One thing we've changed while growing Trackly
At first, we thought our biggest challenge would be building more features.
It wasn't.
The real challenge has been getting in front of the right people.
We've found that many businesses don't discover tools like Trackly through Google. They hear about them from people they already trust, like HR consultants, IT providers, payroll partners, and business advisors.
Because of that, we're putting more effort into building a B2B partner program instead of relying only on cold outreach.
It's still early, but we're already seeing more meaningful conversations than we expected.
For founders selling B2B SaaS:
Have partnerships played a bigger role in your growth than direct outbound, or was it the other way around?
I'd love to hear what's worked for you.
The "they hear about it from people they trust, not Google" insight really lands for me. I'm pre-launch on an analytics tool for traders, and I keep hitting the same wall — in my niche especially, trust is everything because the space is full of scammy tools with fake numbers. Cold discovery is basically dead; people only try something a person they respect vouched for.
That's pushing me toward a version of what you're describing — instead of a partner program, leaning on educators and community figures who already have earned trust, and letting the product's honesty do the vouching. Slower than ads, but the trust transfers in a way a Google click never does.
Curious — with your partners (HR consultants, IT, payroll), how are you getting the first few to actually champion you? Is it a formal incentive, or does it start with just being genuinely useful to them first?
I completely agree. In B2B, trust usually matters more than visibility.
Right now, we're starting by being genuinely helpful first. We're having conversations with HR consultants, IT providers, and business advisors to understand their clients' challenges before talking about partnerships. Once there's a good fit, we introduce our recurring commission model and give them the resources they need to confidently recommend Trackly.
It's still early, but we're finding that building a few strong relationships is far more valuable than trying to recruit hundreds of partners.
The partner angle makes sense because these buyers already trust the consultant or provider who introduces the tool. While building DictaFlow, I found cold outreach useful for learning which pains get a reply, but it's a rough way to build trust from zero. I would keep outbound running as research, then give partners a very narrow offer and track introductions, qualified conversations, and paid accounts separately. What made the early partner conversations feel more meaningful than the cold ones?
That's a great way to look at it. We're actually doing something similar by using outbound to understand what resonates and where the real pain points are.
What makes the partner conversations feel different is that they already have trusted relationships with the businesses they serve. Instead of starting with, "Who are you?", the conversation starts with, "I think this could help one of my clients." That changes the dynamic completely. For Trackly, we've found those conversations are more collaborative and focused on solving real operational problems rather than just evaluating another software product.