremost, don't ask someone you've never met to vouch for you. It either makes you look stupid or implies that you think they are. Next, if you do know the person, understand that this is a favor and treat it as such. There is such a thing as social capital, it's not unlimited. Make it as easy as possible for the person you're asking for the introduction to make the intro and explain to the other party why they're referring you. And most importantly, IF I DON’T KNOW YOU DON’T ASK. Stop the madness!

Your partners are on their phones all day. Now your partner program is too. Today we're launching the EULER AI mobile app 🤳 Our PAM and POPS AI agents are now in your pocket. For partners, this means no more logging into a portal to check on a deal (or submit one). No more hunting for enablement content. No more waiting on your partner manager to answer a basic question. Just open the app and ask PAM. Submit a referral. Track commissions. Access enablement. Get real-time pipeline updates. All conversational, instant and on-brand. For our customers, POPS gives you a real-time command center in your hand. Program analytics, pipeline notifications, partner performance summaries, commission tracking. Just grab your phone and ask POPS. The number one reason partners go dark is friction. We just eliminated it. Available now in the iOS and Android app stores. DM me or visit eulerapp (.) com to get access to the future of partnering.

The sharpest partnership leader I know has a rule that made every one of his programs wildly successful: Make your partners look like heroes! Here's how Marco De Paulis built a million dollar playbook around that single idea: 1. Audit your partner's accounts Most partner managers are laser focused on new business. Marco spent 15 minutes in mutual customer dashboards, found things partners could improve for their clients, and handed them the list of recommendations. Result: The partner came out looking like the hero and Marco became the person they call with new business. 2. Give partners stories to tell Find the results your product is driving for mutual customers and surface those wins. Package them up and give your partners something concrete to say when they recommend you. Confidence drives more referrals than any commission structure ever will. 3. Happy hours don't drive pipeline Noisy rooms. Forgettable conversations. Zero ROI on new logos. Invest in smaller, more intentional experiences where real conversations can actually happen. 4. Building a partner “program” is not a growth strategy Tiers and rev share structures won't make partners send you business. Operational foundation is important, but if you build it too early - without partner feedback - you'll be rebuilding it in six months. 5. Less partners. More depth. The wider your ecosystem, the shallower your relationships. Focus on your best fit partners and go deep. Twenty strong partnerships will always outperform a hundred weak ones. 6. Real relationships last decades. Protect them. You may leave your company in a year. But if you stay in an ecosystem, you keep bumping into the same people. The way you show up today follows you for the rest of your career. Do right by your partners. Listen to our full conversation here: https://lnkd.in/g4yBx9aK

We’re live at PartnerTechX 2026! Greg Portnoy and Marcelo Tobón are at the EULER booth talking AI, partner tech, and the future of ecosystem growth. If you’re here, come by and say hello. Let’s connect. #PartnerTechX #ChannelFocus #eulerapp #

We just had our biggest quarter ever! EULER grew total ARR by 45% in 90 days. And we signed THE premier frontier AI lab. That’s after growing 600% YoY in 2025. Momentum is an unreal feeling! All it took was 3,000 sales calls 😅 100% of demand is inbound. It’s all LinkedIn content + word of mouth. No outbound, no ads, no marketing team. Thank you to the everyone for following along and supporting. If you haven’t taken a demo of EULER yet… Book a call at eulerapp (.) com

Dear Partner Managers: Your sales reps are not going to care about partnerships just because you asked nicely. That's not how this works. They have their own quota. Their own pipeline. Their own boss breathing down their neck. Partnerships is not their job and never will be. The partner managers that struggle with internal alignment with sales always making the same mistakes… They show up asking for favors. They send Slack messages that go unanswered.  They hope someone throws them a bone in a QBR. Then they sit, wait, and hope. Hope is not a strategy for success. The reality is that your reps will prioritize that which makes their lives easier. So make partnerships that thing. This is the way: Get management alignment. Make sure there's something in it for them Show up with value before you ask for anything.  Remove every ounce of friction from the lead-sending process. And find your internal champion rep first, because one converted rep convinces the rest of the team faster than anything you could ever say. Your external partners aren't your only partners. The reps sitting ten feet away from you are some of the most important partners you have. Treat them accordingly.

I just turned 41. It caused me to pause and reflect on the last 3 years. Our son was born. I started EULER. My parents' house burned down. I wanted to share a few things I learned with the folks just getting started in their career… 1. Every moment is a gift I’ve never been good at being present, but seeing how fast my son was growing and changing made me realize that if I wasn't present, I would never get these moments back. I learned to cherish every moment, even the difficult ones. 2. Family is so important My parents' long-time home burning down in the LA Fires was an awful, painful, and difficult ordeal, but luckily we had a room for them and it ultimately brought us so much closer and gave them more time with their grandson. 3. Surround yourself with the people you love I'm incredibly lucky that I get to spend my days building a business with someone I now consider one of my best friends (Dave Link), and spend my nights and weekends with my actual best friend (Sofia Portnoy) and our mini-me. 4. Find your passion Building a business (or anything) is an incredibly hard, stressful, and all-consuming roller-coaster ride… but it's so much more fulfilling and easier to enjoy the ride when you're passionate about the thing you’re building. 5. Celebrate the wins I’m terrible at this. The moment I win, I'm thinking about the next task, goal, hire or customer. But I’ve learned it’s so important to take the time to be proud and appreciate how far you've come and what you've accomplished. 6. Learn from the losses Mistakes and losses are inevitable If you're charging hard at your goals. Avoiding them is impossible, so learning from them is critical. 7. Keep going Greatness isn’t easily achieved. There will be high highs and low lows (often in the same day). Business is hard. Parenting is hard. Life is hard. Expect to get knocked down. Get back up and keep pushing, you’re stronger than you think. 8. Be kind There’s so much negativity, anger, and hate in today’s divided social-media metaverse of a world. It costs you nothing to be a good person, boss, friend, and human. Kindness is infections, and we could all use more of it in our lives. 9. Take a break Again, I’m really not good at this. I don’t really have hobbies (besides snowboarding). But every time I take a break to do that or spend time with my family, I’m re-invigorated with a sense of purpose and new ideas that wouldn’t have otherwise come to me. I wish I had learned all this 20 years ago. But better late than never.

Heading to Toronto next week for the Partnership Leaders Catalyst Summit, and then hosting an exclusive invite-only dinner for Partner Revenue Executives with guest speaker Chris Lavoie PhD 🚀 The summit on Tuesday will be action packed with great content and connections. The dinner will drill down on the hottest topic of them all. Chris, Founder of Partnership Mastermind will be sharing key insights and strategies from training 100's of partnerships leaders on... Moving the Revenue Needle: How to Maximize Your Leverage in 2026 EULER Partner Revenue Executive Dinner: 📅 Tuesday, April 7th 🏢 Convivium Dining Community 🕰️ 6:30pm Request an invitation at https://lnkd.in/g8ZPs-CQ See you in Toronto!

Our customers are NOT our #1 priority at EULER . Their Partners are. Don’t get me wrong, EULER has tons of value for our customers’ teams. But, no matter how much time our automations or workflows save them, or how much better their attribution is, or how much more data-driven their decisions are… None of that matters if their partner experience sucks. That’s why, from day 1, we built our platform focused on giving partners maximum value with minimal friction. And why it was so great to hear yet another of our customers’ partners just tell us that they “LOVE” using EULER. They told us the system and deal registration process were “so seamless”, especially compared to other PRMs they’ve used. We get feedback like this every week. It’s how we know we’re on the right track. Keep your eyes open for a HUGE announcement that will take partner experience to a whole new level.

I FU*KED UP BIG. A year ago, I said AI would be a distraction for partnership leaders. I didn’t think it was remotely ready for daily use. Man, was I wrong! AI has moved faster than anyone predicted. Tools that felt like science fiction 12 months ago are now easy, practical and usable by every partnerships team on the planet. And the opportunity is MASSIVE. The average partner manager wastes 50% of their time on manual busywork. Onboarding partners. Building decks. Tracking deal registrations. Calculating commissions. Pulling reports. Updating spreadsheets. Engaging partners. AI can automate all of it. Right now. That's hours every single day redirected to the work that actually matters. - Fighting over attribution turns into closing deals. - Grinding through reporting turns into being strategic. - Updating spreadsheets turns into building relationships. The tools are finally ready. The question is whether you are. That’s why tomorrow @ 2pm ET Rob Moyer, Dina Moskowitz, and I are going to show you the AI tools and workflows that every partnerships team should be using today. Join us for a reality check on AI in partnerships hosted by HubSpot and EULER. No fluff. Just three practitioners sharing what's actually working. Tomorrow, March 5th @ 2pm ET. Join us here: https://lnkd.in/gwmNEH-m Can't make it live? Register anyway. We'll send you the recording.

As a salesperson Tai Rattigan noticed 20% of their inbound leads at Optimizely were digital agencies (not prospects). And they were being ignored. Within a year, he turned it into a $50M partner channel. That's just the first story he tells in Episode 3 of Partnerships, Unlocked. Tai is the co-founder of Partnership Leaders. Former Head of Partnerships at Deel, Amplitude, and Optimizely. He’s driven $100M+ in partner revenue across three companies. We talk wins. We talk failures (my favorite). And overall unlocks to success. Like the AWS partnership at Amplitude that should have worked, but failed... Massive distribution channel. A motivated team. Great product.  Still failed. And the reason why it failed is something most partnership leaders are probably getting wrong right now without realizing it. We also discuss why partners want leads way more than commissions. And why (almost) nobody is actually doing anything about it. Listen to our full 15-minute conversation here: https://lnkd.in/gixYbs8T

Most partnership leaders dangle rev share like it's a carrot. But Anthony Kapitanski at Chili Piper realized the math didn't math. $20K ACV × 20% = $4K. No wonder his partners weren't prioritizing Chili Piper. So he made a pivot to co-marketing that most wouldn't have thought of. And... it worked! Watch the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/gyzVZ7ab And subscribe below to catch the episodes as soon as they drop! https://lnkd.in/gixYbs8T

Have you used Claude Cowork to analyze partner program gaps and opportunities yet? How about using Gemini to find new partners? The truth is that most partnership leaders are using AI as a glorified Google search. But there’s SO MUCH MORE power to unlock with AI. That’s why this Thursday I'm joining Rob Moyer from BlueThread.io, Dina Moskowitz from PartnerOptimizer, Inc., and Denise Duest, MBA from HubSpot and to have an honest conversation about what it actually looks like to weave AI into the day-to-day of running a partnership program. We're covering the tools, the mindset shift, where AI can make the biggest difference right now, and what skills partnership professionals need to build to leap forward with AI. Thursday, March 5 at 2pm ET / 11am PST. Join us here: https://lnkd.in/gwmNEH-m Can't make it live? Register anyway. We'll send the recording.

Partnering shouldn't be hard. If you're struggling to get the right stakeholders engaged, can’t figure out the value exchange, or can't get them excited about building something together… You’re wasting your time. The best partnerships are seamless. Just like your best customers are the ones that immediately understand your value, have the exact problems you solve, and are excited to buy… Your best partners are the same. They're quick to lean in. They're already working with your customers. Their value prop is so complementary to yours it's almost obvious. Sure, some partners need more nurturing, enablement, and multi-threading to get the right team members engaged. That's normal. Building momentum takes effort. But at some point, you should feel the effort coming back. If you've put in the work and it still feels like you’re pushing a boulder uphill alone… That's not a partnership. That's a waste of your time. Spend your time on partners that want to win with you.

Most partner teams are burning budgets on happy hours that don't deliver new logos. Rachel Tyers tried something different and cracked the code on partner marketing ROI. Here's what she shared on Partnerships Unlocked: 1. Happy hours are a partner fest, not a pipeline driver Sponsoring big events feels productive. But in a saturated market, they attract other partners, not new logos. If your goal is new business, the format has to change. 2. The Beyoncé Strategy High-ticket, targeted experiences with the right brands in the room outperform generic events every time. Less spray and pray. More intentional, high-value moments with the exact logos you're trying to win. 3. Make your partners look good and they'll make you look good The fastest way to earn agency loyalty isn't commissions. It's giving them tools, data, and training that make them look smarter in front of their clients. When partners shine, they send you business. 4. If it's not in the CRM, it doesn't exist Clean tracking is the foundation of everything. Attribution battles slow programs down and erode trust cross-functionally. Build a system everyone believes in and the politics fade. 5. Align incentives for optimal results Partnerships and sales need to be rowing in the same direction. When both teams share closed revenue goals, deals get across the line faster and everyone wins. Check out full conversation with Rachel here: https://lnkd.in/g8p6syTS

5 years ago, it took me 24 months to go from 0 to $30M in partner-sourced revenue. No AI. No EULER. No clear playbooks. Just hard lessons I learned the expensive way. But, today is a new day. Today I could do it in half the time. The tools are better.  The playbooks are clearer.  The ecosystems are more mature than they’ve ever been. Yet I'd be lying if I said it was simpler. Because AI has created a whole new set of challenges nobody prepared us for… - Evaluating dozens of tools that all look the same - Learning to deploy and manage agents - Getting legal and security to sign off - Tracking usage and budgets - And 7-10 other new AI skills It's a lot. And most partnership leaders are figuring it out in real time. So, tomorrow at 11am ET, me, Justin Zimmerman, Rob Moyer, and Cody Sunkel are getting together for a Partner Tech Talk to help you make sense of all. - Cody is covering Marketplace / Integration workflows. - Rob is covering RevOps / PartnerOps workflows. - Justin is covering Partner Marketing workflows. - I'm covering AI Agent & Automation workflows. No fluff. Just practitioners sharing what's actually working. Register here: https://lnkd.in/geD9qRa5 Can't make it live? Sign up anyway. Justin will send the recording.

Rob Moyer built the Gong Collective into 250+ partners and one of the most effective revenue engines in B2B SaaS. Most partnership leaders think scale means more. More partners. More programs. More headcount. Rob Moyer tried that at Gong. Partner count up. Complexity up. Headcount up. Revenue? Not up. So he flipped the script entirely. In this episode of Partnerships Unlocked, Rob breaks down the "less is more" philosophy that turned Gong's ecosystem into one of the most effective revenue engines in B2B SaaS. Four frameworks he shares that are worth the listen alone: - The $100M Blueprint - from ad-hoc referrals to a measurable revenue engine. - The Attribution Fix - clean partner data, real forecasts, actual ROI. - Internal Alignment - stopping the sales vs. partnerships collision before it kills your program. - The Less-Is-More Rule - why depth with a few partners beats chasing volume every time. If you're running partnerships like a support function and wondering why revenue isn't moving... This one's for you. Watch it here: https://lnkd.in/gixYbs8T Or listen on your favorite podcast platform.

Nelson Wang built $200M in partner revenue across 5 companies - including Box, Miro, and Airtable - over 20 years. Every time, he did the exact same thing his first day on the job He met with customers. Not partners. Customers. 60 of them at Airtable alone. Just to understand their pain, their language, and what they actually needed help with. That's how you find the right partners. Not by guessing. By listening. Nelson joined me on Partnerships Unlocked this week and dropped some of the most actionable insights I've heard. Here are the key takeaways: 1. Win hearts and minds before you do anything else Get in the trenches with customers first. Understand their journey deeply. Then map the right partner types to solve their specific pain points. Everything flows from this. 2. Give your internal teams an easy button Don't ask cross-functional teams to figure out how to sell partner services. Do it for them. Build the deck. Join the call. Close the deal together. Once they see it work, they’ll replicate it. 3. Let others evangelize for you The most powerful thing isn't you standing on your partnerships soapbox. It's your sales team, your CSMs, and your solutions consultants doing it for you after they've seen it work firsthand. 4. More partners is not always better Nelson learned this the hard way. Onboarding every interested partner sounds like growth. It's actually a mess waiting to happen. The 80/20 rule is real. Find your best fit partners early and go deep with them. 5. AI changes the math on long-tail partners The reason most programs plateau at 20% of partners driving 80% of results is resource constraints, not strategy. AI is about to change that. The next 20% is waiting for you. 6. First principles thinking will save your career Most partner leaders skip the fundamentals and jump straight to tactics. Nelson's advice: always start with the customer. Always understand what you're solving for. Build your strategy from there, not the other way around. 7. Scale only happens when partnerships become everyone's job Past partner-market fit, you can’t scale alone. You need sales, CS, product, ops, and marketing all rowing with you. Your job as a partner leader is to make them want to. 🎧 Partnerships Unlocked, Episode 6 with Nelson Wang is live. Link in the comments.

This is HUGE? 🤨

My 5 biggest takeaways from Chris Lavoie PhD (3x partnership exec who builds multi-million dollar partner programs from the ground up). 1. Feed your partners first. Chris spent the first 80% of his time in a new role doing one thing. Surfacing quality leads for his partners. Not pitching or asking for leads. Just feeding them. The moment you turn on that faucet, everything changes. 2. Don't make your reps do the work. The reason CSMs and AEs don't refer deals to partners is simple. They don't know when their customers are ready. So Chris stopped asking them to figure it out and built a system that did it for them. 3. The Trojan Horse playbook. A simple customer diagnostic survey sent during onboarding. One question asked if they were open to an intro to a trusted partner. 70% of the customers who completed it said yes. Your best source of leads for partners is already sitting in your customer base. 4. Co-selling fails without executive alignment. Most partner managers try to get AEs co-selling by convincing the reps themselves. It never works. If leadership on both sides isn't bought in, the reps will never prioritize it. 5. Own a bigger number than you're comfortable with. The fastest way to get taken seriously in partnerships is to own a sourced revenue number. Not influence. Not pipeline. Closed revenue. Every degree of separation your KPIs are from cash hitting the bank account, the harder it is to justify paying you. Link to full episode of Partnerships Unlocked with Chris in the comments 🔗