500% Gen AI Growth on GCP Marketplace & Databricks' PAYG Success Formula
Hi, it's Roman from Partner Insight—welcome to my newsletter on winning Cloud GTM and partnership strategies
This week, we'll explore GCP Marketplace's remarkable growth and strategy—including a 500% surge in AI—as revealed by Dai Vu. We will unpack KPMG research highlighting that 83% of companies are expanding their ecosystems. Finally, we’ll break down successful Pay-As-You-Go marketplace strategies through a Databricks case study.
💡 Before we dive in:
Last chance: Cohort 10 of our Cloud GTM Leader course starts on Tuesday, April 1st! Join 200+ alliance leaders who’ve already transformed their marketplace strategies.
Let's connect at Google Next ’25 in Vegas (April 8–11): Meet me to discuss marketplace strategies, accelerating co-sell growth, and AI’s transformative impact on cloud marketplaces (details below).
Exclusive: Watch Dai Vu Reveal GCP Marketplace's 500% Gen AI Growth & Strategy
If you missed our recent Google Cloud Marketplace event, here's an exclusive clip from Dai Vu's keynote that provides deeper insights into Google's marketplace momentum and strategic direction.
In this segment, Dai highlights impressive growth metrics behind Google Cloud Marketplace's evolution. He explains why enterprise giants like ServiceNow, SAP, Workday, and Salesforce approach the marketplace not merely as a tactical channel but as "a very long-term strategic revenue growth play."
Dai breaks down the marketplace's value proposition for both partners/sellers and customers, emphasizing key benefits:
42% faster deal closures through standardized agreements
35% higher win rates via co-sell engagement
32% larger deals
These compelling metrics strengthen the business case for strategic marketplace investment.
Read more insights from our recent Google Cloud Marketplace event in my previous newsletter.
83% Are Expanding Ecosystems, Yet Only 36% Know If They're Working
83% of companies plan to expand their ecosystems in the next 3 years, yet only 36% consistently measure partner performance. KPMG's new research reveals a stark reality: intentional ecosystems drive growth, but accidental partnerships lead to missed opportunities.
KPMG surveyed 258 senior leaders at large organizations showing the major partner evolution happening across industries: 76% of respondents grew their partner ecosystem during the last three years.
Let's break down what the most successful ecosystem builders are prioritizing:
Profit remains the ultimate driver
73% of respondents cite increased profits as the primary attribute they seek in ecosystem partnerships. This correlates directly with 75% who say partnerships already fuel growth, innovation, and agility.
Market expansion creates new revenue streams
63% value partnerships specifically for market expansion capabilities. This explains why 80% of respondents are now looking beyond their sector to find complementary partners who can unlock new customer segments.
AI transformation is reshaping alliance strategies
69% of organizations plan to use partnerships to expand their AI capabilities over the next 1-3 years, making it a top priority for forward-thinking alliance leaders.
Cross-industry collaboration is breaking traditional boundaries
Organizations are abandoning the outdated "build vs. buy" mentality. Instead, 47% are co-creating technology solutions with partners, while 43% use strategic alliances to embrace new technological advancements.
The research also exposes a significant maturity gap:
While executives recognize the strategic importance of ecosystems, their management approaches haven't kept pace. Only 36% consistently measure partner performance, and 50% rely on basic frameworks rather than sophisticated ecosystem management approaches.
This presents a tremendous opportunity for alliance leaders:
Companies that move beyond sporadic partnerships to intentional ecosystems stand to create substantial competitive advantages.
For cloud GTM and partnership leaders, this research validates what many already intuitively know:
we're witnessing the evolution to strategic ecosystems where value is co-created across traditional boundaries and direct channels.
As cloud marketplaces continue their growth, they represent the perfect environment for this new partnership model - enabling multi-party value creation, AI-powered solutions, and cross-industry reach.
Q & A:
Q: It's interesting to see how AI transformation is becoming such a big part of alliance strategies. How do you think companies can better align their management approaches to keep up with the strategic importance of ecosystems?
My Answer: Companies should start with being intentional about their ecosystem as a growth lever. Also based on this research there are 3 key ways companies can align their management with AI-driven ecosystems:
1. Evolve beyond basic partners management frameworks (still used by 50%) to consistent detailed measurement. Most organizations track revenue (as they should), but AI partnerships also require metrics for innovation velocity and capability enhancement.
2. Structure your co-creation efforts. While 47% of organizations co-create tech solutions, AI partnerships specifically need clear data sharing protocols and joint development roadmaps to succeed.
3. Develop alliance leaders with cross-industry expertise. With 80% of companies looking beyond their sectors for partners, today's ecosystem managers need both technical AI understanding and broader business context.
Would you agree?
Meet Me at Google Next '25 in Vegas (April 8-11)
After hosting our recent Google Cloud Marketplace event, I'm excited to continue these insightful conversations in person. With GCP Marketplace driving billions in transactions, the opportunity for partnerships has never been more compelling.
The marketplace ecosystem continues to evolve rapidly, with each hyperscaler bringing unique strengths to the table and partners becoming increasingly central to marketplace success.
Looking forward to discussing:
Marketplace strategies that maximize growth
Accelerating co-sell motions with Google Cloud
How to leverage PLG on marketplaces
Channel partner integration in marketplaces
AI accelerating marketplace growth and marketplaces as a key route to market for AI startups
Will you be at Next? Let's meet and exchange marketplace insights!
Reply to this email to coordinate or ping me on LinkedIn - would love to connect with fellow Cloud GTM leaders who are passionate about marketplaces!
Marketplace-First Strategy & Why Google traffic converts 2X better on Pay-As-You-Go listings
Databricks sees 2X higher conversion on its GCP marketplace listings from Google traffic vs. traffic from their own website. Here's why that could be a game-changing insight for your SaaS GTM strategy.
When the Sr. Director of WW Business Development & Strategy at a $62B data giant shares their strategy, we listen.
In our recent event, Drew Herd of Databricks explained a marketplace insight that challenges conventional wisdom: external Google traffic converts on their Cloud Marketplace listings at 2X rate of traffic from Databricks' own web pages.
The explanation reveals a critical insight for cloud GTM:
Google Cloud's existing customers arrive with billing IDs already in place. "We get better conversion there," Drew explained during our recent GCP event. These customers face dramatically less friction when starting a trial or making a purchase.
The marketplace-first mentality runs deep at Databricks. From inception, they made 2 foundational decisions: be cloud-only and make their platform easy to use. This required deep integration with cloud infrastructure, security ecosystems, and they also focused on marketplace.
“We wanted it to be easy for our customers to buy, easy for our customers to be invoiced, and easy for our customers to see how they're actually using our products. So it all kind of begins with that marketplace, and you know, bringing it back to PAYG. PAYG is the beginning of that journey.” Drew explained.
On marketplace, Databricks has mastered the PAYG (Pay-As-You-Go) model with a 14-day trial strategy, creating a frictionless path for enterprises to evaluate and deploy their Data Intelligence Platform.
With 500+ new signups monthly through GCP marketplace alone, it's the first step in their consumption-focused growth model, that's helping to deliver 62% YoY growth on $3B+ revenue.
As Databricks itself has 1,600+ quota-carrying salespeople, they keep realistic expectations about the cloud partnership.
"We don't look at Google sellers as people who are ever going to sell Databricks," Drew notes.
Instead, they strategically leverage Google's strengths at two critical points:
Top of funnel: Databricks uses the Marketplace as a key entry point for new customers through their PAYG trial strategy, driving top-of-funnel acquisition.
Bottom of funnel: They strategically use Google Cloud's programs (PSF, workload migration) to help close deals and encourage customer commitments
Databricks also actively engages in three-way meetings and alignment calls with Google Cloud account teams, maintaining a joint focus on the customer.
With Canalys forecasting SaaS marketplace sales to hit $85B by 2028, these marketplace strategies are becoming critical.
Join Cohort 10 of Cloud GTM Leader (April 1): Unlock Marketplace Growth
Our milestone Cloud GTM Leader cohort 10 kicks off on Tuesday, April 1st - can you believe it? 200+ alliance leaders, millions in marketplace deals—and we're just getting started!
When we launched our first Cloud GTM Leader program 18 months ago, we never imagined the transformation we'd witness.
As Cohort 10 kicks off Tuesday, I'm reflecting on the collective wisdom from hundreds of alliance leaders with whom we've shattered the "tribal knowledge" barrier of cloud marketplace success.
The most eye-opening insight? In a world where cloud commits reached $419 Bn and are on track to hit half a trillion (!) by the end of 2025, success patterns have emerged with striking clarity:
Companies that consistently land $1M+ marketplace deal flow approach cloud GTM fundamentally differently from those who struggle with sporadic transactions. It's rarely about technical integration—it's about GTM transformation.
What we've learned across 9 cohorts that might surprise you:
The maturity gap is still huge: While many companies are "listed" on AWS, Azure or Google Cloud, only a minority have built systematic GTM and processes to consistently capture enterprise cloud commits and marketplace opportunity
Internal buy-in is still one of the biggest challenges and predictors of success: Organizations with aligned incentives between sales, alliances, leadership, and marketing teams report much higher marketplace growth
Best performer profile: Leaders generating the largest revenue via marketplaces don't just co-sell—they make their solution essential to the cloud provider's customer conversations
Deal velocity acceleration: One alumni went from zero to $200K marketplace revenue and $7M pipeline in just 8 weeks—proving what's possible with the right framework
Free trials and PAYG is the next frontier of growth in Cloud GTM
Channel Partners proved to be essential for scaling on cloud marketplaces
Our community now includes alliance leaders from GitLab, Citrix, Darktrace, HashiCorp, AllCloud and others who've transformed marketplace listings into growth engines.
In celebrating this milestone, I'm grateful to 50+ speakers who shared their insights and especially to our incredible mentors, who go above and beyond: Jonathan Kingsepp, David Mauer, Alex Balcanquall, Mike Marzano, Brian Laing, Niall Ruane, Michael Musselman, Daniel Roppert, Rolf Heimes and many others.
We’re proud of our 9/10 ratings across cohorts, speaking to the practical value participants extract beyond theoretical knowledge.
For Cohort 10, we continue enhancing our most-loved elements, expanding our masterminds, adding new frameworks and case studies of marketplace growth. We also added community meetups that continue post-course.
Cohort 10 starts Tuesday, April 1st - last chance to join
The opportunity cost of waiting on Cloud GTM has never been clearer. Will your team join the ranks of marketplace leaders in 2025?