For Partner1st Startups
For Partner1st Startups
PARTNER FIRST GROWTH FOR THE STARTUP 99%
There's a better, faster, cheaper way to build your tech startup. We call it Landscape Based Marketing (LBM).
In the digital jungle--aka the tech industry--the "landscape" is not some colorful logo map or static magic quadrant from an analyst firm. Never has been. The real landscape in tech is the active, pre-existing customer base and value-creating developer/partner ecosystems of incumbent vendors--Online and offline.
For startups focused on revenue development and operating self-sufficiency--vs. vanity metrics and the next VC check--incumbent vendor landscapes are living centers of strong market gravity--and forms of networked capital you can harness via Partner1st LBM. Incumbent vendor landscapes are characterized by their well-defined topography and non-stop rivalry, aka market tectonics. Simply put, incumbent vendor landscapes are alive--Even those bundle-everything B2B monocultures. These inherent properties of incumbent landscapes--Their discoverable ecosystem topography and active market tectonics--make them sticky attach surfaces for partner-advantaged revenue traction in both cloud-native & edge-native emerging markets.
For the Startup 99%--hardware, software, networking, & As-a-Service insurgents with tribal leadership & a "hunter" revenue marketing orientation--Here are the compelling benefits of LBM.
Piggyback on Incumbent Landscape Capital
Now there's a capital idea. What's "landscape" capital?
The paid customer base, developer ecosystems, and partner relationship networks of tech incumbents constitute forms of landscape capital that the Startup 99% can put to work. Platformula1 shows you how!
Reduce Over-Dependence on Venture Capital
It's about self-sufficiency, not endless "strategic finance"
With Partner1st LBM the Startup 99% prioritize operating self-sufficiency--not vanity metrics and the next VC check. As user marketing is misapplied in SaaS, XaaS, & IoT, startups have become over-dependent on VC funding.
Retain More Equity for Founders & Your Team
Control your startup's destiny where it counts the most
The Startup 99% are led by founders and their key hires, not VC dropped-in "operators" implementing the "growth" cargo cult du jour. By cutting dependence on VC cash & driving Partner1st self-sufficiency, LBM helps founders control what they create.
Rightsize Marketing & Sales Spend Forever
The burnapalooza of the Startup 1% is unsustainable
The misapplication of user marketing by startups drives marketing & sales spend through the roof. The unicorn Startup 1%--even in enterprise B2B--Burn 60/70/80% and more of revenue on sales & marketing red ink. LBM-driven startups burn dramatically less on sales & marketing, in the mid-20's percentage.
Ride Landgrab Economics in
Cloud-Native & Edge-Native
Your building block tech as next 'new stack' category
Enterprise digital transformation is underway, and many incumbents are driving this wave. IT environments are being modernized with cloud-native & edge-native building blocks. This creates new partnering opportunities for B2B/B2D startups. Platformula1 shows you how to use LBM as your new category GPS.
Grow Via Sticky Distribution on Incumbent Landscapes
Our TAO spells
Targets of Asymmetric Opportunity
Tech startups executing LBM grow via multimodal Partner @ the Core distribution. From HW/SW OEMs to partner APIs to SaaS pivots from direct-to-user models, we're fluent in partner-based market development for startups. And we help incumbents re-engineer their partner programs to capitalize on new partnering approaches.
LBM ALIGNS THE STARTUP 99% WITH THE "BASEHACKING" AGENDAS OF ENTERPRISE TECH INCUMBENTS
Enterprise tech incumbents are basehackers with Land/Expand account sales models that naturally & continuously drive landscape tectonics & startup opportunity.
LET'S BREAK IT DOWN
TECH INCUMBENTS HAVE WELL-DEFINED PRODUCT, SALES, AND CATEGORY EXPANSION MODELS & PROCESSES
Startups that understand and align with incumbent models and processes can leverage them.
Here's what the Startup 99% need to know about incumbents to break completely with cargo cult startup models and creatively undertake their Partner1st LBM journey.
INCUMBENTS ARE BASEHACKERS.
THEY "LAND & EXPAND"
Tech incumbents sell one thing and upsell many things. They land and expand.
The term we use to describe this continuous process of upselling to existing, i.e. "installed base" customer accounts, partner networks, and 3rd party developers is basehacking. Incumbent tech basehacking is a form of "whole ecosystem strategic account management" through which incumbents have built ongoing customer, partner & developer networks the Startup 99% can engage--Symbiotically and with permission through Partner1st LBM.
LAND/EXPAND BASEHACKING DRIVES INCUMBENT PRODUCT BUNDLING
Bundled product families, frameworks, & fabrics underpin incumbent Land/Expand sales models.
Simply put, incumbent basehackers orchestrate their value proposition across multiple categories, and continuously broaden their value prop into adjacent and new categories, creating a true "center of market gravity". They are always on the hunt for new differentiation--and acquire and partner with startups to gain that differentiation. "Bundling" is also how tech incumbents resist commoditization of their value prop by VC-funded, subsidized-adoption "disruptors" in the Startup 1%.
PRODUCT BUNDLING MORPHS INTO MARKETING "MONOCULTURE"
When you multiply "Land/Expand" X "Product Bundling" over time, what emerges is a branded monoculture marketing model.
Monoculture is now the main trend in tech, in which "off the shelf" or "out of box" cross-category bundled product/service sets from Vendor A compete with bundled product/service sets from Vendor B. Legacy enterprise monocultures serve as centers of market gravity attracting developers and partners seeking to piggyback on, and profit from, a specific monoculture agenda. While the Startup 1% seek venture capital to "unbundle" and disrupt incumbents, the Startup 99% know that there is much more upside to partnering with incumbents to gain permissioned access to their ecosystems, ecozones, and ecoregions.
INCUMBENT MONOCULTURE RIVALRY TRIGGERS LANDSCAPE TECTONICS
It is a mistake to think that 2-dimensional "disruption" drives markets. Monocultures-at-war drive markets.
Tech monocultures are responsible for the lion's share of growth action in tech markets. Think cloud wars, mobile wars, enterprise data center wars, and soon the "edge" wars. Tech monocultures are also tipping into traditionally "non tech" markets, e.g. vehicles, expanding opportunity for a new generation of Partner1st startups at the in-motion "elastic edge". And as tech monocultures expand into traditionally non-tech markets (e.g. Amazon's buyout of Whole Foods) tectonics intensify and new partnering opportunities for the Startup 99% present themselves.
LANDSCAPE TECTONICS EXPOSE NEW ATTACH SURFACES FOR STARTUP PARTNERING
When monoculture tectonics intensify, LBM startups think Attach, not Attack. They "Get Grounded"
New categories and lucrative partnering opportunities continuously emerge in the bundled product family gaps of incumbents. These gaps can be addressed by both pure play tech startups and new enterprise digital transformation initiatives that seek to "productize" internal processes (e.g.how banks are pursuing "fintech"). LBM practitioners stay tuned for opportunity "big signals", and act accordingly when these gaps are identified. Because of cargo cult marketing "thought leadership", the study of landscape tectonics by industry analyst firms is weak and relatively shallow--As is the idea of "Attach vs Attack" as a strategic conversation inside the startup marketing community. This is what happens when "strategic finance" (aka subsidized user marketing) replaces strategic marketing in startup land.
PARTNER VIABLE PRODUCTS (PVP) DRIVE SYMBIOTIC ATTACH STRATEGY
When Partner1st LBM startups identify new category gaps, they build Partner Viable Products.
Partner Viable Products are attachable "digital building blocks" consumed by incumbent partners and their extended developer networks inside of or adjacent to the apps, clouds, networks, systems, solutions, and experiences that incumbents deliver to their customers. When one reviews 2016 and 2017 tech IPOs, it is clear that those startups that pursued a Partner1st model have much more profitable businesses with much lower marketing and sales spend. This is major data point for venture-funded SaaS startups with direct to customer models based on freemium user funnels. These companies need to get busy and "xaasify" their startup.
A PARTNER1ST REVENUE DESIGN PATTERN (RDP) FUELS YOUR EMERGING CATEGORY LANDGRAB
Startups with a winning PVP secure their path to emerging category leadership with a Partner1st Revenue Design Pattern (RDP)
It is increasingly clear to many startups that the direct-to-customer subscription SaaS model--rationalized by the concept of LTV--fails the Startup 99%. To succeed with an LBM-focused strategy, the Startup 99% leverage "creativity more than cash". They don't just build a "platform" and then burn obscene amounts of VC cash to "drive user adoption". They build a unique platformula or Partner1st Revenue Design Pattern that rewards incumbent partners for adopting and marketing your Partner Viable Product. A solid RDP is a basehacker "ticket to the game", enabling incumbents to immediately win in their pre-existing customer, partner, and developer networks--And triggering a landgrab adoption pattern for your PVP.
IT'S A DIGITAL JUNGLE OUT THERE.
CAPTURE THE LION'S SHARE OF GROWTH WITH LBM.
Wherever your startup is in its growth journey, LBM can help you go from "disruptive attack" to symbiotic "attach".
If your startup is brand spanking new, make LBM strategy the nucleus of your planning, and avoid the high burn user-marketing investments and ungrounded disruption mindset popular with the cargo cult Startup 1%. Or if your startup launched as a direct-to-user SaaS or App vendor, we can help you untangle that VC-dependent model in favor of a low burn, partner-advantaged XaaS or API-as-a-Product model.
And if you're an incumbent player looking to re-invent your partner ecosystem from the inside out--LBM can help you attract the cream of the startup crop to align with your value prop and land/expand growth agenda. And finally, if you need help building the emerging category thought leadership you need to win on incumbent landscapes, we've got your back.
LBM QuickStart: For the Startup 99%
Get Grounded. Get Attached. Get Paid.
Landscape Based Marketing (LBM) is a Partner1st growth system for cloud-native and edge-native building block startups--i.e. the Startup 99%.
Play or get played. That's the way it works in tech startup land. But the vast majority of startups--the Startup 99%--have gotten "played" by relying on the high cash-burn, fake growth cargo cult of the Startup 1%. This cargo cult sets up the Startup 99% for failure by mistakenly focusing on attacking incumbents instead of forging partnerships with them--in their customer base and developer/partner ecosystems, i.e. the "landscape" they occupy.
Platformula1 knows from experience that the Startup 99% overwhelmingly benefit by building a landscape-grounded startup with Partner Viable Products (PVP) and a Partner1st Revenue Design Pattern. This model drives self-reliant growth at the lowest cost of sales/marketing.
Platformula1 uses its battle-proven "9 Grounds of LBM" framework to provide a structured market development model that drives LBM traction for bootstrapped and angel-backed startups with either cloud-native or edge-native innovation. Our LBM Quickstart is incredibly affordable for the Startup 99%. And if we love your emerging category more than we love our own children, we'll be very accomodating.
Reach out to us using the form below and let's creatively apply LBM to your startup.LBM BaseHacker: For Incumbents
Partner Ecosystem Re-invention
Incumbent tech B2B basehackers with land/expand strategic selling models have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to re-invent their partner ecosystems-- And win big in the ongoing cloud-native and edge-native landgrabs. Landscape Based Marketing (LBM) mindset and new kinds of partner programs are the key.
Don't paint your partner marketing organization into a corner by over-relying on legacy "channel" programs with costly, pay-to-play MDF or high maintenance subsidized selling. In the age of "anything as a service" or XaaS, you'd be missing out. LBM enables your organization to begin leveraging your new as-a-service products to build new partner-advantaged revenue engines.
For example, add-on partner marketplaces pioneered by multiple incumbents have served as partner magnets bringing new value to an incumbents' installed base of customers and pre-existing ecosytem allies, while monetizing your customer landscape in new ways.
In the case of leading cloud incumbents, these kinds of new partner initiatives have supercharged growth and adoption inside the installed base, while closing product gaps in existing portfolios.
Have your lion reach out to our lion below.
LBM Frame: For the Startup 99%
Emerging Category Positioning & Content
New categories are continuously emerging inside of cloud & edge developer ecosystems. The Startup 99% require category-framed content creation to fuel Partner1st revenue programs.
What emerging category innovators need to win is not more cotton candy hypecycle click bait--But multi-dimensional thought leadership that frames their innovation & building block goodness for rapid partner adoption--By incumbents in search of the next big differentiator. Thought leadership is not about the corporate ego trip but the partner "eco trip" of how your innovation plays inside of, and attached to, incumbent landscapes.
And direct SaaS players---once entirely focused on downstream user adoption---are pivoting to Partner1st XaaS and now monetize upstream developer integrations and embedded partnerships by exposing their offerings and data as plug/play PVPs, e.g. API-as-a-Product or white label XaaS. This pivot requires a different kind of messaging and positioning of your value proposition than direct user CTA content.
We help you craft the messaging, content, & category thought leadership you need to frame your digital building block services as must-have capabilities for alpha developers and incumbent ecosystem partners.
Reach out below or and learn to speak lion to the other lions. We'll translate for you.
LBM XaaSify: For SaaS Pivots
SaaS-to-XaaS Transformation via LBM
Without continuous infusions of venture capital, the direct-to-customer SaaS model is difficult to sustain, let alone drive to GAAP profitability. Platformula1 recommends that direct SaaS startups take out an insurance policy against failure, and "XaaSify" their startup through Partner1st LBM.
Software may be "eating the world", but direct-to-customer SaaS is eating the income statement--regularly burning 60/70/80 percent of GAAP revenue (or more) on sales/marketing spend. Direct SaaS has extremely low sales efficiency and is bringing back many forms of non-permissioned marketing, including invasive telesales to users that "churn out" of free or freemium offerings. Why reinvent the wheel with user-based "sell to" when partner-based "sell through" powers growth at a dramatically lower marketing/sales spend.
Platformula1's XaaSify service helps SaaS players pivot their direct model to a Partner Viable Product (PVP) with multiple partner-based distribution options and a Partner1st Revenue Design Pattern.
Startups that follow this approach stand in dramatic contrast to the high burn marketing and sales model of direct-to-customer SaaS "disruptors".
We'll help your "as a service" innovation win big in the company of lions. Just contact us using the form below.
Platformula1 Provides Free Cargo Cult Marketing Detox On Demand
Platformula1 is unique in our assessment that there is lost institutional memory in Silicon Valley venture incubators & accelerators relative to the power of incumbent landscapes to drive Partner 1st growth for startups--And that recovering and making actionable this lost institutional memory provides compelling value to the bootstrapped Startup 99%.
That's our mission. Evangelizing a better, faster, cheaper "path dependency" for startup traction based on symbiotic partnering with incumbent basehackers.
Joseph Bentzel
Founder, Senior Project Lead, Platformula1
Author of cult classic Asymmetric Marketing, Joe began his career at AT&T in their earliest initiatives with online services. Joe has served as either formal CMO or transitional turnaround CMO at multiple hardware, software, networking, and "as a service" startups.
As senior consultant at Platformula1, he has served startups and incumbents across scores of B2B, B2D, and B2C categories. Joe is personally involved in every project.
Landscape Asymmetry = Landgrab Opportunity
for Partner1st Startups
11 years later it's still evergreen content, and the theoretical foundation of Landscape Based Marketing (LBM)
“It is (the) creative cooptation of the market power of incumbent market leaders . . . that should be the goal of every asymmetric marketer at every stage of the evolution of your business strategy.”
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