Pax8 offers born-in-the-cloud vendor access to an expansive partner ecosystem and so much more
Problem
Go to market support
Wasabi launched in 2017 to commoditize cloud storage, making it readily available to the entire world at an affordable cost. The founders were pioneers in cloud-backup, having established Carbonite in the early 2000s. They understood that taking a cloud-native company to market was a heavy lift and required a carefully thought-out strategy to be effective. To allow them time to develop the right plan, the company operated directly for a couple of years, with customers buying from their website.
In 2019, Wasabi was ready to accelerate its business and prepared for a channel go-to-market launch. They knew leveraging an expansive partner ecosystem would be critical in driving the adoption and usage of their solutions. The company built a channel-specific strategy to deliver its solutions through distribution and sought a partner that would support their sales and marketing needs, empowering their growth.
“For the first few years, Wasabi operated with no partner program or distribution model. We were selling directly through our website and targeting potential partners through free trials. Eventually, we were ready to elevate our sales and marketing activities and quickly developed a channel-specific strategy to begin working through distribution.”
Solution
A partnership for accelerated growth
Wasabi was familiar with Pax8 and was excited by the fact that they were a built-in-the-cloud distributor. Pax8’s comprehensive vetting process for vendors ensured that Wasabi’s APIs perfectly integrated into their marketplace, creating a seamless experience for partners to adopt Wasabi’s products quickly and include them in their technology stack. The Pax8 Platform also offered advanced technologies that allowed MSPs to buy, sell, and manage cloud technology easily, providing Wasabi a simplified approach to significantly expand their reach nationwide. Additionally, Pax8’s dedicated vendor management team provides Wasabi with constant communication and resources to grow the business and acquire new partners.
“We were very excited to work with Pax8. Like Wasabi, Pax8 is also a born-in-the-cloud company and is dedicated to driving the digital transformation. We knew our missions, goals, and strategies aligned and would make an impactful partnership within the industry, which is why Pax8 became the first distributor we partnered with.”
Benefit
Complete solution bundle
The Pax8 partner ecosystem provided Wasabi with a direct channel to expand its reach. Still, the ability for partners to bundle multiple products and build a comprehensive solution stack was equally attractive. By combining various products with Wasabi’s cloud storage, like Veeam’s advanced backup products, partners can offer their clients a bundled package that provides a complete solution for several business needs. In addition, Wasabi’s low cost makes it an attractive option and an effective way for partners to incorporate additional margin into their solution stack.
“We have a strong partnership with Veeam, and the streamlined automation available through the Pax8 Platform is very compelling. It allows partners to easily combine and sell complementary technologies, providing significant value by creating a turnkey data protection solution to provide their clients. Pax8 is the fabric that brings Wasabi and Veeam together, allowing us to grow.”
Innovative marketing programs
After choosing to work with Pax8, Wasabi quickly learned that the company provided more than just a sales channel. They had a true partnership for developing strategic go-to-market initiatives and targeted client acquisitions. Pax8’s robust vendor marketing program offers Wasabi opportunities to increase exposure and reach more partners through several different activities. By participating in digital campaigns and partner-focused Mission Briefing events, Pax8 boosts Wasabi’s visibility to its partner community and the IT channel.
“As our relationship with Pax8 has grown over the years, so have our combined marketing efforts. We recently participated in a Pax8 Mission Briefing, which allowed us to interact directly with partners and have valuable conversations, which was a good indication of a bright future for our partnership.
Strategic sales approach
With Pax8, Wasabi experienced an innovative partner willing to explore unique initiatives outside of their standard processes to drive sales. For example, when Wasabi needed support in managing their lead generation, they worked with Pax8 to develop a strategic solution resulting in the Pax8 sales team proactively reaching out to inbound requests. Additionally, Wasabi receives 50-100 inquiries from MSPs monthly looking for an automated white-glove solution. As a result, Wasabi recommends several new partners to Pax8 monthly, driving their mutual revenue.
“Pax8 supports small-midsized MSPs, which represent an incredibly high volume of business in the market. Having Pax8 to tap into that sector and target thousands of potential partners presents significant benefit, scalability, and potential, removing our need for a large salesforce and marketing team.”
Dedicated consultants
“The Pax8 sales team is strategically structured to include Continuity Consultants that are subject matter experts on Wasabi products. Having a dedicated and knowledgeable team working to help partners adopt our solutions is an excellent approach and has accelerated our sales growth with Pax8.”
Results
Framework for future success
“Having a Vendor Manager with an intimate feel of the current partner ecosystem combined with an astute industry knowledge has been extremely valuable to us. As a nimble company, Wasabi relies on Pax8 for the latest industry changes, partner needs, and channel evolution, which has been a major catalyst for our growth.”
Fueled by the collaborative partnership and strategic initiatives, Wasabi has experienced tremendous growth through working with Pax8. Currently, they have over 3,500 North American partners, and a solid base purchasing through Pax8. Its automation capabilities provide partners an easy onboarding experience and a simplified approach to the cloud, enabling Wasabi to scale and maintain high partner volumes without adding additional resources. Over the last 20 months, Wasabi has added on average 30 new partners monthly, tripling their net new partners and revenue in 2020. Additionally, since partnering with Pax8, Wasabi’s impressive growth has made it an attractive investment, receiving significant amounts of funding, including $112 million in April of 2021.
As the Pax8 and Wasabi relationship grows, they look to the future and make global expansion a priority. To further drive success, they will diversify their offerings and pursue additional use cases for Wasabi’s advanced solutions, uncovering new markets and business needs. Additionally, Wasabi will engage in more vendor marketing opportunities through their Pax8 partnership, elevating their visibility and reaching new partners worldwide.
“Global expansion is a top goal for Wasabi, which makes our partnership with Pax8 even more valuable. They have begun establishing a presence within European markets, which provides an easy entrance for us. We are excited about the future and developing strategic initiatives to grow our worldwide business together.”
About Wasabi
Wasabi is on a mission to store all the world’s data by making data storage simple, affordable, fast and secure. If you have data to store, whether it’s backups, x-rays, surveillance videos, financial data, media and entertainment, or scientific data, Wasabi’s pledge is to always be the cheapest, fastest, most secure and reliable cloud storage in the world. It’s all they do, and they do it better than anyone.