Vlad Melnik: How Cribl Built a 95% Partner-Led Business

Chip Rodgers  0:00  
Hey everyone. Chip Rodgers, we're back here at catalyst again. Day two, Wednesday, Thursday, no Thursday, Thursday, losing track Chicago. So very excited to be joined by Vlad Melnick. Vlad is VP of Business Development and global alliances for cribble, correct? And cribbles, about this is a cybersecurity company about 700 plus employees and been growing and very successful. And yeah, you, you've been in partnerships for a lot of years. And yeah, and a lot in cyber and Microsoft Accenture and Squonk Splunk and yeah, so So welcome.

Vlad Melnik  0:44  
Thank you. Thank you. Good to be here. And very briefly, it's, I mean, the catalyst is growing every year. I've been here for last three years, since the day I was started. I know the founders of catalyst, and it's very, very impressive community for in terms of what we do, what I do, cribble is not just a cyber we do a lot of things. We're considering ourselves as a data engine for both IT and security. So we are essential to anyone who is trying to modernize their data strategy. Because right now, it's no surprise that you know data is growing at the 28% CAGR, but your budget is probably are not and yes, there's some budgets for security guys, but there's also some budgets for it guys. It's not just about the money. It's all about what are you going to do with this massive seas of data that are surrounding you? And what cribble found the sweet spot is that we're basically that engine. We help to collect, you know, sanitize, we can process, enrich mass we can do a lot of things with data, and then route it to any of the destinations. And that's apparently what's needed. And we can do it anywhere, Prem cloud, any clouds whatsoever. So we're very happy where we are. Last year, we reached 100 million in ARR one of the one. Thank you. Thank you. One of the fastest growing startups in the Silicon Valley, and my role is in the specifically in the world of the business development and technical alliances. Cribble is all about, is all about partnerships. 95% of our businesses come in through the

Chip Rodgers  2:15  
partners. That's amazing. It's it well

Vlad Melnik  2:18  
again, it's back to the initial guiding principles of how the company was founded, how we build it again. I worked with the founders previously in my days at Splunk, and when I came in, the message was, well, we have partner focus. We're partners. Kind of partnerships is central to our live. Being with it at the end of the day, with all of just everything I just told you about, the data around it means that you have to integrate with all of these various partners, and then, well, integrations almost mean immediately that you have to have great relationships built in some sort of a partnership strategy around them. So what happened is that now we, instead of just having a solid channel strategy, we have pretty much synthesized all kind of various type of partnerships with the GSIs. We have OEMs. We now have launched a brand new technical Alliance program as well, and it's been very, very successful since the day we launched, literally in May, it went all live. Within an hour, we started seeing people, yeah, and I thought it was so funny chip, you'll actually appreciate it. We thought for a second it was spam. No, it turned out to be something real. Yeah, somebody was real in the time zone somewhere, from Switzerland, Pinna saying, Oh, we saw it. We would like to be a partner of cribble. So it's a great space for cribble to be in. Well as an, you know, in the industry where that we're in, but also we are accentuating the message around partnerships, because we would not be where we are today, and we certainly are not going to be where we're targeting to grow. As you know, with the exponential growth we experienced so far, everybody expects the hockey stick. We cannot do it without our

Chip Rodgers  3:51  
partners. So that's just an incredible success story. Congratulations. First of all, that's amazing. How do you How have you how tell me about how that happened. How did you bring your organization along to, you know, to really, to partner together, and then how do you get the your sales teams to co sell and work with the part with the partners? You got all these great integrations, right? Like, how do you get them to work together? To go, Hey, let's go. Let's go set you know, this is good for both of us? Let's go sell it.

Vlad Melnik  4:22  
So, yeah, a couple of tips and tricks. So to speak of the trade, first, you can do it all at the same time. So that's that was the challenge to begin with. And again, pribble founders and the the way, how we have our own kind of the mentality there is like we the fact that we can do all types of partnerships doesn't doesn't mean that we have to do them or we can do them well immediately this year. So prioritize, prioritize, prioritize, literally come in with a scalpel with a laser cutting knife, of what do not what we will not invest in this particular fiscal year. So it's how it's all started. You kind of have to work with the resellers of the world in. Know, the usual cohort of octaves, guide points, wwcs, you you know, you name it all of them. And then this is what the initial focus, okay, make sure that our own field is very well partnered with the channel teams that allows to basically push and drive cribble revenue through the through these strategies that are specifically created with the channel. Then you start looking into services with the MSP, mssps, managed services are on fire right now, no surprise, and it's both in IT and security. Then you start looking into the bigger players as you grow. Because couple years ago, maybe Accenture or Deloitte would be like interested in seeing, Oh, where's scribble interesting? Oh, what does scribble do? Well, you guys are too small for us. So we were too small for them. Now they're coming all to us saying, Hey, we've heard that you guys are very interesting. You know, multi, multi product company that allows to fix these concrete problems for our customers. We would like you to become part of our reference architectures. We would like to figure out how to, yeah, when you hear about, when you hear about it from, like, guys from Accenture, and I spent some time working for Accenture, I know what I'm talking about. This is like, Mmm, interesting. You are now on their radar. Same thing is actually going to happen with the big boys, like what we call Three Amigos, cloud, cloud hyperscalers, your Microsoft, your AWS, Microsoft, Google and, you know, and some other also, that are coming in the same thing. It's like, well, now they're noticing, but the message is, if you tell them yeah, you're ready, let's do this. And then you say, yeah, you say A, and then you cannot say B, C, D, you cannot basically commit to it. Then you're like a clown. You're like, well, you cannot really do anything. You're saying you're going to work with them, but you're not ready to commit. There are no resources, there's no budget, there's no real, concrete plans. So back to the message. And I know I'm talking a lot today, but this is the secret of the trade. You figure out the strategy. And the most important part of any strategy, but in partnership, partnership strategies even even more so, is you figure out exactly, not just what you're gonna do, but what exactly you're going to cut and not do this year? That allows focus, that allows prioritization, that also allows the very clean and clear message to some of the partners who are coming and want to work with you, saying, Well, we're just not ready. We're not equipped to work with you. So be truthful to yourself. Be very direct and you know, and communicate that. So that was it. And then, as I mentioned earlier, once you say a make sure that you know the rest of the alphabet. You know that the steps and the effort you need to put in to basically cook the whole enchilada, you cannot, you cannot do them all. But once you started working with the big voice, you want to make sure that you're ready. And then they see it, and then they treat you as such. You basically now have a seat at the table, just like cribble does.

Chip Rodgers  7:44  
So that's amazing. I love that. I think it's, it's hard to do though, you know, to say, Okay, we're going to do these things, but we're not going to do these because you always have, you know, pressures, right? That's like, why aren't we doing Oh, yeah, well, no, we're

Vlad Melnik  7:59  
inspirations too, right, like you. So again, good example at RSA, we made, we announced a major partnership with the Microsoft. It's all public. Great stuff. Press Release. This was great. We met with some of the senior executives from Microsoft. You know, Satya Nadella directs, and we're about to do our pitch. And then when you hear from somebody at the EVP status of Microsoft with the army of 1000s of people, it's like, oh no, no, no. Pitch is needed. We know who you are. We've been briefed. I know who you that is. That is extremely that's amazing. It's rewarding. And it's almost like same thing. Spent 10 years at Microsoft. I know how layered and structured Microsoft is. Just to actually even have that recognition before you even open your mouth. It's very, very rewarding. That's

Chip Rodgers  8:42  
fantastic. That's a amazing story. And

Vlad Melnik  8:46  
total but yes, they're they're there for sure, yeah. Well,

Chip Rodgers  8:50  
Vlad, thank you so much for stopping by and sharing, sharing some some of your experiences. Great, great advice, great ideas for people and and congrats on the success, and have a great rest of the and

Vlad Melnik  9:04  
I'll just leave you with this one last tidbit, which is, again, strategy is great, but it could be the best strategy in the world. Great PowerPoint slides. If you cannot execute on this, you are totally screwed. So in my world, again, 25 years plus of experience execution can eat strategy for breakfast and probably lunch and dinner. So make sure, when you commit to your strategy and you develop it and you get it all in, that you can actually execute on it. And I'll leave you with that, thanks for inviting me.

Chip Rodgers  9:33  
That's great. Great. Thanks. Thanks, Vlad, so very good. Appreciate it, and thank you all for joining. And we'll see you. See you next time, thanks. Vlad, thank you. Bye.

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