The Biggest Win in Sports: Partnerships
It’s a big week for California sports fans. The Golden State Warriors and DoorDash just announced a multi-year partnership, allowing fans to preorder in-arena food and drinks directly from the app. No more missing the golden shot after waiting in a mile-long line to get your nachos. SCORE.
This partnership makes the Chase Center one of the first NBA venues to offer the convenience of ordering through DoorDash, and it will redefine the sporting experience, so it’s a pretty big deal. This partnership could spark something groundbreaking for arenas nationwide.
On top of the mobile order feature, the partnership comes along with Golden Gamedays, a season-long campaign where DashPass members can discover top neighborhood food offerings while simultaneously getting entered to win a “Warrior for a Day” experience. Tip off started Wednesday and will continue on for upcoming home games. See you on the court!
What you Missed at Cloud World
NVIDIA announced a new partnership with Oracle that will speed up AI adoption for enterprises. This collaboration will bring NVIDIA’s full accelerated computing stack — from GPUs to systems to software — to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI).
OCI is adding tens of thousands more NVIDIA GPUs, including the A100 and upcoming H100, to its capacity, which will offer companies to easily access tools for both AI learning and training at a deeper scale.
If you’re not sure what all of that means, don’t be too hard on yourself. We’ll keep flipping a coin for whether we have house-cleaning robots or a Terminator apocalypse and let you know what we find out!
Trouble in Paradise: This Week’s Partner Updates
It may have been a big week for sealing new deals, but some partners had other plans. It was reported that Jay-Z is suing Bacardi over his partnership with cognac brand D’USSE. For those who don’t know, Jay-Z has been a 50% owner of the cognac brand since 2011 with Bacardi claiming the other percent. He’s been known for subtly name-dropping his brand in songs for years now.
The rapper hired lawyers, according to TMZ, who are demanding transparency surrounding the brand. They are requesting all books, records and the exact location of every warehouse storing the beverage. It’s not entirely clear what’s going on, but this partnership could be coming to a close soon.
In lighter partnerships news, Apple has teamed up with Goldman Sachs to offer a high-yield savings account feature to its credit card. Expected to launch in the next few months, Apple Card users will be given the opportunity to automatically deposit their daily cashback rewards into a new savings account and will also be able to deposit through any linked accounts.
Lots of updates in the Partner Program world!
Nextiva, Kaseya, AWS, ConnectWise and SAP are just some of the companies that have started enhancing their channel programs. Launching new incentives that include updated partner tiers, certifications and training. If you feel like you’re at a standstill in your partnership program, don’t stress, we recommend reading more about these updates to help.
Weekend Watching
In this episode of Groundwork from Partnership Leaders, Tom Hewitt of Ceros talks with Tai Rattigan about what partner managers did so well with Pinterest.
PL[X] Summit: Bringing Partnerships to Every Department
Partnerships aren’t just a department. They’re a strategy that affects every department. And every department needs its own conversation. The PL[X] Summit is a 5-day remote experience bringing top growth leaders together with partnerships pros to redefine Go-To-Market forever.
Day 1: Partner Led Startup
Day 2: Partner Led Product
Day 3: Partner Led Marketing
Day 4: Partner Led Sales
Day 5: Partner Led Success
November 7-11.
It’s free, so definitely invite members of your team from other departments to their relevant day!
PS – Several PL members have been nominated for the PL[X] Awards and winners will be announced live at the event. Don’t miss it!
Partner Ops Survey Sneak Peek
Are you ready for an inside scoop on data and market insights you can’t get anywhere else? Our partner ops survey goes live early November and you’re going to want to see the results.
For now, we have a little sneak peek into what the trends are showing, and we’re astonished at the number of companies without a partner program!
The Week’s Big Leadership Themes:
Calling all those who have a reseller program internally. Tom Pinckney (Sourcegraph) is looking for some guidance on how to work with finance on getting reseller rev share approved. Have something to add or simply want to follow along. Check it out here.
More reseller questions, this one is from Christopher Smith (NexHealth) smith around upsell/renewal rights. Can you provide your point of view?
Bader Hamdan (Twilio) asks a question about a time where a partnership has failed. Do you have some insights here? If so, start a thread.
Rasheité Calhoun (Paylocity) has a question about a time where you’ve had success with partners sponsoring your sales team. (incentives) I do like this idea of a Pot of cash up for grabs for a period of time. Have you done this before? If so, can you add your learnings?
Adrienne Coburn (Oyster) has a question about payment tracking. She’s looking for something that will eventually scale. Have any ideas?
For those who travel to meet new partners, when is the right time to schedule that in person touch point? Rachel Cameron (Notarize) is joining a new team (congrats!) and would love to know. Do you have an opinion?
Nelson Wang (Airtable) asks “Does anyone know who the best partners that consult on workflows and business process mapping? Does anyone come to mind? If so, let Nelson know.
Calling all OEM Partnership Leaders, Adam Pasch (Improvado.io) would love to chat with you. Connect with him here.
Sidney Chang (Sprout Social) has a question about working with Agencies and navigating the end client / agency relationship. Can you add some insights here?
There’s been some amazing talent let go over the last few months. Tom Elliott (Left Hook) shared a website with Chris Samila (Partnership Leaders / Crossbeam) that tracks layoffs. Maybe you’ll find your next Partnership Leader through this site? Check it out.
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