163 - How to Go All-In on an Ecosystem, with Daniel Zarick

Nearbound Podcast

Daniel Zarick explains the benefits and challenges of building a product on a platform, specifically on the HubSpot ecosystem. He shares how Arrows, an onboarding tool, chose to build on HubSpot and how they focused on creating valuable content for HubSpot users to capture their attention and build trust. Daniel also highlights the value of creating content that not only attracts customers but also helps sales and customer success teams in their roles.
Takeaways:

• Building on a platform allows you to align your product with existing customer workflows and integrate with other tools they use.
• Understanding customer needs and building integrations that solve their problems is crucial for success.
• Creating valuable content for users within the platform ecosystem can help build trust and attract customers.
• Partnerships and collaboration with other companies in the ecosystem can lead to mutual benefits and growth.
• Focusing on the needs of sales and customer success teams can help drive adoption and usage of your product. Creating value for customers is essential for success
• Partnerships play a crucial role in go-to-market strategies
• Building within a single ecosystem has risks and benefits
• Being narrative-obsessed helps in creating successful partnerships
• Understanding the layers in the stack and focusing on your specific role is important
• Hiring and company culture are key factors in building a successful company

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction and Reunion
03:03 Choosing HubSpot and Understanding Customer Needs
06:02 Creating Valuable Content for the Platform Ecosystem
08:24 The Power of Partnerships
11:22 Focusing on Sales and Customer Success
25:21 Solving the Problem for the Customer
28:30 The Greatest Partner Event Ever
33:26 Build, Buy, Partner - It's All Three
42:20 Being Narrative-Obsessed
45:09 Understanding the Layers in the Stack