You can't afford ads and SEO is too slow
Find a product your users already use and create a native integration or co-marketing deal.
When to use
Your product naturally complements another tool your users already pay for.
Hypothesis template
If we integrate with [partner product] and get listed in their marketplace, we'll get [target] signups/month because their users already need what we offer.
Method
The problem: You need distribution but can't buy it. Your product complements something bigger but you're invisible to their users.
What Stripe did: Instead of competing with payment platforms, Stripe built the best developer API and partnered with platforms like Shopify, Squarespace, and others to be their payment infrastructure.
The result: Stripe is embedded in millions of businesses through partnerships. Each partner brings a steady stream of new users.
How to do it:
- List 10 products your users already use alongside yours
- Identify the one with the best overlap and a partner/integration program
- Build a native integration that creates real value for both user bases
- Apply to their marketplace or partner directory
- Co-create content: "How to use [your product] with [partner]"
- Measure: track signups that come through the integration
Key insight: You don't need to build your own audience from scratch. Plug into someone else's.
Success metrics
- •Signups from partner channel
- •Integration installs
- •Co-marketing reach
- •Partner-sourced revenue
Prerequisites
- A product worth integrating
- Development resources for the integration
- A partner with a marketplace or directory
Common pitfalls
- •Partnering with a product that doesn't share your audience
- •Building a weak integration nobody wants
- •Not tracking partner-sourced signups separately
- •Expecting results without promoting the integration
Source: Stripe. Partnerships with platforms turned Stripe into default payment infrastructure.
Suggested ICE scores
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