Partnership Mastermind Podcast

Partnership Mastermind
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Hosted by Chris Lavoie, each episode dives deep with the sharpest minds in partnerships—from founders to channel leaders—to uncover what’s actually working. No fluff, no theory. Tactical playbooks, real stories, and battle-tested lessons from the front lines of ecosystem growth.

  1. 2d ago

    Gayathri Padmanabhan on Why Partner Strategy Has a Shelf Life

    Partner strategy has a shelf life. Gayathri Padmanabhan explains why your partner strategy has to change every time your company strategy does, and why more partners don't mean more revenue. Gayathri leads partnerships at ElevenLabs, building partnerships across system integrators, global SIs, hyperscalers, technology partners and private equity firms. She landed in partnerships by accident about 15 years ago at Freshworks, then led global partnerships at Intercom before joining ElevenLabs. In this conversation with Chris Lavoie, Gayathri covers: How to tie partner strategy to company strategy, and the signs it needs to changeThe early mistake of signing too many partners, and how to define your ideal partnerWhat leaders owe their partner managers, and why the best ones eliminate partners quicklyWhy private equity firms are an underrated partner channel for AI productsWhy partnerships should be a go-to-market lever as soon as you find product-market fitHow to narrow a partner portfolio without burning relationshipsWhat going deep looks like: joint business plans, exec alignment, MBRs and vertical enablementThe sales sponsor program that brings sales leaders closer to partnersRegional and cultural nuances, and the first 90 days in a new market Learn more about Partnership Mastermind: https://www.partnershipmastermind.com

    Gayathri Padmanabhan on Why Partner Strategy Has a Shelf Life

  2. Oct 28

    Pablo Hanono on Why Partner Program Tiers Come Last

    Most partner programs start with tiers. Pablo Hanono makes the case that tiers should come last. Pablo Hanono is a Senior Program Manager at Pegasystems and the founder of Books of the Channel. He started his career in Buenos Aires running the Intel Inside program in Argentina, worked on channel projects for Microsoft and Cisco across Latin America, and spent over a decade at Oracle running the partner program, including the 2020 redesign that moved more than 20,000 partners from revenue-based tiers to tracks and specializations. In this conversation with Chris Lavoie, Pablo covers: Why partners leave funds unused, and what Intel Inside Argentina taught him about awareness and executionTiers vs specializations: who each one is really forWhat a partner program manager does that a partner manager does notThe sequence for designing a program: company strategy, partner strategy, program strategy, then the frameworkHow Oracle reorganized around sellers, builders, services and MSPs, and what a year-long redesign actually involvesWhy the long tail of partners is not noise, and a 10-step activation list to make onboarding trackableWhy moving sideways in your career can be growth Books and programs mentioned: Books of the Channel (Pablo Hanono)The Partnerships Operator Manual (Chris Lavoie)Marketing Multiplied (Mike Moore and Peter Thomas)The OpenAI and Anthropic partner programs, and Lovable's partner program Learn more about Partnership Mastermind: https://www.partnershipmastermind.com Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/kHtTIkSRsk0

    Pablo Hanono on Why Partner Program Tiers Come Last

  3. Oct 21

    Dan O'Leary on AI-Native Partnerships, Customer Wins & the New Build vs. Buy

    A great partnership meeting can feel productive. Executives are excited, the logos look good together, and everyone leaves talking about what could happen next. Dan O'Leary's test is simpler: did it turn into action? In this episode of the Partnership Mastermind Podcast, Chris Lavoie sits down with Dan, Head of Go-to-Market Partnerships at Lovable, for a tactical conversation about what partnership execution looks like inside an AI-native company moving at extreme speed. Dan explains why partner leaders should start with a customer problem, why the path from zero to one matters more than a perfect long-term plan, and why a first meeting without the next meetings booked may be nothing more than good vibes. The conversation then moves into a much larger shift: partner teams can increasingly build the tools, workflows, demos, integrations, agents, and internal systems they need themselves. You’ll hear: Dan's test for whether a partnership is actually realWhy he prefers to build partnerships through an existing customer needThe zero-to-one, one-to-ten, ten-to-one-hundred model for partner growthHow to hold partners accountable without treating every signed partner like a permanent commitmentWhy responsiveness and speed can matter more than partner sizeHow to understand the metrics and incentives driving your partner counterpartDan's "easy to buy is easy to sell" approach to hyperscaler and marketplace relationshipsHow he uses AI agents for both personal productivity and partnership executionWhy conversational natural language is opening software creation to non-engineersWhat partner teams should consider building themselvesWhere traditional software still wins because of network effects, trust, maintenance, proprietary data, and reliabilityWhy Dan believes senior leaders need to keep doing real customer and partner work The through-line is agency. AI does not make partnership fundamentals less important. It gives strong operators much more power to move from idea to execution without waiting for someone else to build the thing they need. Links Learn more about LovableExplore the Lovable Partner ProgramLearn more about Partnership Mastermind

    Dan O'Leary on AI-Native Partnerships, Customer Wins & the New Build vs. Buy

  4. Oct 14

    Vince Menzione on Why Partner Playbooks Expire, But Principles Transfer

    Every partner leader wants the playbook. Vince Menzione’s argument is that the playbook is the part most likely to expire. In this episode of the Partnership Mastermind Podcast, Chris Lavoie sits down with Vince, Founder & CEO of Ultimate Partner®, to unpack the principles he believes survive changes in channel, co-sell, marketplaces, hyperscalers, and AI. The conversation starts with one of the hardest questions in partnership leadership: how do you know whether an executive team is actually committed to partnerships before you take the job? Vince shares the lesson he learned after joining a company as roughly its seventh partner leader in seven or eight years. From there, Chris and Vince get practical about what real commitment looks like across sales, marketing, product, compensation, metrics, budget, and executive ownership. They also dig into the internal work that partner teams too often skip. Vince calls it the "internal victory": building the mindset, executive commitment, vision, values, and cross-functional alignment required before recruiting more partners. You’ll hear: - How to pressure-test executive commitment before accepting a senior partnerships role - Why the CRO should be an early priority for most partner leaders - How heroic seller culture creates friction between sales and partnerships - Why overclaiming partner impact is a fast way to lose credibility - How sales champions can become the strongest internal advocates for partnerships - Why Vince believes every playbook eventually changes or expires - What "maniacal focus" looks like when a partnership is threaded across both companies - Why success is not only about what you build, but who you build it with - How trust and small relationship deposits compound over time Vince also shares the story behind his new book, The Ultimate Partner: 7 Principles for Winning in the Age of Ecosystems, AI, and Co-Sell, and why he wanted to create the resource he wishes he had earlier in his career. Get the book: https://theultimatepartner.com/book/ Learn more about Partnership Mastermind: https://partnershipmastermind.com/

    Vince Menzione on Why Partner Playbooks Expire, But Principles Transfer

  5. Jul 8

    Tricia Shea on Why Partnerships Need More Sales Discipline

    In this episode of the Partnership Mastermind podcast, host Chris Lavoie sits down with Tricia Shea, Head of Channel Sales and Partnerships at Rain, to explore what it takes to build partner programs that actually generate revenue. Tricia shares how her journey from AE to channel leader shaped her approach, why she runs partner orgs like sales orgs, how she qualifies partners with the same rigor she applies to opportunities, and why a curated ecosystem beats a bloated roster of logos. We also dig into Rain’s mission of empowering workers with Earned Wage Access and how that mission influences Tricia’s partner conversations. If you’re a partner manager, channel seller or revenue leader, this conversation will give you actionable frameworks and the motivation to take partnerships seriously. Tune in, subscribe, and join the community at partnershipmastermind.com.

    Tricia Shea on Why Partnerships Need More Sales Discipline

  6. Jun 9

    Daniela Mallarino on Customer‑Centric Integration & Open Ecosystems

    Daniela Mallarino has built her career at the intersection of partnerships, integration and go‑to‑market strategy. In this episode, she sits down with host Chris Lavoie to unpack why customer experience should drive every technology partnership, how open ecosystems create more value than closed ones, and why tracking impact from day one is essential. Segments & highlights: Rapid‑fire warm‑ups: Daniela shares her Bogota roots, the languages she speaks, her first integration win, and the tech tools she swears by. She also reveals how birdwatching became her unexpected passion.Origin story: A look at her transition from academic research on online gender‑based violence to an AI start‑up, and eventually to fintech. Daniela explains how partnerships allow her to balance long‑term strategic thinking with day‑to‑day execution.Early lessons: Daniela discusses how assumptions about tracking metrics taught her to set up measurement frameworks and communicate results proactively.Inspiration outside tech: Drawing lessons from airlines, travel and retail about seamless experiences and customer expectations.Myth‑busting: Why partnerships are not just happy hours, how they differ from sales, and the importance of evangelizing impact across the organization.Contrarian takes: Open vs. closed ecosystems, personalization as the new standard, and how AI will transform partner operations. Key takeaways: Great partnerships blend strategic vision with tactical execution.Customer experience—especially personalization—should drive every integration.Set up metrics and tracking before you launch any partner program; communicate impact early and often.Open ecosystems and collaboration create more value than closed platforms.Inspiration from consumer experiences (airlines, hospitality) can elevate B2B partnerships. Call to action: If you enjoyed this episode, please rate us, write a review, and share it with your network. Join the Partnership Mastermind community for exclusive content and connect with fellow partnership professionals.

    Daniela Mallarino on Customer‑Centric Integration & Open Ecosystems

  7. May 5

    Why Aircall & HubSpot Keep Winning Co-Sell Partner of the Year

    In this episode of the Partnership Mastermind Podcast, Chris Lavoie sits down with Hami Nasari from Aircall and Russell Bradley-Cook from HubSpot to break down one of the strongest co-selling partnerships in SaaS. Aircall and HubSpot have won Co-Sell Partner of the Year three years in a row, and this conversation gets into what actually makes a co-selling motion work beyond the usual “strategic alignment” talk. Hami and Russell share the real operating system behind successful co-selling: product usage, sales alignment, partner trust, customer value, integration adoption, internal enablement, and the hard work required to turn a partner relationship into a repeatable GTM motion. This is not a vague conversation about ecosystem theory. It is a practical breakdown of how two leading SaaS companies built a co-selling motion that drives real revenue, real product adoption, and real customer outcomes. In this episode, we cover: What co-selling actually means in a modern SaaS partnershipWhy Aircall and HubSpot’s partnership has been so successfulHow Aircall became the most installed voice solution on HubSpotHow HubSpot doubled Aircall installs from 7,000 to 14,000 in three yearsWhy HubSpot contributes 15–25% of Aircall’s new business every quarterThe difference between referrals and true co-sellingWhy platform reps need to actually need your product for co-selling to workWhy most companies try to co-sell with too many partnersHow to know if your company is ready for a real co-sell motionWhy integration usage matters more than marketplace installsHow Gong call transcripts and partner mentions can become leading indicatorsWhy partner managers cannot be the only bridge between two companiesHow sales, marketing, product, and leadership all need to participateWhy trust is not a soft skill, but operating speedHow AI, usage-based pricing, and outcome-based models may change the future of co-selling This episode is especially useful for partner managers, alliance leaders, tech partnership teams, PartnerOps teams, SaaS GTM leaders, CROs, founders, and anyone trying to build a serious co-selling motion. Guests Hami Nasari, Aircall Russell Bradley-Cook, HubSpot Host Chris Lavoie, Founder & CEO, Partnership Mastermind Subscribe to the Partnership Mastermind Podcast for more tactical conversations on SaaS partnerships, co-selling, partner management, partner operations, ecosystem strategy, and modern go-to-market execution.

    Why Aircall & HubSpot Keep Winning Co-Sell Partner of the Year

  8. Apr 29

    Partner Ops Is the Hidden Revenue Engine with Antonio Caridad

    Most partnership teams do not fail because the strategy is wrong. They fail because the operating system underneath the strategy is broken. In this episode, Chris Lavoie sits down with Antonio Caridad, Senior Director of Partner Revenue Operations and Strategy at LogicMonitor, for a sharp, tactical conversation on what actually makes partner revenue scalable. Antonio breaks down why partner ops is not “admin work.” It is the infrastructure that allows partner teams to prioritize the right partners, track the right data, build trust with Sales, improve attribution, and create a better partner experience. The conversation gets into why bad data is more dangerous than no data, why “partners signed” is one of the worst vanity metrics in partnerships, and why loud, needy partners are often not your best partners. They also unpack Antonio’s 4+1 Partner Ops framework: systems, programs, metrics, and enablement, all leading to partner experience. Key topics covered: • Why bad data leads to bad decisions • Why “partners signed” is a vanity metric • How to know when you need dedicated partner ops support • Why internal alignment is the first domino • Where attribution breaks down in partner programs • How partner ops creates leverage across the revenue org • Why partner experience drives customer experience • How AI can help partnerships, if the data foundation is clean • Why partner ops may become one of the most important roles in modern GTM Core takeaway: If partnerships want to be treated like a serious revenue function, they need to operate like one. Not from six spreadsheets. Not from vibes. Not from “trust me, this partner is strategic.” From clean data, clear systems, strong enablement, and a partner experience that actually supports revenue. Guest: Antonio Caridad, Senior Director, Partner Revenue Operations and Strategy at LogicMonitor Host: Chris Lavoie, Founder of Partnership Mastermind Learn more about Partnership Mastermind: https://www.partnershipmastermind.com/

    Partner Ops Is the Hidden Revenue Engine with Antonio Caridad
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Hosted by Chris Lavoie, each episode dives deep with the sharpest minds in partnerships—from founders to channel leaders—to uncover what’s actually working. No fluff, no theory. Tactical playbooks, real stories, and battle-tested lessons from the front lines of ecosystem growth.

Information

  • Creator
    Partnership Mastermind
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    46
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Partnership Mastermind
  • Show Website
    Partnership Mastermind Podcast

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