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Deepak Gupta markGTM Map

Pattern · 14 companies · 4 counter-examples

Cloud marketplaces became a sales channel

Fourteen of the thirty companies sell through AWS, Microsoft, or Google Cloud marketplaces, and thirteen of them added that channel in a phase that began in 2019 or later.

How this was counted: A company counts when any phase contains a cloud-marketplace motion. Counter-examples are companies with no cloud-marketplace motion anywhere in the record that still scaled.

The evidence

Each row is a sourced phase in that company's record. Follow the link for the citations.

Counter-examples

Companies in the dataset that did the opposite and still worked.

  • HubSpot · Beyond search: owned media and answer engines

    Scaled through inbound content, inside sales, and agency partners; no cloud-marketplace motion in the record.

  • Canva · Enterprise rebuilt, pro tools and AI distribution

    Reached enterprise through usage inside companies; no cloud-marketplace motion in the record.

  • Dropbox · Multi-product, restructuring, and AI

    Over 90% self-serve in every filing; no cloud-marketplace motion in the record.

  • Shopify · Enterprise push, merchant solutions and AI channels

    Sells to merchants through partners and its own sales team; no cloud-marketplace motion in the record.

What it means

Reading the pattern

Analysis by Deepak Gupta, built on the records above.

  • A marketplace listing lets a buyer spend money already committed to a cloud provider. That matters most where budgets are large and procurement is slow, which is why most of the supporting companies sell to engineering, data, security, or AI buyers.
  • The newest entries (Replit, Lovable, Gong, Asana) added marketplaces in 2024 and 2025, at the same time as their enterprise push. The listing has become part of selling upmarket, not a separate strategy.
  • Absence in the record is not proof a company never listed. The counter-examples show that companies selling to marketers, designers, and merchants scaled without making marketplaces part of their story.

Motions in this pattern: Cloud marketplace.

Share this pattern

Cloud marketplaces became a sales channel: Fourteen of the thirty companies sell through AWS, Microsoft, or Google Cloud marketplaces, and thirteen of them added that channel in a phase that began in 2019 or later.1080 by 1350, for LinkedIn and X