Write it down before the first deal: who holds the software contract, who does implementation, who the customer calls when something breaks, and who owns the renewal. The usual arrangement is that the SI carries early stage sales and adoption while you keep the product contract, which works fine as long as you keep a direct line to the customer's product owner. Insist on joint reviews with the customer present so the SI is not the only voice in the room, and make sure your support team can see real usage. SIs are paid for services, so they have a structural interest in keeping things complex. That is not malice, it is their business model, and you should design around it.
4 hand-picked resources, 2 India-specific, 4 link-checked. Pick how you want to dig in.
Why we picked it An Indian SaaS operator walking through revenue partners versus tech partners, how a startup recruits its first ones, and the common mistakes, framed for founders selling out of India.
On SaaSBoomi (Marketing Nation) by Anand Venkatraman with Arvind Parthiban 45 min listen
Open saasboomi.org →Why we picked it Specifically about SIs rather than partners in general, including the split where the SI carries early stage sales and adoption while the ISV keeps the product contract.
From Relevize 8 min read
Open relevize.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 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 →How channel, resellers and marketplaces reads from a different seat.
The same ground, over in Scale, fund & exit, our D2C track.
