Unlocking Growth at DigitalOcean Through Cloud Marketplaces with Fer Oliveira, VP of Ecosystem

At DigitalOcean, with 640K users, the focus is on simplifying Cloud for developers and startups, while steering clear of direct competition with the hyperscalers.

Partner Insight sat down with Fer Oliveira, VP of Ecosystem & Partnerships, to explore his unique approach to growing its marketplace, ecosystem, and co-selling.

Before joining Digital Ocean(DOCN) in 2023, Fer was leading GTM and creating cloud solutions for developers at Google. His extensive experience also spans roles at JFrog, Canonical, and Cisco.

Creating Network Effects with Ecosystem

Fer describes DOCN’s partnerships strategy as creating a pull rather than a push. “Partnership here in Digital Ocean is more like an ecosystem where we want to tap into what I love to say, network effects.” he says, outlining his focus on creating a flywheel.

The ecosystem at DOCN consists of 4 pillars:

• Marketplace.
• Partnerships.
• Technology Alliances.
• Startup Program.

Leveraging the Marketplace for Growth

The Marketplace at DOCN isn’t just a growth tool for the company; it’s vital for customer success, particularly for ISVs.

Fer explains, “Our major focus… is helping ISVs to build on Digital Ocean and launch their products to market very fast….The marketplace becomes the lower cost of acquisition for a founder; they don’t need to build a sales organization.”

Unlike hyperscalers, whose thousands of sellers drive the marketplace adoption, DOCN’s strategy focuses on turning its marketplace into a self-service platform.

“Marketplace is not just a fulfillment for your sales organization, but it’s exactly the place that is definitely your e-commerce for your customers. We are not a hyperscaler, but we are discovering that you start and build a business from zero, doing self sales.”

ISV Partner Program and Marketplace

DigitalOcean offers multiple partnership pathways, from a flexible solutions partner program, to startup-specific partnerships and Marketplace application partners.

DigitalOcean’s Marketplace is a software innovation hub, attracting a dedicated audience of developers and small to mid-sized businesses searching for cutting-edge tools. By featuring their solutions in the Marketplace, ISVs benefit from increased visibility within a community that values and actively seeks out new technology. This exposure is a gateway to a broader audience, offering ISVs the potential to amplify their customer base significantly.

They describe the benefits to ISVs here, which describes how you can build, deploy, and scale your applications faster and more efficiently with DigitalOcean App Platform, making it a perfect fit for ISVs:

• Reduced Costs: Enjoy a cost-effective cloud platform with predictable pricing, allowing you to optimize margins and scale your business efficiently.
• Faster Time-to-Market: Focus on building great software, not managing servers. App Platform’s streamlined deployment process gets your applications up and running quickly.
• Enhanced Scalability: Easily scale your applications up or down based on demand, ensuring a seamless user experience for your customers.
• Improved Developer Experience: Empower your development team with a user-friendly platform that simplifies application development and deployment.
• Amplify Growth with Co-Sell: Partner with DigitalOcean’s robust developer community to reach a wider audience and accelerate revenue growth.

The DigitalOcean ISV Program benefits:

• Target Developers: Reach a vast pool of potential customers who are familiar with and trust DigitalOcean’s platform.
• Streamlined Sales Process: Simplify your sales cycle by leveraging DigitalOcean’s co-sell resources and expertise.
• Reduced Customer Acquisition Costs: Tap into DigitalOcean’s established developer base to find new customers at a lower cost.

DigitalOcean App Platform with a co-sell strategy, ISVs can achieve a perfect product-market fit, optimize costs, and accelerate revenue growth.