About AlignedPartner

Update November 2023: Darren has joined Shopify full-time as head of partner programs and experience. AlignedPartner Consulting may continue one day in the future but is shelved for the time being. Thank you for your business!

AlignedPartner Consulting was created to help high-tech companies do more and to do better with their partner strategies and programs.

Partnering is not easy

With a direct sales force, they’re under your employ and they will ask you how high to jump when you tell them to jump.

Working with partners means working with companies that have their own hopes and dreams and mission statements. What’s the secret to unlocking the partner multiplier effect?

The secret is alignment

The key to success is when all stakeholders involved are ALIGNED with each other.

Success happens when the business partner’s goals are aligned with the vendors. For example, Nintex was always a good partner of Microsoft because they both believed in collaborative solutions using Microsoft SharePoint software.

Success happens when the vendor’s sales team is aligned with the partner team. For example, when the sales team is incentivized to sell with a partner versus compete with them, there’s alignment.

Success happens when the vendors senior management acts in ways that support the partners, and don’t just talk about their love of partners. That’s when there’s real alignment.

Practical, experienced advice

AlignedPartner provides advice that is based in decades of focus on partnering, both from understanding what software companies across the industry are doing, and deep operational knowledge gained in leadership roles.

• Partner Programs Consulting

• Presentations and Workshops

About Darren Bibby

I’ve spent my whole career around software and partnering. I have 25 years of experience to share based on multiple points of view.

I’ve been a partner

Early in my career, I spent 6 years as a solution provider and “partner” of Microsoft, IBM, and others. I led sales and marketing for small companies where we provided custom software solutions to corporations. Our needs as a partner were unique compared to other types of companies, a fact that always stayed with me.

I’ve been a software vendor

I got a chance to learn from the best in my time at Microsoft in the mid 2000s when the company was pioneering enduring partner program elements such as “partner points” and “competencies/specializations.” These are concepts that have been adopted by countless programs since.

Before launching AlignedPartner in 2021, I spent over 5 years as VP of Partner Strategy and Programs at DocuSign, the worldwide leader in e-signature and agreements. My team and I built the DocuSign Partner Program and helped to triple our partner contribution % to the business, all the while DocuSign grew its revenue at a feverish pace. I sat down with Steven Kellam from 360 Insights in the Fall of 2021 and explained the journey.

I know what it takes to build complex programs that align with the complex wants and needs from both a software vendor and its partners.

I’ve studied partner strategy and programs

I led IDC’s worldwide channels and alliances research and consulting practice from 2006-2016, working with dozens of high-tech companies and their partner strategies and programs. I grew the team to 7 analysts that provided syndicated research and custom consulting to large IT vendors about going to market through indirect channels. In my leadership role, I authored dozens of thought-leadership reports and featured as a keynote speaker at many software industry and partner events. I led or supervised over 50 partner strategy and program projects.