3X Faster: How CrowdStrike's Marketplace Strategy + Top Co-Marketing Tactics Accelerate Growth
Hi, it's Roman from Partner Insight newsletter, where I deconstruct winning Cloud GTM strategies and the latest trends in cloud marketplaces.
CrowdStrike just shattered marketplace expectations by hitting $150M on Google Cloud in just ONE year—a journey that took them 3 years on AWS. Meanwhile, some of the top SaaS companies are doubling their marketing budgets through hyperscaler programs, while others are keeping their marketplace success deliberately quiet as a competitive advantage. Discover the frameworks driving these winning strategies and why cloud marketplace expertise has become the ultimate differentiator for growth.
Before we dive in:
Join our free webinar next week: "5 Co-Sell Strategies to Drive $1M+ Cloud Marketplace Growth" on May 28th.
Plus, don't miss Cohort 11 of our Cloud GTM Leader course starting June 3rd—join 200+ alliance leaders who're applying our marketplace growth playbooks with great success.
From 3 Years to One: CrowdStrike's $150M on Google Cloud in 12 months
CrowdStrike shatters marketplace expectations: $0 to $150M on Google Cloud in ONE year, after taking ~3 years to hit the same number on AWS. This isn't luck—it's marketplace muscle memory in action.
When CrowdStrike first tackled AWS Marketplace, it was a multi-year climb to $150M. Now they've compressed that entire journey into 12 months on Google Cloud, demonstrating how transferable marketplace expertise becomes when mastered.
In the same year, they reached $1Bn/year in Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace too.
When a company masters cloud marketplace at scale, the learning curve shrinks radically
This acceleration was no accident.
CEO George Kurtz revealed on their latest earnings call: "We also had a noteworthy year [FY'25] with Google Marketplace, where in our first year of partnership, we did over $150 million in deal value out of the gate."
This represents nearly 3.5% of their $4.24B ARR already – and they're just getting started with GCP.
CrowdStrike's impressive achievement signals a new phase in marketplace maturity – one where experienced sellers can rapidly scale across new clouds.
This reflects two simultaneous trends:
CrowdStrike's operational playbook is repeatable
Cloud marketplaces themselves are maturing, reducing friction and helping to scale faster
CrowdStrike is laser-focused on its ecosystem, but they align it with marketplaces:
"We've aligned our partner ecosystem around hyperscaler marketplaces where we see larger deal sizes and faster deal cycle times." - highlights CEO
CrowdStrike's partner-first strategy is well-balanced and paying off massively:
Partners sourced 60% of all new business in FY'25
GSI business approached $1B (23.6% of ARR), growing 40% YoY
MSSPs (Managed Security Service Provider) contributed 15% of new business, growing rapidly
In 2024, they became the first cybersecurity ISV to achieve $1Bn+ in sales on the AWS marketplace in one calendar year, growing 91% YoY there.
The marketplace formula that worked for CrowdStrike:
Build marketplace expertise internally before scaling
Develop operational capabilities that are repeatable and transferrable
Align partners (GSIs, MSSPs, resellers) with marketplace motion
Leverage cloud sellers through co-sell programs
The most actionable insight?
CrowdStrike isn't treating marketplaces as isolated channels – they're becoming how the company does business:
"All of our go-to-market partners benefit from our deep investment and strategic focus on cloud marketplaces."
For SaaS leaders, the question isn't whether marketplaces will become a dominant route to market – it's how quickly you can build the marketplace muscle that becomes a major driver of your GTM strategy?
Online Workshop “5 Co-Sell Strategies to Drive $1M+ Cloud Marketplace Growth”
After helping 200+ alliance leaders scale their marketplace revenue, I've seen the same pattern repeatedly. Companies struggling with cloud GTM are making these 5 fundamental mistakes:
Waiting for cloud sellers to bring them deals
(Instead of actively tapping into $439Bn of enterprise cloud commits)
Listing everything without a strategy
(Instead of validating their best products and creating compelling case studies, win wires and better-together stories)
Wondering why their own sales teams won't use marketplace more
(Instead of identifying and nurturing internal marketplace champions)
Craving visibility from cloud sellers
(Instead of making their product essential to cloud-customer conversations)
Focusing only on new deals
(Instead of leveraging renewals to get much larger upsells, close faster & create momentum)
If you're struggling with even ONE of these approaches, join our free workshop on May 28th where I'll show you exactly the strategies winners use to accelerate marketplace growth.
I'll share the frameworks that helped alliance leaders generate millions in actual revenue, and grow triple digits YoY.
This isn't theory—these are battle-tested frameworks from our Cloud GTM Leader course that have helped 200+ alliance leaders unlock their share of the $439Bn marketplace opportunity.
📅 Join us on May 28 at 9-10am PT
This workshop leads into Cohort 11 of our comprehensive Cloud GTM Leader course starting June 3rd - the program alliance leaders from companies like Citrix, Wiz, and Darktrace trust to accelerate their cloud marketplace revenue.
How Hyperscalers Can Double Your Marketing Budget
One of the reasons why top cloud marketplace partners like Wiz or Glean scaled faster than any other SaaS in history is by mastering co-marketing with cloud providers, not just listing or having better products.
Differentiate or Disappear
The “most important thing” about marketing “ is to differentiate," emphasized Elizabeth Burton, Amazon Web Services (AWS)'s Partner Marketing Leader at last re:Invent, highlighting that 130K partners competing for attention.
Start with a "working backwards" framework: map customer needs against your solution's strengths to find areas where you outshine competitors and deliver more customer value.
Top partners follow these marketing principles:
Create a joint marketing plan
To access funding and programs work with your cloud team to create a plan and show commitment
Target the right stage of the funnel
Hyperscalers create programs for different stages: content syndication for top-of-funnel leads, eBooks for middle funnel, account-based roundtables for bottom-funnel, etc. Plan accordingly.
Focus on customer case studies
"If you're thinking about marketing programs with AWS... the requirement is that you have a customer use case that can be publicly referenceable." They can unlock top visibility, like speaking slots.
Consider horizontal and vertical marketing
Cloud providers are focusing on both technology horizontals (security, data, AI) and industry verticals (financial services, healthcare).
Marketplace Marketing Flywheel
Michael Musselman, who scaled Lacework's AWS partnership from 0 to MM, highlights treating co-marketing as part of marketplace strategy: "While I'm not a marketer, the marketing team and CMO are my best friends."
At Astronomer he amplified growth with AWS's Seller Prime program: "It came with a whole bunch of MDF like tens of thousands of dollars.
Not only are we going to go do this, which we should have done anyway…, but AWS is going to help us double our marketing budgets."
Key insight? "It's literally gifts from the cloud provider…you're paying… with the fact that you're a partner and my consumption is on their cloud. It's very different than giving away margin at the revenue.”
Wiz's Marketing Blueprint
Nadav Tzuker who led Alliances and now in Product Partnerships at Wiz, highlighted in our Cloud GTM Leader course Wiz focused approach:
"We put most of our focus on conferences" - a major part of Wiz strategy is key conferences like re:Invent, Next, and Ignite. By being proactive and building relationships with CSP marketing, Wiz used conference sessions to massively amplify their exposure.
Social media is essential: "AWS Startups has 100K followers, Microsoft has 20 million, Google Cloud has almost 2M. We'll never get to those numbers in our own LinkedIn pages."
Wiz solution? Create joint content around events, videos, or case studies and work via partner marketing to get featured. CSPs have quotas for social partner promotions.
What’s your strategy?
Why Companies keep quiet their Cloud marketplaces strategy
When a company asks you to keep quiet about their marketplace success, you've found the secret weapon.
One of our alumni went from $0 to millions in ARR through a cloud marketplace. Yet, their leadership decided not to share the story publicly—because it gives them a major edge over competitors.
That might be the best testimonial we’ve ever received.
And no – they’re not in cybersecurity or infrastructure—the usual marketplace suspects. They’re part of the next wave of business software, accelerating through marketplaces and turning Cloud GTM into a strategic growth driver.
They've been using frameworks from our Cloud GTM Leader course to win—and it's working.
“We are winning certain deals because of that,” they shared with me the advantage of their marketplace strategy. Their management wants to keep it that way, because few competitors have figured this out.
This isn’t an isolated case.
Why does Cloud GTM create an unfair advantage?
Over 10% of enterprise IT budgets are spent via software marketplaces and growing (BCG)
Over 50% of large B2B purchases will happen online this year (Forrester)
80% of Microsoft customers with cloud commitments buy via marketplace—AWS and GCP are similar
$439B+ in cloud commits are pushing procurement through hyperscaler marketplaces
This stealth advantage is what cloud marketplace success often looks like: high ROI, low visibility. Many companies winning big are keeping their playbooks close.
Here's what that means:
Cloud GTM is repeatable—you just need the right process
The playbook exists, but it takes disciplined execution
If you're not winning in marketplaces, your competitors probably are
What’s your strategy?
Cohort 11 of 5-week Cloud GTM Leader course kicks off June 3
We've recently wrapped our milestone 10th cohort, but momentum is only growing. Join 200+ alumni learning from Partner of the Year execs, top alliance leaders and hyperscaler insiders.
Accelerate your marketplace revenue with proven frameworks
Master co-sell tactics driving real pipeline (one alum went from $0 to $200K+ in 8 weeks).
Gain practical frameworks to align your organization and accelerate Cloud GTM
Join a community of 200+ top cloud alliance leaders
Cohort 11 kicks off on June 3rd - don't miss out on your chance to join this transformative program recognized by Canalys as a Top Education Program for Channel & Partnership professionals.