1/12 I became Head of Ecosystem in 6 months, launched 0→30 partners live in 1 year, and helped scale a company to $10B. The ULTIMATE guide on doing GTM from 0 to 1, and building leverage for yourself inside a company, step-by-step 🧵
2/12 You're at an early-stage company: vague role, no success metrics. you can do anything, but 90% won't matter. Opportunity: chaos lets systematic thinkers set the rules. Most wait for role definition. Big mistake.
3/12 Lesson 1: Map the system before you optimize anything Don't start with tactics (events, content, partnerships). That's like optimizing the paint job on a car with no engine. First: Understand what machine you're building. What enables X and triggers Y?
4/12 I spent a month whiteboarding with our research team in Seattle. Learned what we could build, and mapped out our current user landscape. This became my superpower: I was one of the only people (internally & externally) with a complete view of our complex marketplace.
5/12 Build a "Trident Strategy" for execution: 🎯 Spear-fishing: Hyper-targeted outreach to highest-leverage segments 🕸️ Net-fishing: Thought leadership that pulls devs in 🤝 Closing the net: 2 speed onboarding (self-serve + white glove) Scale through systems, not just hustle.
6/12 Lesson 2: Make yourself critical Proactively claim broken-but-essential gaps. Don't wait for permission. I built so much ecosystem knowledge that product needed me for roadmap, research needed me for priorities, marketing needed me for narrative. Knowledge = leverage.
7/12 Lesson 3: Re-examine weekly What got you here won't get you there. Every week I asked: "What's the highest-leverage thing I could be doing right now?" Most people optimize for narrow and outdated priorities.
8/12 Lesson 4: Build strong tribes Humans are tribal. I focused on 4 alignments: Product (solves their problems) Incentive (create win-wins) Emotional (personal bond) Tribal (customers supporting each other) More angles mean stronger bonds.
9/12 A memorable moment: hosting our first partnership retreat in Breckenridge. A snowstorm trapped us for 3 days, helping us debug every customer's blockers. Result: 15 partners launched on mainnet, 17 on testnet. You're building not just a product—you're building a tribe.
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