Go direct when the market is big enough to justify a local hire and your buyer expects to talk to you. Use VARs when the sale needs local language, local support and relationships you do not have. Use a distributor only when you need to manage a network of resellers rather than a handful, because a distributor is a partner management layer, not a sales channel. In India specifically the distribution layer is how you reach tier 2 and tier 3 cities at all, which is why Zoho leans on it and why the enterprise players work through Redington and Ingram Micro. Decide it by asking who the customer already buys software from today.
5 hand-picked resources, 4 India-specific, 5 link-checked. Pick how you want to dig in.
Why we picked it A two time Indian SaaS founder on selling into global markets from here, which is the context every partnership and channel decision an Indian founder makes has to survive.
On The Neon Show by Sharath Narayana 70 min watch
Why we picked it The clearest single explanation of the five partner types and what each is worth, including real margin bands (20 to 30% for VARs, 5 to 10% for referral) and how to compensate your own AEs on partner deals.
From Bessemer Venture Partners (Atlas) by MP Eisen 20 min read
Open bvp.com →Why we picked it A side by side of three real programs as Indian partners experience them, with tiers, certification requirements and margins, plus ground level views from partners in Delhi, Bengaluru and Pune.
From DQ Channels by Bharti Trehan 12 min read
Open dqchannels.com →Why we picked it Maps the Indian Azure ecosystem by name: distributors like Redington and Ingram Micro, cloud native firms like Minfy and Quantiphi, ISVs like Freshworks, Zoho and Icertis, with the co-sell paths for each.
From DQ Channels by Bharti Trehan 11 min read
Open dqchannels.com →Why we picked it Six distinct programs on one page (consulting, GSI, distributor, VAR, affiliate, marketplace) is the fastest way to see how a mature partner portfolio is segmented rather than lumped together.
From Zoho 6 min read
Open zoho.com →How channel, resellers and marketplaces reads from a different seat.
The same ground, over in Scale, fund & exit, our D2C track.
