Building "win-win-win" cloud partnerships with Laura Ripans

Trunal Bhanse: Welcome to the Clazar podcast, everyone. It is here where we talk about some incredible GTM leaders in the tech space to benefit from their practical experiences and learn from their success stories. Today, we are talking to Laura Ripans from Datadog, and I'm so excited for all of us to get to hear from her. Laura is the Senior Director of Cloud Alliances at Datadog where she has been busy scaling into great success since she was brought on almost six years ago. Laura, super excited to have you. Welcome to the show.

Laura Ripans: Thank you, Trunal. What a privilege to be here.

Trunal: All right, Laura, so I'm going to jump straight in. There's so much to talk about and so little time. You are Datadog's first channel/alliance partner hire tasked to set up the whole program. I have two questions for you here. First one, what were the initial organizational expectations from the partnership function at the time when you were brought on board? And secondly, what was your first course of action towards building this from the ground up?

Laura: Yeah, really good question. So, back in 2019, that's when I joined Datadog. The Datadog leadership knew something needed to be happening in the realm of co-sell, go to market with the cloud alliances. They knew it was an imperative part of maturing. At the time, I don't actually think they necessarily knew exactly what to expect. I'm not sure the expectations were all that high. The funny thing is when I joined, the job description was, just do what you think is right. That was my entire job description, which is great. So I certainly appreciate the trust.

And so that's what I did. I got down to work. I created a job description for myself. First and foremost, I set up a plan, organized Salesforce.com so everything could be reportable because that's really, really important. And then was super excited to roll it out. But what happened was I actually got a really good lesson when I did my first internal presentation to our enterprise sales teams. This is how cloud alliances is going to work at Datadog. About 10 minutes in, I was stopped by the regional vice president at the time. And he said, Laura, we don't know what you're talking about. I got a really good lesson. It still resonates with me today.

But the lesson is that what we do with cloud alliances, especially in co-sell and go-to-market, it's not always obvious. And so even to this day, the internal education and what we do and the value and why Cloud Alliances make sense are, for many of our opportunities, we have to continue to educate both with the clouds and internally at Datadog.

Trunal: That's a fantastic story. I can imagine being in that room and trying to convince people and just have that conversation and going in a certain direction. Could you also help us understand a little bit about Datadog's culture.

Laura: Yeah, so in terms of culture, it's fantastic. And I've seen the company go from 1,000 employees to now we're over 6,000. So one to six, that's quite a big change. The culture is incredible. I'm actually incredibly proud of the Datadog culture and what they've built.

They've really created this culture of, I think the thing I hear the most, I get to actually talk to a lot of people at the company, just given the nature. And it's just how helpful people are. So I think above and beyond, we talk on Slack all the time. We try really hard to get to answers quickly. I always say to people, hey, look, I've been here for a long time. Don't ever struggle. Ping me for anything. I don't care what it is. But it's a culture of really helping each other and lifting each other up.

We're all working to the same goal. We all work with the same sales methodology. And at the end of the day, it's a culture of serving the customer and working backwards from the customer so that ultimately they can be delighted and successful on their cloud journeys.

It's really important. But it was a culture change with the Cloud Alliance, from when I first arrived. Why would a big hyperscaler want to help me, a seller? It just wasn't obvious. So just kind of getting some understanding around that was important. Now I'd say it's completely natural part of the process. But it took time and change to understand why that makes sense.

Trunal: And then Laura, what was that first step that you took when you took the job on? Like, what was literally the first thing that you went to your team or your leadership peers or the group and said, hey, this is what we're going to do?

Laura: The good thing is, I came in with a lot of experience. I was hired for that experience and to do that with all three clouds and in a global fashion. The trick is to try to create repeatable, simple to follow processes that just works. Really understanding Datadog, understanding what Datadog is trying to do.

The guidance that we got from our COO Adam was … he says, “bring your experience, but don't bring your playbook.” So it's really custom built with the experience, but for Datadog, right? I wouldn't expect it to look the same necessarily anywhere else, but really just getting it out there because the company ran or runs on Slack so much, I decided that was a great forum.

And then the other thing is it's got to be in our CRM – Salesforce. The mantra is if it's not in Salesforce, it didn't happen. So we have to be very reportable. We have to really just be able to show the value that it's bringing from a go-to-market perspective. So really just laying down that foundation. And then it's just opportunity by opportunity work.

Trunal: Continuing on that theme … Datadog is built on those either migrating to or expanding on one or multiple clouds, and has applicability across industries. And I wanted to pick your brain on a couple things there. One is, given the nature of your product, are cloud alliances the obvious strategic choice, or are there other specific considerations? And then a follow up to that is since you cater to multiple industries, do you see any variations in procurement trends that you need to take into account while building your alliances and partnership strategy?

Laura: Yeah, so two questions there. I'll take them one at a time.

So first … I do cloud alliances is an obvious choice. In the context of go to market, co-sell is not an imperative. It's always really about what's going to serve that customer and that opportunity at the time.

But certainly in everything we do, one or more clouds will be involved. And so the question is, do we want to co-sell? Do we want to involve a cloud provider as part of that? And a lot of times customers even ask us like, hey, would you mind go asking one of the clouds to explain our environment? And it's a wonderful thing when that happens. We can target our message, do a much more thoughtful POC, for example. And clouds kind of feel like you've done your homework. So it really is making sense.

But again, it's all about the customer. Who is important to your customer? Who's got influence? Who's in the customer's ecosystem? And then I'll just add another point. This is true of all partners, right? So Datadog has channel partners, of course. We have system integrators. We have MSPs, resellers, right? And so again, who is important to the end customer, who's in their orbit, their ecosystem. And again, the more companies, the more partners, the more trusted advisors to that customer that are chirping Datadog, the better. And of course, the more comfortable the customer will be.

To the second part of your question, Trunal, on procurement, well, yes, of course. I mean, we have to talk about marketplace. Cloud marketplaces have truly transformed the way software is both bought and sold. You can read anything, right? I mean, unless you've been living under a rock or something, you know, Canalys has plenty of data on this. 45 billion will be transacted in 2025 on cloud marketplaces. I mean, it's just an explosion. So I think marketplace has been unbelievably transformative to many customers and future customers. And even partners, with, you know, depending on what's important from the customer procurement, how they want to buy, they have options. They can, of course, buy direct and they can buy through resellers and they can buy through Marketplace. So there's many ways to acquire software. But I think Marketplace has been the biggest Titanic shift that I've seen.

Trunal: And we are going to talk about marketplaces a lot soon enough. But before then, Laura, I actually wanted to steal a quote from the one that you use, which is technology sales is a team sport. Partnership alliances is one of the most interconnected GTM functions with the partner alliances leaders serving as the unifier of efforts across sales, customer success, finance, legal marketing, and all the entire GTM. Now, how do you facilitate these interconnectivity from both a mindset and more importantly from a process time?

Laura: That's the hundred million dollar question. I wish I had it all figured out, right? I wish life would be great. It's a constant evolution, right? It is, I do believe it's a team sport, you know, and because of all the departments that you just mentioned from sales and customer success and finance and legal and enterprise sales and product and engineering and integrations. I mean, there's a lot of, a lot of components that go into the company. From the partner motion, I always talk about the COs, the COs, the CO build, the co-market, the co-sell, and then if you want to even add in co-retain, those are the pillars that we work.

So two perspectives, inside out and then outside in. So inside out, inside Datadog out, we touch so many departments, right? It's great. It's really gratifying and rewarding, I have to say. I really, really enjoy getting to know the whole parts of the company. I'm genuinely interested in how corporations operate. So the needs and requirements, for example, of Datadog's customer success team, right? They're different than the needs of our commercial sellers. You know, customer success deals with all existing. Commercial sellers are, you know, trying to break into new customers and new markets and new countries and geographies.

So we create standards. Like I mentioned earlier, we have standards in our CRM, Salesforce. That is really important that we all work there. But we also, I've been working more recently just with a lot of lists. So we go to the departments and ask, what's important to you? What do you need? Tell us. I just say to people, tell us what you need. And then we almost work backwards from those requirements. So in a sense, you could think that the other departments within Datadog, they're involved in what we do, but we try to just work the priorities, which I think is the hardest part of my job, and just keep it very well organized, and then just work on the priorities.

We can't do it all. We know something's going to fall off the plate. So we really just try to work in the priorities and keep up to the direction of the company as Datadog continues to grow and evolve. And I would say the converse, right? So from an outside-in perspective, we really, really have to respect everybody's goals. Right. So when we ask a partner, you know, can we work with you? Can we get some help? Can we co-sell? Could we possibly get a warm introduction? You know, again, it's, we need to make sure all the tides are rising, that everybody is winning.

You can't have a win-lose. It's got to be a win-win and hopefully a win-win-win, right. A win for the customer, a win for the partner, and hopefully a win for Datadog..

So again, the processes need to be there. All three cloud providers have their own portals. Datadog has Datadog Partner Network, or DPN as we fondly call it, which is where those partners work. Again, just understanding everybody's goal, right? Making sure that I call it something for everyone, right? Or everybody gets a piece of pizza, whatever. Just make sure that everybody is taken care of so that we can have a good partnership and we try to be a good partner.

Trunal: You mentioned the different “co”(s) of a partnership. I'm sure the audience is very well aware of the first three. Could you maybe talk a little bit more about what that means and how people can think about it?

Laura: Yeah, of course. So co-build, co-market, co-sell, co-retain. Well, remember, if you're in SaaS, if you have a SaaS offering, if you have a month-to-month or pay as you go, which you can clearly see on the datadog.com/pricing page, it's very obvious, customers could come for a month and then leave.

There's no obligation. Kind of the try before you buy, but then, you know, it could be month to month. So in other words, a customer could leave quickly. The goal is to not have them do that, right? Just like a subscription to anything. Netflix wants to keep you for a year, and you sign up for a year, month, you know. So in a subscription model, it's really important to try and get those customers to stay and become sticky and stay with you and want to do that.

And so the conversion of getting them to stay and perhaps making an annual commitment, for example, that's a co-retain. And again, working with the clouds, they can help us do that, right? Perhaps working and having a month to month then convert through a marketplace, again, it makes them a bit more sticky. So that's a really, really great motion. So, but again, keeping them delighted, really understanding, of course the clouds want to also retain customers and have them continue with their services. And again, we try to just make sure the customer is successful wherever they are on their cloud journey. But as long as they're on a cloud journey, we certainly hope that they stay with us for monitoring.

Trunal: You come from a technical background with computer science degree from an incredible institution. And over the course of your career, you've transitioned from a technical side of the house and to the GTM side of the role with great success. I'm curious to know what color your technical background added to your current role and if it presents you with any unique perspectives in your approach to solving this GTM and alliances challenges?

Laura: I think one of the most recent big surprises of my life, quite frankly, is that being a computer nerd is somehow cool now. I don't think it was always cool, I always just loved programming, computer science, everything about it. I discovered computers back in high school when I was 14 in New Jersey. And I really never changed that. I kind of feel like I didn't change all that much. When I look now at what computing is, I think back to the days when I was programming at IBM on the mainframe, right? And now just, there's so much out there. There's just so much more tech out there. It's incredible. It's exciting. There's always something fresh and new, never boring.

And I sometimes, you know, secretly pretend like if I had had Datadog back in the day, just how much easier my life probably would have been. For example, I was programming internally at IBM in a telecom space and hopefully I didn't push too many bugs into production. But again, if I had had a tool like Datadog, there just would have been so many more guardrails. There would have been a concept of CI-CD, It wasn't even a thing.

You know, so, you know, all those things they stay with you and they build. And I think those fundamentals serve you forever. I think that some of the basics of computer science still persist in just different instantiations, right? Whether it's the mainframe and then into client server and internet and cloud, you know, it's all still down to that logic. And I do often say that, you know, at some point went into consulting and at some point I went into software selling and at some point I went into this cloud alliance thing, which I'm still overjoyed. I discovered, I guess, almost 10 years ago now. That's a long time. I know. But that's how you get good at things, right? You got to do your 10,000 hours. You got to put the work in. You got to be a learn it all, not a know it all, whatever.

And I do say I am a software seller kind of disguised as a cloud alliance person, right? You know, again, just that is our obligation to the business. We got to make the number. And so, you know, to talk credibly about Datadog and then talk, you know, why, why should I listen to a person like Laura Ripans talk about Datadog? Well, I can, you know, I think your life is going to be easier with Datadog. And here are the reasons why, right? Without kind of doing a sales pitch here or anything, just try to relate to the customer. The customer is trying to adopt this, that, and the other thing. With or without Datadog, is it going to be better? And you've got to prove it. And you've got to prove it with math and science.

Trunal: Final question. You've been in the industry for a long time, but who do you think, you know, along the way has either helped you or you followed that the audience can learn from even in today's day and age?

Laura: There's are a ton, so I'm just going to talk about recent. But certainly there are a lot of great minds. Some of the people that I follow I'll mention now. And if you'd like to take a look, maybe this will give you something that you'd like to listen to.

There's a gentleman named Professor Scott Galloway, or Prof G. He has a podcast. He actually is a professor at Stern School of Business or NYU. He wrote the Algebra of Wealth. He's just someone that I really think his ideas just kind of resonate with me. He's also a very big proponent of helping young men do well in their careers. And I'm a big proponent of that too. I have a son, I have a nephew. You probably know somebody that has a son or a nephew if you don't, but I really think it's important to help young people in their careers and he's really good at that and he just he's out there. He tells it like it is. I just think he's great.

In terms of partnerships, alliances, certainly Jay McBain. I'm sure everybody listening to this knows him, the godfather of the modern ecosystem. Vince Menzione, of course, right? Ultimatepartner.com, the best. Alan Adler, like him a lot too, Digital Bridge and Jared Fuller and Near Bound. Those are some of the ones. So Scott Galloway, Jay McBain, Vince Menzione, Alan Adler, Jared Fuller are some of the people that have influenced me in most recent years.

Trunal: Fantastic. Those are some amazing names, Laura. Thank you so much for sharing. And Laura, thank you so much for coming on this podcast. I've had a wonderful time talking with you. It's been an episode worth its weight in gold. I'm sure the audience is going to enjoy so much of it. But thank you so much for coming and spending the time with us. Thank you.

‍Laura: Thanks for having me.