Send us a textHere are the core areas we discuss in today's episode:Attribution: Still a Mess, but CriticalOlga doesn’t mince words when it comes to one of the most debated topics in partnerships: attribution.“The big challenge with attribution is that every company defines it differently… You have to be very deliberate and define what success means to your organization.”She emphasizes the need to define what attribution looks like at different GTM stages—from influence to sourced—and warns against relying solely on form fills or deal tags to prove value.Hyperscalers and the ‘Attach’ GameHaving built GTM motions with AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, Olga gives a candid look into what partnering with hyperscalers really entails.“At the end of the day, those big cloud players care about what attaches to their compute. That’s the business model.”She explains how you need to align to their incentives, whether that’s building joint GTM plays, co-selling, or surfacing your wins through their marketplace metrics.Rules to Thrive Podcast - Watch Here: AI Partnerships: GTM Strategy, Not Just TechOlga highlights that the AI wave has added complexity to partner programs—especially when founders treat it as a product-only play.“If AI is part of your stack and you’re integrating with Azure, great. But you still need a partner GTM motion—landing pages, demos, field plays. That’s where most teams fall short.”She shares how top companies are using GTM alignment as the differentiator in AI partnerships, not just the tech integrations themselves.Partner-Led Growth Requires a Real MotionMany leaders want the upside of ecosystems without the structure behind them. Olga stresses that partner-led can’t be wishful thinking, it needs operational rigor.“You can’t say it’s partner-led growth if you don’t have a repeatable process to enable, to scale, to track, and to drive outcomes.”She outlines how internal education, cross-functional buy-in, and reliable attribution paths are all needed to move beyond partner theater.Final Thoughts:Olga Lykova delivers a straight-talking view into what actually makes strategic partnerships work. Whether you’re navigating hyperscaler alliances or building an AI GTM motion, the message is clear:Align incentives. Build repeatable systems. Track what matters.Anything else is just noise.Support the showLearn more at www.forceandfrictionpodcast.com

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