Show Notes
At the Partnership Leaders Catalyst event in San Francisco earlier this month, I had the chance to chat with Jordan Spiers, Vice President of Strategic Alliances at CloudAware. With a career spanning roles at Vonage, New Relic, and IBM’s Bluewolf, Jordan has built a reputation as someone who understands how to take partnerships from reactive to truly strategic. In our conversation, Jordan shared how CloudAware is helping large enterprises - often spending $50M to $100M+ annually on cloud infrastructure - manage multi-cloud environments with a “single pane of glass” platform. But what stood out most was his philosophy for building partnerships that last. From Reactive to Proactive When Jordan joined CloudAware, many of the company’s partnerships had grown opportunistically. If a customer needed an integration, the team would build it, sometimes without thinking about broader opportunities. Jordan has flipped that script. His team now takes a proactive approach: analyzing customer data, identifying future use cases, and developing partnerships that anticipate where the market is headed. “It’s about creating future-proof partnerships,” Jordan explained. “We want to understand the arc of where our customers are going and build for that - not just today’s needs.” Co-Build, Co-Market, Co-Sell One of the frameworks Jordan uses to organize his team is simple but powerful: co-build, co-market, co-sell. Each partnership motion needs technical collaboration, marketing alignment, and sales execution. By breaking down responsibilities this way, CloudAware ensures that joint solutions aren’t just built - they’re adopted, marketed, and sold in the field. This clarity also helps with measurement. While the ultimate goal is revenue, Jordan is quick to note the value of tracking KPIs across each pillar - from number of joint solutions developed, to campaigns launched, to pipeline influenced. Success Stories with AWS and Beyond Jordan shared that AWS has been a particularly strong partner, especially when it comes to collaborating with services and solutions teams. Together, they’ve built proof-of-concepts for customers that blend CloudAware’s governance platform with AWS native services - sometimes even pulling in other ISVs or SIs to create tri-party solutions. “It’s not just about driving AWS consumption,” Jordan said. “It’s about solving specific technical use cases that matter to customers.” What impressed me is how Jordan keeps multiple hyperscaler partnerships in balance. CloudAware works with AWS, Azure, GCP, and others, but Jordan likens his approach to “playing Switzerland.” Rather than favoring one provider, the focus is on giving customers choice and meeting them where they are. The Power of Clear Goals Jordan began our conversation with advice that applies to any partnership leader: always write down your goals and KPIs - for your team and your partner’s team. They don’t have to be identical, but they must be explicit. Without shared understanding, misalignment is inevitable. As Jordan put it: “I’ve made the mistake of assuming alignment before, and it doesn’t work. You have to map out roles, goals, and responsibilities across both sides.” Final Thoughts Jordan Spiers offers a great reminder that partnerships succeed when they are intentional, measured, and built with the customer at the center. Whether through proactive planning, the co-build/co-market/co-sell framework, or balancing hyperscaler politics, his approach is grounded in clarity and collaboration. For anyone leading alliances in today’s ecosystem-driven world, Jordan’s story offers both inspiration and a practical playbook. 🎙️ Inside Partnering is a podcast for ecosystem builders, alliance leaders, and the people shaping the future of partnerships. Let’s build the future of partnering - together. 🎧 Want more conversations like this? Check out all 90+ episodes at InsidePartnering.com 💌 Subscribe to get new episodes and behind-the-scenes insights: insidepartnering.subst
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