PartnerHacker Daily #20: Smart Sandcastles

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Did you grow up playing in the sand?

Shovel, pail, and molds in hand, you'd dream of building a grand sandcastle with moats and bridges. In your mind, you'd see this...

But in reality, you'd create this...

Why is that?

Maybe it had nothing to do with your skill-level or potential. Maybe it was your strategy.

The BIG INSIGHT of Platform Ecosystems

“It’s not just about playing nicely with other kids in the sandbox. It’s about creating a sandbox where the other kids want to come to build their castles.” - Doug Kessler

Marketplaces, exchanges, app stores, directories, and integrations create a win-win-win scenario for platforms, customers, and app vendors. This means that instead of having one kid with a pail, shovel, and molds, you have a network of kids being drawn to the same location, all benefiting from each other.

It's a smorgasbord of pails, shovels, molds, creativity, manpower, and mutual value.

Sandcastles teach us: If you want to build something impressive, instead of doing it on your own, find a way to make it opportunistic for others to help you.

You want others to help you as a means to helping themselves.

Think about Salesforce’s App Exchange, HubSpot’s App Marketplace, and Slack’s App Directory. Mutual benefit, all-around – platform, customer, vendor.

Read more of the article here.

Picture of the Day

You're already a part of our sandbox

Share the PhD with a friend, and let's see what kind of a sandcastles we can make together.