#144 Jackie Maldonado: How To Grow Building Partnerships With Hyperscalers

In this Ecosystem Aces podcast, Chip is joined by Jackie Maldonado, AVP of Strategy – Cloud Alliances at Turing.com. The company started in 2018 and is valued at over $1.1 Billion in 2021. Turing’s software helps companies source  high quality “Silicon Valley standard” talent and optimizes matching through AI, making it possible for hiring managers and remote talent to collaborate.

In this episode, Jackie discusses:

• How to Get the Attention of Hypescalers
• Working with AWS and Google Cloud on Co-Selling Opportunities
• Providing Value Through Talent in Joint Solutions
• Partnerships in an Established Company vs. a Fast-Growth Startup

How to Get the Attention of Hyperscalers

The demand for high-level engineers and software developers is high, and Turing.com makes it easier for top tech companies to connect with elite talent globally and hire them. For this, Jackie believes it is important to get noticed by hyperscalers and develop a productive relationship with them. 

Jackie's first step was to start a partnership with the big players: AWS, Microsoft, Google Cloud, and Salesforce. Then comes going through all legal procedures, terms, and conditions, followed by partner tiering because there are so many people with different certifications. This established Turing at a partner level and let hyperscalers know about the company. This lets hyperscalers notice when a partner positively impacts their growth.

Turing aims to make sure that hyperscalers notice that they are positively impacting their customers and helping them grow and innovate during times of cloud talent shortage. Having customers that are strategic to the hyperscalers, happy with their services and products is vital to get their attention.

Working with AWS and Google Cloud on Co-Selling Opportunities

Turing has done great work with AWS, GCP, Microsoft Azure, etc., and their co-selling journey is going great. For AWS, Turing works as a consultant to their customers and works with AWS engineers, solution architects, etc., to develop architectural designs that suit the customers’ needs.

AWS really needs to work with an intelligent talent cloud like Turing because most of their customers have signed commitments for consumption. They are falling behind in the consumption plan because they and the IT companies they work with can't find the required level of talent. Jackie initiated engagements with AWS to start with, and now they have shared a list of 75 customers that they want from Turing. 

Turing also has a great relationship with Google Cloud and wants its developer community to support Turing’s community. Much of Turing’s community reach out on how to get a Google GCP certification and other certifications. In partnership with AWS and Google, they want to start programs that can help upskill their talent. Many clients are asking for talent with particular certifications, and over a million developers and engineers at Turing are looking to get certified. 

Providing Value Through Talent in Joint Solutions

Most of the time, when customers come to Turing, they have a cloud provider and a specific tech stack. For example, a customer using AWS, Python for coding, AWS Lambda, and MongoDB. Turing provides them with talent that has the necessary skills for that tech stack and talent that can recommend the right tech stacks for a better, more efficient outcome. 

Recently an AWS customer, a vehicle company that was inefficient with labeling big shipping containers was using the AWS tech stack, and one of Turing’s engineers visited this customer and looked at their problem. He recommended that instead of just AWS Lambda, using AWS step functions would give better results. A POC was created and moved into production, and the result was twenty times more efficient than it was by using just AWS Lambda. 

Turing provides value through their talent and also makes these use cases available for the rest of their community so that they can understand and learn how to offer more value. Another case was of a pharmaceutical company for which Turing made an AI/ML marketplace through Azure. They came back and wanted the same to be done for GCP and AWS. This is the multi-cloud trend, and Turing wants to be trusted advisors where they can look at a tech stack and look at specific services within a cloud that can lead to better results. 

Partnerships in an Established Company Vs. a Fast Growth Startup

Jackie first started at Arrow, which was a new cloud team at that time. The company distributes electrical components across 86 countries . Within this system, there is a resell model where the distributor sells to the reseller, which in turn resells to end customers. 

When cloud came in, customers started going online, making an AWS account, and playing around with it. So, Jackie’s team was brought in to start the cloud initiative and distribution of cloud. They partnered with Microsoft and built their own platform where their partners and resellers can get dynamic licenses, open Azure accounts for their customers, etc.

Unlike the traditional way, the goal for a fast-growing startup is to partner with a hyperscaler and use their APIs for co-innovating and co-selling solutions. Startups need to link with the right partners, understand their program, and co-sell with them through an effective go-to-market strategy.

Conclusion

From being a relatively new startup, Turing has become a highly-successful organization by sourcing elite-level, skilled talent for hyperscalers and big tech companies. Jackie Maldonado has been at the company’s core and discussed how the company thrived through its partnerships. 

She believes that getting the attention of hyperscalers and offering them value is very important for successful partnerships. 

For more invaluable insights from Jackie, you can follow her on LinkedIn and stay updated about what she and Turing.com are up to in the future. 

Links & Resources

• Learn more about how WorkSpan helps customers accelerate their ecosystem flywheel through Co-selling, Co-innovating, Co-investing, and Co-marketing.
• Subscribe to the Ecosystem Aces Podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcast.
• Join the WorkSpan Community to engage with other partner ecosystem leaders on best practices, news, events, jobs, and other tips to advance your career in partnering.
• Find insightful articles on how to lead and get the most out of your partner ecosystem on the WorkSpan blog.
• Download the Best Practices Guide for Ecosystem Business Management
• Download the Ultimate Guide for Partner Incentives and Market Development Funds 
• To contact the host, Chip Rodgers, with topic ideas, suggest a guest, or join the conversation about modern partnering, he can be reached on Twitter, LinkedIn, or send Chip an email at: chip@workspan.com