01 Scenario
Cloud Cruz is the data and AI platform your apps and agents run on. It has no partner program. This Blueprint designs one from zero. (Decision 13)
All of this is synthetic. Cloud Cruz, its partners, customers and numbers are invented.
What Cloud Cruz sells
A platform that companies build their apps and AI agents on, and that software vendors embed in their own products. Three plans (decision 60):
| Plan | Who | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Self-serve | Teams starting out, card on file | Under $12K a year |
| Premium | Growing companies, annual contract | $12K to $50K ACV |
| Enterprise | Sales-led, annual or multi-year | $50K+ ACV |
Who buys it
Mid-market B2B software companies, roughly 200 to 2,000 employees, shipping AI features and agents inside their own products. The buyer is the CTO or VP Engineering. The trigger is a mandate to ship AI this year. Enterprise data teams are the second market. (Decision 14; details in 02-customer-profile.md.)
Why partners, and why now
- Customers need hands. A mid-market software team with a "ship AI this year" mandate rarely has the data engineers to do it alone. Agencies and boutique AI consultancies build it with them.
- Software vendors are distribution. An ISV that embeds Cloud Cruz brings it to every one of its customers.
- Enterprise runs through the firms it already trusts. Consultancies and cloud marketplaces are how Cloud Cruz reaches large data teams without a large sales force.
A partner program turns those three facts into a repeatable motion instead of a series of one-off favors.
The one number the program answers to
Customers live through partners: the count of Cloud Cruz customers in production with a partner as the sourcing partner, partner of record or implementer, with time to live beside it. Revenue, ROI and activation are supporting metrics. It passes both tests: one plain number, and it measures customers getting value. (Decision 57)
Year-1 targets (by Mar 31, 2028)
Outcomes, not partner counts, on a partner team that stays at 9 people all year (decisions 65, 66):
| Target | Number |
|---|---|
| Customers live through partners (north star) | 400 |
| Partners activated (a first live joint customer) | 250 |
| Partners activated within 90 days of signing | 40% |
| Customers live per partner-team member | 44+ |
| Partner questions answered by the Support Hub, no ticket needed | 60% |
| Long-tail onboarding completed with no human touch | 70% |
About 1,000 partners signed is an input to these outcomes, not a goal. Scale comes from systems, not headcount: automation and AI do the routine work, and a person approves anything that changes state. The targets are reviewed Jan 1 and Jul 1. (How they were chosen: decision-briefs/2026-09-25-year-one-targets.md.)
How Year 1 unfolds
| When | What |
|---|---|
| Jan 1 to Mar 31, 2027 | 90-day beta with about 25 design partners, to get the motion right |
| Apr 1, 2027 | Launch: the Services path opens (agencies, consultancies, SIs) |
| Oct 1, 2027 | The Technology path (ISVs that embed and integrate), resellers and cloud marketplace co-sell open |
(Decisions 15, 95, 97; details in 09-launch-plan.md.)
How to read the rest
| Document | Question it answers |
|---|---|
| 02 Customer profile | Who does Cloud Cruz sell to? |
| 03 Partner profile | Which partners do we want, and how do we score them? |
| 04 Economics | How do partners earn, and what qualifies them for a tier? |
| 05 Lifecycle | What happens to a partner at each of the eight stages? |
| 06 Credentials | What does each certification prove, and what does it save the customer? |
| 07 Systems | Which tools run the program, and how do they connect? |
| 08 Salesforce setup | How is the system of record set up? |
| 09 Launch plan | How does the beta become a launch? |
| 10 Roles | Who owns what? |
Every rule in these documents traces to a numbered decision in DECISIONS.md, each made by Tony Gilharry.