Hire full-time ecosystem partnership managers for platform-dependent products
When building on top of a platform ecosystem (Salesforce, Shopify, etc.), make ecosystem partnership someone full-time job from early stage. This means managing relationships, maintaining visibility, coordinating co-marketing, and ensuring you are a strategic partner. The CEO having occasional meetings is not enough.
When to use
When your product depends on an ecosystem for distribution and your success requires platform cooperation. Especially critical for B2B tools building on enterprise platforms where partnerships unlock enterprise customers.
Don't do this
Treating ecosystem relationships as a CEO side project with occasional meetings and dropped follow-ups. Assuming the partnership will manage itself or that product quality alone ensures visibility.
1 Founder Who Did This
Hired someone whose entire job was building and managing the Salesforce alliance—maintaining relationships, ensuring ecosystem visibility, coordinating co-marketing. This was dedicated headcount, not CEO occasional meetings.