But this massive achievement wasn't an overnight success – it was the result of deliberate strategy and years of execution.

The chart from early days reveals what many marketplace beginners overlook: building momentum takes persistence.

The Multi-Year Journey to $1Bn

Looking at CrowdStrike's marketplace timeline is eye-opening:

• 2018-2019: First steps on AWS Marketplace with minimal traction

• 2020: Slowly building foundation, barely visible on the revenue chart

• 2021: Crossing the $100M milestone as growth accelerates

• FY22/FY21: 100%+ growth in ARR transacted through AWS Marketplace

• 2023: Hitting the $1B in total sales milestone

• 2024: Finally broke the $1B annual sales barrier, with 91% YoY growth

That's a 6-year journey from marketplace entry to $1 Bn in annual sales milestone. Even a category-defining company with perfect product-market fit needed years of marketplace investment before seeing hockey-stick growth.

Three Phases of Marketplace Maturity: Learnings from CrowdStrike

1️⃣ Foundation Building

CrowdStrike started by setting fundamentals:

• Creating marketplace listings

• Building internal marketplace expertise

• Developing marketplace operational capabilities

2️⃣ Enterprise Scale

With basics in place, they focused on enterprise-grade marketplace adoption:

• Strategic co-selling with AWS field teams

• Enabling customers to leverage AWS commitments

• Driving larger enterprise deals with upsell (platform adoption)

3️⃣ Channel Integration

The critical acceleration came when CrowdStrike unified channel partners with their marketplace strategy:

• Focused on channel partner private offers through AWS Marketplace

• Enabled distributors to transact through the marketplace

This led to "3,548% YoY global growth in distributor sales" in last year alone

Why This Timeline Matters

What began as a small line on a revenue chart grew into a business transformation with Cloud GTM now producing deals 4X larger than traditional channels. CrowdStrike marketplace customers are also adopting 7 platform modules on average.

For partnership leaders, this serves as both inspiration and a reality check. The $1B milestone is achievable, but it requires:

• Executive commitment across multiple fiscal years

• Evolving marketplace strategy as you scale

• True integration between traditional channel and cloud marketplace motions

• Building internal expertise and operations specific to marketplace

The companies reaching Cloud GTM pinnacle took the long view, even as they drove impressive quarterly growth along the way.

Crucially, CrowdStrike shows that marketplace success doesn't mean bypassing partners – in fact, they achieved their biggest growth by bringing partners along, with partners sourcing over 60% of new logos.

What is your learning from marketplace pioneers' rapid progression from $1Bn via marketplace over years to 1Bn+ annually?