CrowdStrike: No. 1 Efficiency with Cloud Marketplaces & Partners

The biggest cloud marketplace success in the last 3 years: CrowdStrike.

Their 📊 partner playbook is a must study.

№1 in Efficiency in SaaS; Partners source ~62% of new logos & 56% of Cloud ARR.

What is less known - the “vast majority” of their AWS Cloud Marketplace business (which continues to accelerate after exceeding $1B) also transacts through resellers and SIs.

Let’s break these down.

🏆 1️⃣ in Efficiency at Scale

CrowdStrike demonstrates stellar efficient growth.

Just weeks ago, they announced their FY24:

$3.44B in ARR, with an impressive +34% Y/Y

Free cash flow - a record 33% of revenue

Net Revenue Retention ~120% - slightly lower than before, still excellent

Market Cap: $76.3B - Up 144% (!!!) in the last 12 months

In the world of the Rule of 40, CrowdStrike scores 67

The Rule of 40 is an efficiency benchmark for SaaS businesses - the combined revenue growth rate and profit margin should equal or exceed 40%. In CrowdStrike's case, their combination of growth and FCF margins ranks number 1 in the BVP Cloud Index, which tracks the performance of leading SaaS companies.

How do they do that?

🤝 Partnership: A Top 5 Strategic Pillar

CrowdStrike, of course, has an incredible product and a great niche - cybersecurity, which has become even more critical with the explosion of AI.

But one of the secrets to their efficiency is that they have been a partner-first company. Moreover, CrowdStrike was among the first to recognize the potential of hyperscaler marketplaces.

Now they have effectively unified these two elements - channel partners and cloud marketplaces “for ease, speed, and end-customer value” in a powerful GTM strategy.

CrowdStrike considers partners among the 5 key pillars that will lead them to $10Bn in ARR.

🎯 The Majority of New Logos from Partners

In November ‘23, George Kurtz, CEO, highlighted that partners sourced the majority of new logos.

“Partners bring CrowdStrike into new accounts and drive platform adoption in existing customers. Year to date, 62% of all our new logo wins were partner-sourced."

He stressed that CrowdStrike is the fastest-growing cybersecurity vendor in the channel.

"The efficacy and success of our channel-led growth was reported by Canalys, the channel's leading industry analyst firm. In their most recent cybersecurity research, Canalys reported CrowdStrike's endpoint market share as No.1, ahead of Microsoft. In addition, the research highlights CrowdStrike as the fastest-growing cybersecurity vendor in the channel.”

📈 AWS Marketplace Momentum: Beyond $1 Billion

In March ‘24, CEO explained that after surpassing $1Bn in Amazon Web Services (AWS) marketplace sales, their momentum keeps accelerating.

“Our AWS Marketplace business continues to accelerate at scale, surpassing $1 billion in sales. The AWS Marketplace continues to be one of the fastest-growing routes to market.”

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