Ecosystem Alpha where Strategy meets GTM Execution

For B2B tech executives trying to drive efficient growth, the traditional GTM playbook is broken. Ecosystem Alpha is designed for leaders looking to transform partnerships into their ultimate competitive advantage. Hosted by Will Schnabel and Sebastian Hoelzl, our 40-minute interviews feature C-Suite leaders winning in the ecosystem era. We skip the fluff to uncover exact strategies that drive efficient sales, improve NRR, slash CAC, and accelerate Agentic AI adoption. New episodes drop every Tuesday to help you connect strategy in the boardroom to execution in the CRM.

Ecosystem Alpha where Strategy meets GTM Execution is a business podcast hosted by Sebastian Hoelzl and Will Schnabel, with 16 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Sebastian Hoelzl and Will Schnabel hosts Ecosystem Alpha where Strategy meets GTM Execution, a business show with 16 episodes published.

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  Ecosystem Alpha where Strategy meets GTM Execution

  Demystifying the Last Mile of AI Data Adoption, with Rishi Bhatnagar, Founder at Quaeris.ai

  Aug 11, 202654 min

  Every enterprise has spent heavily on AI and analytics, yet most executives still pick up the phone to get a straight answer. Rishi Bhatnagar built and sold a sixteen year systems integration business before founding Quaeris to close that gap, and he argues the friction between digital data and human decision makers is costing companies billions every day. This conversation unpacks why adoption stalls long after the technology already works. What you'll learn: - How to spot when a partner conflict is actually protecting your customer relationship instead of harming it. - Why only 5 percent of enterprise AI initiatives reach full adoption despite 85 percent getting started, and what closes that gap. - How token based agent architectures quietly inflate AI costs, and what a learn once agent design does to your bill instead. - Why meeting users inside tools they already use, such as Microsoft Teams or WhatsApp, drives higher AI adoption than building a new destination. - What separates an empathetic partner from a partner who protects only their own margin. Bhatnagar is the founder of Quaeris, an AI driven data search and BI platform that helps executive teams get direct answers from their business data. He spent sixteen years as CEO of Syntelli Solutions, an analytics systems integrator he grew to seventy five people through early partnerships with Tableau and Spotfire, before founding Quaeris in 2020. His perspective carries weight because he has sat on both sides of the partnership table. He has sold analytics services as an integrator, built products designed for integrators to resell, and now designs agent architecture around token cost and enterprise governance rather than the growth metrics that benefit the AI labs the most. Chapters : Introduction and guest background From Ernst and Young to Tableau: the first partner bet Horse and jockey: managing channel conflict without losing the customer The last mile problem: why speed of data is not speed of decisions Building Quaeris: headless BI and meeting users where they already are Why most enterprise AI pilots never reach full adoption Token costs and the case for agents that learn once Rapid fire and closing thoughts Legal Disclaimer for Ecosystem Alpha: The Podcast 1. No Professional Advice: The content of this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice (legal, financial, tax, or otherwise). 2. Views Expressed: The opinions expressed by guests on this program are their own. Ecosystem Alpha does not verify the accuracy of the information provided by guests, and their appearance does not constitute an endorsement of the guest or the entity they represent. 3. Professional Titles: Guest titles and business affiliations are provided as of the date of recording. Ecosystem Alpha makes no representation regarding the current status of a guest’s employment or their authority to bind any mentioned third-party entities. 4. Limitation of Liability: By listening to this podcast, you agree that Ecosystem Alpha and its hosts are not responsible for any decisions made or actions taken based on the information provided in this program.

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  Ecosystem Alpha where Strategy meets GTM Execution

  The Revenue Reality: Balancing Short-Term Quotas with Long-Term Ecosystem Moats with Lance Buchholz

  Jul 28, 202651 min

  Blue Triangle spent three months testing whether automated outbound still works. Thousands of calls produced one answer and zero sales conversations. Lance Buchholz explains what he does instead, and how he funds a long term partner strategy while carrying a quarterly number. What you will learn ▹ Why thousands of automated calls produced one answered phone and no pipeline ▹ How to run near term, mid term and long term revenue at the same time ▹ Why partner sourced revenue and partner counts mislead a board ▹ The single ecosystem number that predicts churn before the renewal ▹ What to do when a buyer takes your demo and builds the product with AI Lance Buchholz is Chief Revenue Officer at Blue Triangle, where he owns the full number and answers to the board for it. He has spent roughly 25 years in partnerships, from a billion dollar business with thousands of signed partners to small companies with no partner motion at all, and he has been through a couple of exits on the partner side. Buchholz moved from partner leadership into the CRO seat, so he now approves the discounts he once had to argue for. That is what makes his view useful. When he defends partner investment, he defends it against his own quota and his own board conversations, not from the sidelines. Chapters Introduction and guest background Bear's Paw and the reason it exists The automated outbound experiment and what it returned Near term, mid term and long term revenue in one plan What AI changed about buyer conversations The warning signs that a customer is about to leave The revenue receipt: an OEM partnership that opened a new market Rapid fire: overrated metrics, attach rate and book picks Legal Disclaimer for Ecosystem Alpha: The Podcast 1. No Professional Advice: The content of this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice (legal, financial, tax, or otherwise). 2. Views Expressed: The opinions expressed by guests on this program are their own. Ecosystem Alpha does not verify the accuracy of the information provided by guests, and their appearance does not constitute an endorsement of the guest or the entity they represent. 3. Professional Titles: Guest titles and business affiliations are provided as of the date of recording. Ecosystem Alpha makes no representation regarding the current status of a guest’s employment or their authority to bind any mentioned third-party entities. 4. Limitation of Liability: By listening to this podcast, you agree that Ecosystem Alpha and its hosts are not responsible for any decisions made or actions taken based on the information provided in this program.

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  Ecosystem Alpha where Strategy meets GTM Execution

  The Gamechanger Playbook: Engineering Partnership Big Bets and Transforming the Business with Gautham Pandiyan, Global Head of Partnerships at Pendo

  Jul 14, 202645 min

  Most partnership leaders spend their careers optimising for incremental referral volume. Gautham Pandiyan has spent his building the kind of ecosystem bets that show up in a balance sheet. This conversation is about the ones that transform a business and how to know which partnerships deserve that level of conviction. What you will learn: ▹ Why partners amplify product-market fit rather than find it, and what that means for how you pick your strategic bets. ▹ How to build a fail-fast framework that lets you evaluate a major partnership in five months rather than eighteen, and pivot without destroying the relationship. ▹ What a clear value exchange looks like in practice, and why expectation misalignment kills more strategic partnerships than bad fit does. ▹ How Gautham's team scaled to $150 million of revenue through AWS Marketplace at Qualtrics, and the cross-functional effort required to get there. ▹ How to build the perception umbrella inside your business so executives and stakeholders see partnership momentum, not just end-of-year results. Gautham Pandiyan is Global Head of Cloud, SI & Affiliate Partnerships at Pendo, where he leads the company's Hyperscaler, GSI, and consulting partner motions. He previously spent four years at Qualtrics scaling the AWS partnership to nine-figure Marketplace revenue, and has held senior alliance roles across multiple high-growth SaaS businesses. Chapter overview: Introduction and guest background How to choose the right strategic partners: product-market fit and natural pull The difference between push and pull in channel-first versus overlay models Evaluating failures and knowing when to pivot Hyperscalers in practice: the Qualtrics and AWS story Expectation setting, the perception umbrella, and managing internal stakeholders Rapid-fire round and recommended voices Legal Disclaimer for Ecosystem Alpha: The Podcast 1. No Professional Advice: The content of this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice (legal, financial, tax, or otherwise). 2. Views Expressed: The opinions expressed by guests on this program are their own. Ecosystem Alpha does not verify the accuracy of the information provided by guests, and their appearance does not constitute an endorsement of the guest or the entity they represent. 3. Professional Titles: Guest titles and business affiliations are provided as of the date of recording. Ecosystem Alpha makes no representation regarding the current status of a guest’s employment or their authority to bind any mentioned third-party entities. 4. Limitation of Liability: By listening to this podcast, you agree that Ecosystem Alpha and its hosts are not responsible for any decisions made or actions taken based on the information provided in this program.

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  Ecosystem Alpha where Strategy meets GTM Execution

  The International GM’s Mandate: Re-Architecting GTM for EMEA Resilience and NRR with David King-Harris VP Sales EMEA at Optro

  Jul 8, 202649 min

  Growth at all costs is over. Boards no longer ask how many people you hired. They ask how efficiently you can grow, and that question is reshaping how revenue leaders scale across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. What you will learn: ▹ Why treating EMEA as one market inflates customer acquisition cost, and what to do instead ▹ How to trade a share of AE headcount for partner headcount without losing quota on the street ▹ The give to get motion that keeps local partners active long after referral business dries up ▹ How to match global SIs, regional integrators, and boutique consultancies to the right customer segment ▹ A real example where going partner first lifted conversion by up to 50 percent in six months Guest bio: David King Harris is VP Sales EMEA at Optro. He has led European, EMEA, and global teams through both the growth at all costs era and the efficiency mandate that followed, with earlier roles across martech leaders and IBM. He speaks in commercial terms because he carries the revenue number himself. Chapters: Introduction and guest background Why EMEA is a collection of markets, not one Local partners and the last mile of trust Matching partner types to your ideal customer Where partnerships should sit in the organization The efficiency pivot after COVID The revenue receipt: partner first results Rapid fire and close Rebuild your EMEA go to market around efficiency. What you will learn: ▹ Why the partner team's job is not to bring a list of integration requests to product, and what to do instead to validate real end-user value before anyone writes a line of code ▹ How to choose between a large, hard-to-work-with partner and a smaller, easier partner, and why internal relationships and prioritisation willingness often matter more than market reach ▹ What it means in practice when a product manager asks your partner team a hard question, and why the correct answer is sometimes no ▹ How to build the working relationship between engineering, product, and the partner's technical team so integrations move fast without becoming liabilities ▹ The most common mistake product teams make when building toward a partnership, and how to avoid building something customers will never use About the guest: Agata Bugaj is Chief Product Officer at ButterflyMX, a property access technology platform serving multifamily, commercial, and student housing. She brings over fifteen years of experience leading product, UX, and engineering teams across B2B SaaS and enterprise eCommerce. Prior to ButterflyMX, she served as SVP of Product at FullStory, where she scaled the product function from Director through to SVP level. Legal Disclaimer for Ecosystem Alpha: The Podcast 1. No Professional Advice: The content of this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice (legal, financial, tax, or otherwise). 2. Views Expressed: The opinions expressed by guests on this program are their own. Ecosystem Alpha does not verify the accuracy of the information provided by guests, and their appearance does not constitute an endorsement of the guest or the entity they represent. 3. Professional Titles: Guest titles and business affiliations are provided as of the date of recording. Ecosystem Alpha makes no representation regarding the current status of a guest’s employment or their authority to bind any mentioned third-party entities. 4. Limitation of Liability: By listening to this podcast, you agree that Ecosystem Alpha and its hosts are not responsible for any decisions made or actions taken based on the information provided in this program.

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  Ecosystem Alpha where Strategy meets GTM Execution

  The Ecosystem-Led Product: Architecting Integration Density and the Network Moat with Agata Bugaj

  Jun 29, 202650 min

  Most B2B SaaS companies treat integrations as a favour the product team does for the partner team. That framing is killing revenue. When product and partnerships operate in silos, the integrations that get built are the wrong ones. The ones that do get built often go unused. And the network moat that should be compounding never forms. Agata Bugaj, Chief Product Officer at ButterflyMX and former SVP of Product at FullStory, joins Sebastian Hoelzl and Will Schnabel to break down how product leaders and partner teams can work together in a way that actually moves the commercial needle. What you will learn: ▹ Why the partner team's job is not to bring a list of integration requests to product, and what to do instead to validate real end-user value before anyone writes a line of code ▹ How to choose between a large, hard-to-work-with partner and a smaller, easier partner, and why internal relationships and prioritisation willingness often matter more than market reach ▹ What it means in practice when a product manager asks your partner team a hard question, and why the correct answer is sometimes no ▹ How to build the working relationship between engineering, product, and the partner's technical team so integrations move fast without becoming liabilities ▹ The most common mistake product teams make when building toward a partnership, and how to avoid building something customers will never use About the guest: Agata Bugaj is Chief Product Officer at ButterflyMX, a property access technology platform serving multifamily, commercial, and student housing. She brings over fifteen years of experience leading product, UX, and engineering teams across B2B SaaS and enterprise eCommerce. Prior to ButterflyMX, she served as SVP of Product at FullStory, where she scaled the product function from Director through to SVP level. Legal Disclaimer for Ecosystem Alpha: The Podcast 1. No Professional Advice: The content of this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice (legal, financial, tax, or otherwise). 2. Views Expressed: The opinions expressed by guests on this program are their own. Ecosystem Alpha does not verify the accuracy of the information provided by guests, and their appearance does not constitute an endorsement of the guest or the entity they represent. 3. Professional Titles: Guest titles and business affiliations are provided as of the date of recording. Ecosystem Alpha makes no representation regarding the current status of a guest’s employment or their authority to bind any mentioned third-party entities. 4. Limitation of Liability: By listening to this podcast, you agree that Ecosystem Alpha and its hosts are not responsible for any decisions made or actions taken based on the information provided in this program.

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