App Marketplace Strategy

At Netscape in 1998, Ben Horowitz and David Weiden wrote the first version of Good Product Manager/Bad Product Manager.

Cycle is “the fastest way for your team to capture product feedback and share customer insights – without the busywork.”

Whether you’ve just launched your first listing in your first App Marketplace, or you’re managing tens of listings across lots of App Marketplaces, there will always be one evolving challenge to deal with.

There’s a common misperception that App Marketplaces and their partner ecosystems are small, elite clubs. Many newcomers to ISV partnerships believe an intro to the C-Suite at Salesforce, Meta, Atlassian, or Shopify is the first step towards a successful partnership with them.

In early 2019, during my first few months at HubSpot, we held a “Connect Partner Day” at our HQ in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was our last “Connect Partner” event - we redesigned and relaunched the App Partner Program (and launched the HubSpot App Marketplace at INBOUND later that year.

I’ve had a lot of conversations over the years with partners looking for real-life examples of high-quality App Marketplace listings. One of my favourites is HubSpot App Partner, OrgChartHub.

In July 1993 cartoonist Peter Steiner sat at his desk, trying to think of a clever caption for one of many cartoons he created for the New Yorker.