Ty Grange (2:37)

I love it. I love thinking about engines and customer acquisition, customer nurturing and something I've lived and been a part of for quite a while. So it's cool to hear your perspective on it. Maybe just zooming out a little bit for folks that are new ish and don't know much about Partner Stack yet. Can you just give the very basic of like what is Partner Stack for people coming in fresh?

Sid Mogpal (2:57)

Absolutely. Great question. So Partner Stack is the number one partner ecosystem platform out there. They are your one stop shop to help manage, train, recruit, onboard, pay out your partners. You're able to run all types of partner programs on Partner Stack. And that's like a little bit of a spiel, I guess of what PartnerStack does. I can go into them further, but that's a little overview of what we do.

Ty Grange (3:18)

Perfect, perfect. And you guys, are you guys focused on the B2B landscape, is that correct?

Sid Mogpal (3:23)

Yes, B2B is our focus for sure and that's where most of our customers are. So B2B SaaS companies are who we work with. Beautiful.

Ty Grange (3:32)

I love it. And then like obviously you've spent a lot of time in, you know, developing community. What is that? How do you kind of define community and what do you, what are you, some of the things that you're doing with that as it relates to kind of nurturing customers?

Sid Mogpal (3:47)

Yeah, absolutely. I think community is so essential for customer marketing, in my opinion is like the core for the building a well oiled machine for customer marketing. And it's not just online, it's also offline. And so we launched a online community called Partner Slack, which is obviously a Slack based community which has all of our customers and partners as well. It's been a great sort of platform for customers to connect with one another, discuss ideas, help each other with the product, sort of really connect with each other and grow and build. We also obviously do a lot of stuff offline, which is something I'm a huge fan of and sort of help build. Uh, we've launched something called Stacked, which was in 2022, which was our first ever conference. So we're now going onto our Our fourth one this coming year or this year. Sorry. And we've also evolved stacked, not to be just one conference in New York, but also now launch stacked meetups. So we're doing multiple meetups in different cities. We're coming to Austin very soon and then doing one in Toronto, one in San Francisco. Really sort of making our mark everywhere that we go and building a community, not just online, but also like local communities in. In tech hubs where a lot of our customers, partners and even. And even prospects are. So I think community is great and I think being in the world of partnerships, partnerships is people, and I think we sometimes forget that. And so we really want to make sure that we're able to bring people together because people want to connect with one another, they want to build together, they want to learn together. And so I think in the world of partnerships, community is more important more than anything else. I think it's so important in this space because it's all about the people.

Ty Grange (5:10)

I love that. I couldn't agree more. Kind of putting the customer marketing hat on a little bit and would you maybe just drill down with me on some of the like, use cases and maybe that ICP of like customer stage type. I'm just curious to learn a little bit more of that since the customer is really a big focus for you and your team at Partner Stack and just understand maybe how you think about that and some of those ideal customers that you see serving.

Sid Mogpal (5:38)

Well, yeah, for sure. I think it's. That's an interesting question because I think community serves all types of customers, whether they're a brand new customer or they're someone that's been with us for ages or someone that's sort of in the middle. Because I think people that are just sort of ramping up and getting onto partnerstack, they want to learn from customers who have done this for a while and have been on it, or they can probably learn from other customers who are sort of in the same boat as them. Whereas the mid tier customers may be more focused on the product and how to get more ROI from it. So they join our webinars or they come to our events. And similarly, people who've been with us for a long time are now our advocates. They want to help us build case studies, they want to help us, they want to give us reviews, they want to come speak at our events. So I think it's interesting how a community is not just for one type of customer. I think it's for everyone. I think there's a broad range of sort of things and channels that people can leverage as a part of this community. And I don't think you have to be a certain type of customer. It's sort of what you're looking to achieve from the community. I think we've also made sure to give people that platform and that avenue where these communities aren't only catered to one type of customer. There's different types of sessions, there's different workshops, there's different webinars, there's different things we do online that really makes sure that everyone has a place in this community. Which sounds a bit cliche, but it's truly what I believe. And I don't think we should have a community just for one type of customer. I think it should be for everyone. And everyone should be able to find a place and something that they connect to and relate to.

Ty Grange (7:02)

Amazing. Speaking of customer and focusing on them, you sounds like you flew across the entire globe to meet with some folks. Can you kind of share a little bit more about kind of how that came about and how it went?

Sid Mogpal (7:18)

Yeah, absolutely. So I am a huge fan of travel and meeting customers, so those go hand in hand. Of course. And so I was in India visiting family and friends in Delhi and realized that freshworks is in the south, which is like a three hour flight. So I was like, it would be awesome to go and ask Tyler. He was like, absolutely, do it. I was, we can record some awesome content, which is actually coming out today. So it's very exciting and well timed. But yeah, I got to fly down to Chennai to meet freshworks. So I spent a couple of days with them, which was awesome. I think just being in a different country, totally literally across the world and seeing what impact partnerstack has, sometimes I think you're just on your laptop, working away and you forget the impact that you're driving. Not just in North America, but globally. And just being able to be in their office, like being in a different culture, seeing how they work, seeing how they operate, getting to shoot content there, working with a team from there, it was just an absolutely monumental experience in my career. I can probably say one of the top three coolest things I've done at PartnerStack was definitely this. And I think it's something that everyone should do. If you're ever traveling and you know a customer that might be there, go meet them. And we had some great meals together. Had some awesome food, which is always the cherry on top. They showed me around the city and it was just, I think when you get to meet People in person. Again, it's not just about work. You also build real connections, you build real relationships with people, which I value a lot. So I think just getting to spend time with people, you get past the laptop and you have such deep conversations. So it was awesome.

Ty Grange (8:41)

One of my favorite thoughts around that I was sharing with somebody recently that when you're in person there's just like literally, scientifically, so many more signals you get back in terms of reading the non verbal body language. It totally changes the zoom dynamic and the phone call dynamic. Do you see that come out in conversations and in community?

Sid Mogpal (9:07)

Absolutely. I think in person events and in person meetings, whatever they are, can drastically change the way you work with people and can change your dynamic with people and just the better. And I think we need to do more of it and I don't think we do enough of it. I think Covid has still kind of affected how people view events and how many events people are doing, attending or hosting. I think it's now starting to change and hopefully will continue to go back to what it used to be. But I think Covid's impact, I think we still feel it a bit and people aren't as passionate about events as I think as they used to be.

Ty Grange (9:38)

Before COVID Yeah, kind of like dovetailing on that thought. I've heard. I want to say it was Anthony Kanata, who's pretty prominent in B2B and in marketing and content and to some extent some community stuff, but he was talking about conferences and kind of how their model is not really what it, what it used to be and how that that needs to be rethought and changed. It's sort of a different topic. But I'm curious to know your perspective because it sounds like, you know, Partner Stack's looking at it a little bit differently. And yes, you have a conference, but in my view there's like an intimacy around it, I guess. I'm curious to know like how you view conferences, how you view what Partner Stack's doing because that's such a common form of community and like how people meet in person. How do you think about conferences versus like what Partner Stack is trying to do versus what you think is ideal for kind of that customer engagement. Just getting the best out of these conversations for sure.

Sid Mogpal (10:39)

Yeah. I myself have been to so many massive conferences myself where you're like a one in a thousand and you don't really get to actually network and build connections. You're sort of just there as an attendee, listening, walking around the floor But I find that it's very hard to build connections and talk to people at a deeper level. And that's what we heard from a lot of people in the partnership space. A lot of people have gone to these massive conferences but haven't come back with a whole lot and haven't had many positive things to say about the larger conference. And so we definitely didn't want to do that. We wanted to create a space where people are together for a couple of days, really learning together, working together, getting to meet partners, getting to meet other customers, getting to meet some prospects, really sort of having a diverse group of people there from our ecosystem. And we want to cap it at 100 people. And that's exactly what we've done. And now we've been selling out for the last couple of years, which has been awesome as we started this event in 2022 and now it's become a brand, an event that people are looking forward to. So I'm proud to say that we've kept it at 100 and we want to keep it at that mark because we want to keep it intimate. Like people have given us the best feedback about the fact that it's small and about the fact that they get to spend time with each other. And we've sort of seen the same people come each year with obviously some new faces. But it's almost we've built a community that want to come to stacked each year because of what we get to present and showcase and the types of people that we bring to these events. People leave hugging each other ads on our Instagram like it's like they're almost become this like stacked family. I'd like to say where it's really nice to see like the same faces each year and obviously new people joining as well. But I'm very proud of what we've built. And now we're also doing meetups so we'll see where that, how that evolves. But it's really cool to see this like baby that we started and to see how it's grown and it's become a sold out event each year.

Ty Grange (12:18)

How many are you hoping for in Austin, if you don't mind me asking?

Sid Mogpal (12:21)

Yeah, absolutely. We're expecting between like 40 to 50 people there, so more again keeping it small, not looking to have it be a thousand people of course, and getting to spend some quality time with people there, including yourself.

Ty Grange (12:34)

Yeah, I'm excited about it. It's in the calendar end of march, I think. March 27th, right?

Sid Mogpal (12:40)

Exactly, yeah.

Ty Grange (12:41)

Little plug for Everyone to sign up and get down here and join us. So isn't there a study that there was an east coast company that once they reached over a hundred people in their company, they started seeing less kind of like dynamic interaction, less like name recall? I want to say they. They had. They had like, kept office spaces and pods, like almost under that hundred number. I don't quote me on that, but I think there's some research around that. And I wonder if it be under a hundred to your point. Kind of really, kind of underlines that need of, like, improves that connection and recall and connectivity between guests at a conference or mini conference.

Sid Mogpal (13:25)

What.

Ty Grange (13:25)

What do you think there's something to that?

Sid Mogpal (13:27)

Yeah, I mean, I'm not sure of the science behind that, but I'm sure that there's something there. But I think keeping it at that mark is so powerful because you actually get to talk to almost everyone at the event. And we make sure to have multiple times during both the days for just networking. Our first day is just a welcome party, and honestly, I would say 80 to 90% of people actually come to that because it is a party that we throw. And you get to talk to everyone. You get to meet partners there, you get to meet other customers. And then throughout the day, on day two, we have a lot of networking breaks and times for people to actually work with each other. Then we have a happy hour afterwards. The party never stops, but it's a great time to meet with everyone. And I think the 100 number, there's probably some magic to that for sure, because every year, every year we hear the same feedback that, thank you for keeping it the size. Thank you for keeping it small. We love the intimacy. We love how. How it was easy to talk to everyone. So I think there's definitely some power there for sure.

Ty Grange (14:18)

I definitely think just from my perspective, having attended New York, it's what you're saying really resonates. And as a. As a different type of customer interacting with the ecosystem, I'm very much a believer in kind of what you're talking about and what you're saying. I think there was an intimacy level that is unique and really powerful and helpful. So I think you got that one figured out and excited to see what's next in Austin and all these other spots. Toronto, San Francisco. San Francisco is a great ecosystem. So there's all acronyms that fly around the industry. And it's always, you know, there's a lot of them. Prm. Give the audience a little bit of background on PRM and A bit more for everybody.

Sid Mogpal (15:00)

Yeah. So PRM is your partnership relationship management system. So sort of like a CRM but for partnerships. And that sort of evolved to now be more of a partner ecosystem platform as that's more encompassing and sort of includes the entire ecosystem. So Partner Stack is definitely your partnership, sorry, your partner ecosystem platform. And that's sort of what we're going to market with and sort of what we're known for as that's like as it's your one place to sort of manage, recruit, track payout scale with your partners versus having multiple systems and spreadsheets and different things to manage your partnerships. So definitely sort of evolving to be more of a partnership ecosystem platform. I think that's sort of the new sort of terminology that's been trending in the industry and sort of where people are pivoting to and that's sort of how I think that's evolved from a PRM to be more of an ecosystem platform that's more encompassing and just like.

Ty Grange (15:50)

Trying to give people more pieces of that and trying to define and unpack and understand that. So my sentiment is coming from this. You're able to basically run affiliate, run a lot of internal partner ecosystem work off of partner stack for a brand. Can you maybe describe a little bit more about all the different types of partners in the partner relationship management space? Go from small, more short term to larger scale in your, you know, ecosystem and, and just give people a little bit more under the hood of like what are those use cases?

Sid Mogpal (16:31)

What.

Ty Grange (16:31)

There's quite a few of them which I think is really impressive. And like historically there's like tech partnerships and tech enablement and like yeah, partner marketing internally. So a lot of these things are kind of hard to understand, especially people are not in B2B or software. But I excited, I think it's really a big differentiator for you all and partner Stack and I'm happy to just hear what your thoughts are there.

Sid Mogpal (16:51)

Yeah, for sure. Our network has all types of partners and as a Partner Stack customer you also get to list your program on our network and access over 80,000 partners. So it's sort of a great place to promote your program, get the right eyes and recruit your partners to actually join your program. And that's been a great tool for a lot of our customers to help them grow their partner program. Especially for partner programs that are just starting out and want to sort of build their program, it's a great way to get started. And so the type of partners we have is a broad, broad Range from affiliates to technology advice is one of our big partners. We have Forbes as well. So there's a broad range of the partner types that we have. So really depending on your program, the type of partners that you're looking for, you're really able to connect with them. Through our marketplace. We also now have a partner recruitment tool which sort of helps you filter through the types of partners that we have in terms of what you're looking for based on different criteria and a great way to sort of get connected with them and get them to join your program and then start working with them to obviously drive revenue. So there's a broad range of partners really depends on what you're looking for.

Ty Grange (17:55)

And for a company that is using Partner Stack to consider like what would be probably dubbed like more traditional partner marketing where maybe they're like doing API integrations, let's say, you know, HubSpot, Salesforce kind of comes to mind. Obviously some of that stuff is they own and operate tech. But for folks maybe who are newer to that, what's been the reception like from your view from customers who you're marketing to around Partner Stack and kind of like the response when it comes to like using Partner Stack as a means of like facilitating those, those more tech partner integrations and those more what is then very much historically kind of like an in house function.

Sid Mogpal (18:38)

Yeah, I think the reception from customers has been amazing. I think we're constantly looking for like tech partners to work with and integrate with, of course. And we're launching new integrations very often. We always have some of our tech partners come out to our event stack as well to speak about their integrations with us and see how customers can work with them. So I think it's been received really, really well. HubSpot is one that we integrate with of course, which was a big launch that we did last year and we continue to look to see which platforms we can integrate with to help our customers, of course, and see a better ROI with Partner Stack. So I think being innovative and being on top of stuff and being ahead of the game is what partnerstack loves to do and is what we do best. So I think we're always, always looking for the next best thing to help our customers continue to grow and scale with us.

Ty Grange (19:25)

That's awesome. No, I love it. We didn't talk a ton about this, but we're obviously investing a ton in what I would consider like the partner marketing ecosystem in terms of, you know, B2B and tech and consumer as well for our and Obviously work with you all. It's very, it's much more B2B focused. But another trend we're eyeing and writing about and talking about it's taught topic as influencer creator may be better word for the, for the B2B side of it. And we see a lot on YouTube. YouTube has kind of become very powerful. What's been kind of your thoughts there in terms of maybe like customer feedback or are you seeing a lot of customers really like wave the flag of like, hey, we really need a better solution for B2B creator. And how much of that do you hear when you are talking to customers? Because it seems to be such a significant movement. I'm curious to get your perspective on that.

Sid Mogpal (20:20)

Yeah, for sure. I think the buzz has began and I think we're starting to hear more and more about it all throughout the ecosystem. As you mentioned. I haven't heard a lot about it yet to be very honest, but I definitely see a lot of stuff happening on LinkedIn and people talking more about it and how can we sort of get more into that space and how can partnerstack sort of help with that? Not a whole lot more I have there, to be honest. But that's sort of. I think there's a lot that we can do with it and a lot that we're looking into. But it's definitely something that's on the rise and we're seeing how sort of partners that can help our customers and of course our prospects tap more into the influencer side of things. Yeah.

Ty Grange (20:57)

And I think it's stepping back. Obviously PartnerStack super invested in affiliate marketing world and what some call partner marketing. And I think that it's. It's widely reported like the growth rate there is significant. The growth rate there is outpacing. It's a more nascent market that's growing really well, which is awesome for Partner Stack. It's awesome for around our labs. We're seeing a lot of investment and growth and performance there with our, with our clients in that vertical. I would imagine it's almost like compounded by. With the whole creator movement and a creator is going to continue to see this next wave of creators. It's already happening in our view. We're seeing it constantly and it's been fun. So yeah, I wrote a piece on the newsletter about it and it spans beyond consumer. It's certainly happening directly with B2B as well. But I think B2B's wave is coming to your point and it's starting to happen.

Sid Mogpal (21:53)

Absolutely. It'll be interesting to see how things sort of pan out over the next little bit and how it takes over the B2B world in some ways and what the impact is.

Ty Grange (22:02)

Totally. And kind of in that spirit of, you know, always be testing and thinking about the learnings that we've gathered and you've, you've seen. Do you have an example of like trust building and such? You know, that that's really such a core piece of what we're seeing in the market of like that need to kind of elevate trust building. Brands can no longer really talk just directly to customers as effectively and as in a trustworthy way as they used to. They kind of need that those third parties that we work with, you know, to kind of deliver that trust, deliver that authenticity. Do you have some examples that you've kind of seen come to life on Partner Stack that you might want to share?

Sid Mogpal (22:39)

Yeah. In terms of trust building with customers or trust building in the market?

Ty Grange (22:43)

Yeah, probably more trust building in the market. You know, if you step back and think about, you know, a great SaaS brand that's plugged into Partner Stack that you would call a customer that's coming in, it's using Partner Stack and then they're, they're going out to their customers and acquiring a significant amount of customers to their B2B SaaS product via trusted authentic third parties. But using Partner Stack to do that.

Sid Mogpal (23:08)

Gotcha. Yeah, I think we have a lot of customers that have done that very, very, very, very well with us and have really scaled from like 0 to 100 with us and built out their partner programs, expanded their partner programs to be multiple partner programs and hire from our network and are really true hero customers. One that I'll name drop for sure is Monday.com. they're one of our biggest customers, of course, and one of my favorite customers to work with. They have an awesome team there. We worked so much with them on various different initiatives. Whether it's like marketing with us, it's coming to our and speaking at our events and they've done a fantastic job of really building their program. So they have like world class onboarding program, they recruit a lot from our network, they continue scaling with Partner Stack and trying different things, marketing to our different partners through different channels. And they're constantly, as you would say, always testing, which I think is an amazing sort of mindset to have and amazing model to use especially in the partnership space. So they've been a customer that I've worked very closely with on lots of different initiatives and continue to work with them and an absolute fan of everyone on that team as well. So it makes working with them a lot more fun, a lot more easier. But they're truly someone that's sort of really gone to market with PartnerStack and has done some amazing things and continue to do so.

Ty Grange (24:16)

I love it now. This is awesome, man. And I think you're, you're dropping some good things. And you know, we see oftentimes like you kind of have sales led growth. SaaS you've got product led growth. Do you kind of have like a community is obviously something you're, you're really invested in and seems to be working for Partner Stack and you're leading that charge and you talked a lot about the value in that. Is there like a. For brands that are kind of like trying to capture community and trying to build community and think about community, is there like a maybe percent allocation of test budget or a percent of your marketing that should be community based? I'm sure it's pretty unique, but you know, you're kind of there on the front lines, you know, building these relationships with Partner Stack customers. What, how do you counsel a brand on how to do that in community?

Sid Mogpal (25:05)

For sure, that's a great question. I don't know if I have the exact number or what that magic number would be, but I would say like events one aren't cheap to sort of run and do if we're thinking more of the offline part of community. It's also a lot of time and work that it takes to put on events. So I would say about probably like 20% should be something that you can like test out and see how that lands with your market and your audience. Because a lot of it goes a lot of work and time, as I mentioned, goes into these events, but there's lots of ROI that also comes out of this. You're sort of investing in your customers, you're investing in your prospects, in your partners, whoever you're inviting to these events and they will then speak highly of you and you're able to build these connections with them. So it's sort of like a revenue driver. For sure. You might not see the impact immediately, but there's a lot of power in investing in this community that then get people to become advocates for your platform and then sort of get you more business and speak highly of you. It's also a great time to get your prospects to actually meet your customers in person, which is also very hard to do virtually but very easy to do in person. So I think that there's a lot of power and a lot of ROI that you can see if, if done well. But I would say maybe around that 20% mark could be a good sort of thing to first test out, see how it does, and then pivot accordingly.

Ty Grange (26:17)

Yeah, I'm envisioning like kind of this qualitative and quantity quantitative data point of folks that are not able to connect in person. They do, you know, either either an existing relationship or new. And you kind of see that change, you know, firsthand. I've experienced it firsthand. Our team has. It's still very much a part of our lives and business and culture. And I think even with this, like, wave of AI and tech and some fears around what's coming, I think there's a lot of excitement and positivity and value in just getting humans together, which is what you're. You're really doing. And I love that we get to do that in our, you know, community in this ecosystem. That's awesome. Coming down the home stretch, we're doing the quick Fire round, learning a little bit more about Sid Get Throw out some favorite book recommendation. What do you got?

Sid Mogpal (27:08)

Oh my God. Favorite book. One of the books I love is called the White Tiger. There's actually a movie on Netflix based on it, but I read the book before the movie came out but highly, highly recommend it. Super easy read, very interesting and it's a very cool story but. And if the book's not for you, watch the movie and then read the book. But highly recommend.

Ty Grange (27:27)

I love it. Latest TV show binge Guilty pleasure. What do you got there?

Sid Mogpal (27:32)

So one that I'll say publicly is White Lotus Season 3 just came out so I watched the first episode last weekend so waiting for the next episode but another show embarrassed to share but I'll share is Dubai Bling Trash reality TV but great to binge watch while you're doing other things.

Ty Grange (27:48)

Amazing. I love it. I have to confess, I'm a huge White Lotus fan. I actually my newsletter was dedicated to all the crazy stuff HBO Max has put out and all insanely good value that that people have seen ever since Sopranos to the Wire to Succession to White Lotus. And I could not agree more. I admittedly did not watch this season premiere but I made it prominently featured in our in a newsletter drop yesterday and I really, I'm a huge, I'm a huge fan. I'm excited to watch it and you.

Sid Mogpal (28:23)

Need to watch it. The the intro to season three is getting a lot of heat because it's really kind of odd the way they've made the intro sound. So love to hear thoughts on it once you do watch the first episode.

Ty Grange (28:34)

We actually sourced a creator for something unrelated and they actually used the White Lotus theme song in their, in their post for one of the brands we represent, which was pretty, pretty hilarious. So yeah, it's. It's a pretty good one and I love the call out. Timely, timely as well. I've gotta, I gotta do some catching up. I got into the agency and got super addicted to that. It's a Paramount plus show. Stellar cast and some pretty good ones. I actually still need to watch the final episode which is kind of a funny story which I'll share another time. But it's a good one. So what's something people might not know about you?

Sid Mogpal (29:15)

I grew up in Dubai. Fun fact. I was there until I was nine and then moved to Toronto when I turned nine. I just went back to Dubai after 23 years to go visit and it is a different world. It is not the divide that we knew when we left. So it's very interesting to see how that place has completely changed. But a really cool place to grow up as a kid but now it's a. It's a different world for sure.

Ty Grange (29:39)

That's amazing. I love that. That is so amazing. And it's. I can only imagine all the change that's happened. I will have to like we need to set aside a time to talk about that. I really want to go visit. I've heard amazing things and that's a lot.

Sid Mogpal (29:52)

Yeah. Cool place though.

Ty Grange (29:53)

Amazing. Dave, you're absolutely the man. I'm so grateful to have chatted with you. Thanks for taking the time. Tons of learnings about community and you working with great customers at Partner Stack and we're, we're just grateful for all the conversation and learnings that you've dropped today. So thanks for joining.

Sid Mogpal (30:09)

Yes, no, thank you for having me. Appreciate all the questions, appreciate the time and can't wait to see you soon in Austin. Thank you.

Ty Grange (30:15)

Looking forward to it. See you soon.

Sid Mogpal (30:16)

Bye bye. It.