Thanks to everyone who joined the panel at the BlackHat Innovators & Investors Summit — it was a fast, practical session and full of real, repeatable advice. Below I’ve distilled the conversation into the speakers and the most actionable takeaways founders, investors and channel leaders can use.
Who Spoke
- Daniel “DB” Bernard — Chief Business Officer, CrowdStrike
- Matt Berry — Global Field CTO, Cyber, World Wide Technology (WWT)
- Chris Bisnett — Co-founder & CTO, Huntress
- Peter Bryant — Market Analyst, Canalys
- Moderator: Raffael Marty, Operating Advisor
Top-line Thesis
Great product is necessary but not sufficient. If you want scale and durability you must design product, GTM, pricing and operations for the channel — MSPs, VARs, MSSPs, distributors and hyperscaler marketplaces. Get those pieces aligned and the channel becomes your growth engine and a moat.
The Most Important, Actionable Insights
1) Start with real customer evidence — then bring partners in
- Close a first few deals directly and then ask: Who do you buy through? If the customer uses a reseller or integrator, bring that partner into the next conversation.
- A partner introduced by a customer is infinitely more effective than cold outreach.
2) Target, pilot, then scale (regional first)
- Don’t boil the ocean. Pick a geography or vertical where a partner has influence, run an enablement-intensive pilot, close a few joint deals, and let the wins spread organically through the partner organization.
- Grassroots wins (regional proof points) are how startup products get noticed inside large SIs and disti sales orgs.
3) Engineer the product for MSPs and scale
- Some technical must-haves for MSPs: multi-tenancy, frictionless provisioning, usage-based billing, robust reporting, and minimal support overhead (no reboots, simple deployment).
- Build integrations with RMM/PSA tools. Partners won’t adopt tools that don’t fit their stack.
4) Use hyperscaler marketplaces as a growth hack
- AWS/Azure/Google marketplaces are a procurement shortcut — customers can spend cloud credits and close without long vendor approvals. CrowdStrike and others proved this: marketplace adoption accelerated scale dramatically.
- Prioritize marketplace readiness early (billing, security/compliance, packaging).
5) Think of channel margin as external sales / commission
- Yes, margins look worse on paper — but compare to the true CAC of building a direct sales force. That margin buys you reach and reduces acquisition risk (you only pay when a partner sells).
- Measure partner-sourced vs partner-influenced revenue and the CAC of each.
6) Don’t assume distis/VARs will sell without support
- Listing in a distributor catalog is not the finish line. You must: enable, co-market, provide lead flow, run joint sales plays, and sometimes front-end incentives to get sellers focused on your SKU.
- Short-term investment in enablement and marketing is how you get long-term pull-through.
7) Build partner economics and enablement as products
- Provide free (or low-cost) certification, sales playbooks, demo environments, one-click onboarding, and co-branded assets. These reduce time-to-first-deal and lower partner friction.
- Consider usage-based billing to match MSP economics: partners want to align cost with consumed endpoints/services.
8) Decide and double-down on one partner type first
- MSP vs MSSP vs VAR vs SI: each requires a different product shape and GTM. Nail one, then expand. Trying to serve all at once dilutes focus and kills momentum.
9) Invest in partner success and low-touch CSM automation
- With thousands of SMB endpoints, you can’t scale human CSM for every account. Automate onboarding, monitoring, renewal nudges and migration tools — make it easy for MSPs to manage many customers.
10) Metrics you should be tracking from day 1
- Time-to-first-deal with partner (by partner type)
- Partner-sourced pipeline and partner-influenced revenue
- Onboarding time per MSP customer (time-to-live)
- Churn by partner / churn during partner transitions
- Net retention for partner-sourced customers
Practical checklist for founders (do this tomorrow)
- Pull your top 3 customers and ask: who did you buy through?
- Pick one partner (regional or niche) and design a 90-day pilot with joint enablement and a measurable close objective.
- Audit product integration: do you have PSA/RMM connectors? If not, roadmap one.
- Prepare an AWS/Azure/Google marketplace package (billing, security, description, packaging).
- Create a partner enablement kit: demo script, short playbook, 1-page technical install guide, and a free certification.
- Model partner economics as commission vs. CAC — present it to your board/investors as external sales.
- Instrument partner metrics in your analytics and report them weekly.
Suggested questions to ask a distributor / VAR / SI when exploring partnership
- Who in your organization will sell and who will implement our solution? (names/roles)
- What does success look like in the first 90 days? How many joint opportunities will you target?
- Which 3 vendors do you co-sell with today (and how do we integrate with them)?
- What enablement will you need from us (sales motion, demo environment, pricing, rebates)?
- How will leads/credit/margin be handled if a customer comes direct?
For investors: what to look for in a channel-first startup
- Product designed for the channel: multi-tenancy, RMM/PSA integrations, usage billing.
- Early partner proofs: paying partners or partner-introduced deals, not just distributor listings.
- A go-to-market playbook for partner enablement (documented processes, enablement kits, measurable time-to-first-deal).
- Marketplace strategy and early traction (even if small, momentum matters).
Closing takeaways (what I heard loud and clear)
- The channel is not a shortcut — it’s a discipline. If you commit, build for it, and invest in the partner motion, channel-first companies scale faster and with lower long-term CAC.
- Start with customers, pilot locally with partners, engineer for MSP realities, and use marketplaces to accelerate procurement.
- Win through repeatable partner plays and measurable enablement — wins scale inside partner organizations.
Thanks again to BlackHat for having us and to the panelists to take time out of their busy schedules to impart these very actionable insights.