How to Make Marketplace Native to Sales + Jay McBain on What's Changing
Hi, it’s Roman Kirsanov from the Partner Insight newsletter, where I deconstruct winning Cloud GTM strategies and the latest trends in cloud marketplaces.
In this week’s edition:
Jay McBain on why cybersecurity, agentic AI, and marketplaces are converging — and why Google Cloud may be uniquely positioned. Plus his special invite to our March 24 event
How to make Marketplace native to your sales team: the MEDDPICC mapping that turned one AI company’s sellers into co-sell advocates
MongoDB (6X Google Cloud Partner of the Year), TD SYNNEX, and Google Cloud leaders — meet 4 standout operators joining our biggest GCP Marketplace event yet
$553B in customer commits. 531% multicloud database growth. Oracle just showed that partner-led AI demand is very real.
A Special Invite from Jay McBain to Our Google Cloud Marketplace Event (March 24)
We caught up with Jay McBain last week ahead of our upcoming event: Google Cloud Marketplace: Your Growth Engine for 2026. Here’s what he’s tracking right now — and what he’ll cover in his keynote:
The Wiz acquisition ($32B) isn’t just a cybersecurity play — it has ecosystem ramifications for every GCP partner
Cybersecurity has been one of the most successful categories on cloud marketplaces. Palo Alto alone has done billions through GCP Marketplace
Agentic AI is creating a “wild west” moment that mirrors the early days of SaaS and shadow IT — but the partner AI opportunity is compounding at 35%+ CAGR through 2030
Google Cloud is the only full-stack AI player with 100% partner commitment. Jay: “Really, really well set up with what they’ve done around partnering”
Marketplace is where all of this converges — cybersecurity, agentic AI, partner-led distribution
Join our event on March 24 to hear from Jay on the latest trends and partner opportunities in cloud marketplaces and AI.
Make Marketplace MEDDPICC-native: Translate Co-sell into Sellers’ Normal Process
CRO of a fast-growing AI company told me recently: once his sellers saw that Marketplace + co-sell can strengthen every part of MEDDPICC, there was no going back.
Problem:
Alliance teams often introduce Marketplace + co-sell as a separate track: new forms, new steps, new “ask alliances.”
So even when customers can buy through Marketplace, the default path wins: the one sellers already know.
Unlock:
Translate Marketplace + co-sell into MEDDPICC so sellers feel like they’re running their usual process — with more leverage.
Here’s the mapping & slides you can use:
Metrics - M
Quantify the value of your ISV solution and the advantages of buying via marketplaces (using cloud commits, consolidated billing, less admin overhead for the customer’s finance team).
For sellers, marketplaces can unlock faster growth and deployment.
But don’t just say “faster.” Use hard industry/internal data.
Economic Buyer - E
Your champion might be in the business unit, but the budget authority often sits elsewhere.
Use hyperscaler reach to understand the buyer’s commercial strategy, cloud commits, and who owns them. Clouds can also help you access higher levels (CIO/CTO) when the case is clear.
Decision Criteria - D
Understand how your prospect reviews, shortlists, and finalizes purchases. Collaborate with cloud teams to align decision criteria with Marketplace benefits.
Example: if “cost reduction” is a key criterion (and the customer has commits), frame the deal not as new spend, but as a way to use commits that may otherwise go unused.
Decision Process - D
Teams lose time because they map the approval chain too late.
Co-sell helps here: hyperscalers see customer buying patterns across accounts and can guide sellers through the internal decision-making maze.
When you engage cloud teams, share your status and specific requests, not generic “any help is appreciated.”
Paper Process - P
Marketplace workflows can bypass traditional signature delays and grant user access faster. Push for standard marketplace agreements to cut redlines and shorten legal cycles.
Educate sellers to identify who can accept private offers early, not at the last moment.
Identify Pain - I
Work backwards from the customer’s goals: AI, modernization, migration to understand how your solution fits best.
Co-sell can help connect your solution to cloud and AI priorities and frame the pain in customer’s language
Champion - C
When you cultivate champions inside the customer org, use hyperscalers to map stakeholders in areas like Security, Apps, AI, Procurement to strengthen internal support.
If your champion goes silent, cloud sellers can sometimes help to re-engage the account from a different angle.
Competition - C
When competitors go direct, Marketplace gives a structural edge: faster procurement, commit flexibility, cloud seller backing. Turn this route-to-market into a moat.
Could your sellers explain how Marketplace fits in MEDDPICC today?
Meet the Leaders Joining Our Biggest GCP Marketplace Event Yet
Google Cloud’s marketplace is growing triple digits YoY. Their customer commits jumped to $240B. Revenue from partner-built AI solutions grew ~300% last year.
The opportunity is obvious. The playbook is not.
Most ISVs know they should be scaling on GCP Marketplace. Fewer know how co-sell actually works inside Google, how channel-led deals are closing, or what the top partners are doing differently. We went and got the people who can answer that.
Last week we announced our two keynotes — Jay McBain (Chief Analyst, Omdia) and Dai Vu (Managing Director, Google Cloud Marketplace). This week, meet the four panelists who’ll turn those macro trends into tactics you can use.
Co-Sell & Joint GTM Panel
Kevin Goodspeed — Head of Startups & Vertical ISV Business Development, Google Cloud Marketplace
9 of the top 10 AI labs chose Google Cloud as their infrastructure. The leader helping the next wave of startups scale on GCP Marketplace is joining our March 24 event.
Kevin sits at the intersection of two worlds. At Google Cloud, he works across ISVs and the field to drive growth on GCP Marketplace — from startups to enterprise, across every software category.
At CapitalG, Alphabet’s independent VC arm, he advises growth-stage portfolio companies on Marketplace onboarding, co-sell and growth. Kevin helps CapitalG’s highest-conviction bets scale through GCP Marketplace.
Few people have a better view of what it takes to move from “great product” to repeatable marketplace GTM.
Kevin has spent 7 years in cloud marketplaces. He knows the growth patterns that actually help ISVs break through and scale revenue on GCP Marketplace.
In his panel, Kevin will break down how SaaS businesses stand out on GCP Marketplace—and the co-sell and GTM strategies working with Google Cloud right now.
John Murray — Director Partner Programs, MongoDB
MongoDB is 6X consecutive Google Cloud Partner of the Year, including 2025 Partner of the Year for Data & Analytics – Marketplace.
MongoDB’s growth is one of the strongest examples of scaling through cloud marketplaces. Last quarter, their cloud database Atlas crossed the $2B run rate, growing an impressive 29% YoY.
John Murray leads MongoDB’s global cloud partner strategy with a focus on Google Cloud Marketplace, supporting thousands of customers globally.
He builds programs that make it easier for customers to adopt MongoDB Atlas on cloud marketplaces, align co-sell motions, and enable partners to build joint solutions for shared customers. He’s passionate about creating GTM strategies that turn strategic alliances into repeatable, revenue-generating motions.
John will break down how MongoDB uses PAYG strategy and co-sell to drive both deal volume and value — and what it takes to build a partner motion that actually scales on GCP Marketplace.
Partner Ecosystem Panel
Shamsah Hirani — Senior ISV and Channel Strategic Initiatives Manager, Google Cloud
Revenue from AI solutions built by Google Cloud partners grew ~300% last year. Commitments from their top 15 software partners grew 16X+. By next year, 5 out of 10 marketplace deals will be led by channel partners (Omdia). But many ISVs and channel partners are still figuring out how to work and scale on marketplaces together.
That’s exactly what this panel will break down.
Shamsah leads ISV and Channel Strategic Initiatives at Google Cloud Marketplace. Her role connects the two sides of this converging motion — software vendors and channel partners scaling together on GCP Marketplace.
Before Google Cloud, Shamsah held senior alliance and business development roles at AWS, Teradata, and Microsoft, where she launched and scaled industry-leading initiatives for ISVs and channel partners. Few people have operated across this many cloud ecosystems at this level.
Shamsah and the panel will get into the specifics — how ISVs actually unlock growth through channel on GCP Marketplace, where resellers, distributors and service partners fit, and how to operationalize Google Cloud’s MCPO at scale.
Ben Stockler — Business Development Manager, Cloud Marketplace, TD SYNNEX
30,000+ partners. 1,000+ software vendors. Triple-digit growth in marketplace private offers.
TD SYNNEX is turning cloud marketplaces into a strategic growth lever for partners — and the leader behind it is joining our panel.
TD SYNNEX is a Google Cloud Premier Partner and 2025 Google Cloud Partner Award winner. They accelerate cloud marketplace growth for ISVs and channel partners by combining marketplace expertise, operational support, and scalable routes to market.
Under Ben’s leadership, the TD SYNNEX Cloud Marketplace team has been driving triple-digit YoY growth in Hyperscaler Private Offers. They launched a dedicated Private Offer Deal Desk, giving partners immediate access to thousands of Google Cloud Marketplace products to build and transact complete, multi-vendor software solutions.
On the operational side, TD SYNNEX orchestrates a streamlined, support-backed flow for Google Cloud Marketplace Channel Private Offers (MCPO) — covering the entire lifecycle from quoting and acceptance to invoicing and payment. Through the StreamOne platform, ISVs get access to 30,000+ global partners — extending marketplace reach far beyond what any vendor can build through direct motions alone.
Ben will share what’s working right now for channel-led marketplace growth — private offers, co-sell alignment, and how partners can turn cloud commitments into pipeline.
All-Star Lineup
Our “Google Cloud Marketplace: Your Growth Engine for 2026” event also features:
Keynote: Jay McBain, Chief Analyst at Omdia
Keynote: Dai Vu, Managing Director of Google Cloud Marketplace
Co-Sell & Joint GTM Panel: Google Cloud + leaders from MongoDB, Tackle.io, and Quantum Metric on co-sell strategies that scale
Partner Ecosystem Panel: Google Cloud + leaders from Palo Alto Networks ($2B+ in GCP Marketplace sales), TD SYNNEX, and Optiv on channel acceleration and ecosystem growth
Marketplace Operations Playbook: Deep dive on automation, private offers, and operational excellence with ZoomInfo and Tackle
📅 Join us on March 24, 9–11:30 AM PT
In just 2.5 hours, 10+ leaders will break down how to turn Google Cloud Marketplace into your growth engine for 2026
Thanks to our Ecosystem partner for supporting this event:
TD SYNNEX accelerates cloud marketplace growth for ISVs and channel partners by combining marketplace expertise, operational support, and scalable routes to market.
Their Cloud Marketplace team helps partners simplify procurement, attach services, and maximize access to committed cloud spend. A Google Cloud Premier Partner and 2025 Google Cloud Partner Award winner, they help vendors expand globally and enable partners to win more software opportunities faster.
Oracle’s Q3: The $553B Proof That Partner-Led AI Demand is Real
$553B customer commits. 531% multicloud database growth. 243% AI infra growth. Oracle just showed what partner-led AI-cloud growth really looks like.
For months, Wall Street questioned whether this was real demand or just AI narrative. Oracle’s last quarter performance gave a clear answer.
Oracle’s organic revenue and non-GAAP EPS both grew 20%+ for the first time since 2009. But the real signal sits below the headline beat.
Oracle now has two engines accelerating at once:
1️⃣ High-margin multicloud database business powered by hyperscaler partnerships
Revenue grew 531% YoY. CEO Clay McGork put the reason plainly:
“We created our multicloud partnerships with first Microsoft, then Google, and finally Amazon.... Those partnerships unlock an enormous backlog of demand.”
That demand is now being activated at scale with all 3 clouds.
33 regions live with Microsoft
14 with Google
AWS scaling from 2 live regions at the start of Q3 to 8 by quarter-end, with 22 expected by the end of Q4
The economics make the story stronger too. Oracle said the multicloud database business runs at 60-80% margins, vs 32% gross margin on AI capacity delivered in Q3.
2️⃣ AI infrastructure business creating enormous backlog and pulling the rest of the stack with it
AI infra revenue grew 243% YoY. Oracle tied the $553B RPO directly to that demand: “Demand for AI infrastructure, both GPU and CPU, continues to exceed supply.”
The operating model matters here.
Oracle secured 10+ GW of data center capacity over 3 years, with 90%+ funded through partners. It also signed $29B in contracts using bring-your-own-hardware and upfront payment models — scaling without shouldering the capital burden alone.
But infrastructure is the wedge, not the endpoint.
Mike Sicilia said these deals now drive “ecosystem automation” conversations across OCI, database, applications, and industry suites. AI opens the door — then the full stack walks through it.
3️⃣ The next layer: agents
Oracle already has 1,000+ AI agents embedded across its applications. Larry Ellison made clear they will not build every vertical agent: “We do not think we can build all the application agents for a banking system or a health care system. A lot of our partners are going to do that.”
This also explains Oracle’s hard push back on the SaaS apocalypse thesis.
Mike Cecilia: “I have not yet met a customer who tells me they are ready to give away their core banking system, their electronic health records... and some cobbling together of niche AI features are going to replace all of that overnight.”
Oracle’s view: AI makes complex, mission-critical SaaS more valuable — not less.
Takeaways for alliance leaders:
AI infra may win the headline, but data and application layers follow and capture the better economics
Agentic AI will create new partner surface area closest to mission-critical data and workflows
Is Oracle becoming the most partnership-focused growth story in enterprise tech?
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