Ecosystem-Led Growth · PE-Backed Talent Assessment Platform

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Operator Track Record

London, UK · Private Equity Portfolio · B2B SaaS

Ecosystem-Led Growth Transformation · PE-Backed Global Talent Assessment Platform

2.5×

Average contract value increase ($10K → $25K)

80%

Growth in partner-sourced pipeline

~$1M

Partner-influenced revenue generated

15%

Reduction in customer churn on integrated accounts

Situation

A PE-backed global talent assessment provider undergoing a service-to-SaaS transformation, serving customers across 60+ countries. The commercial problem had two layers: 1) a sales enablement gap: no consistent way to scope, price, or close integration-attached deals; 2) an untapped ecosystem opportunity, with ATS/HRIS vendors as potential co-sell partners rather than just technical integration dependencies. No structure existed to activate either.

Approach

Mapped the full ATS ecosystem to identify highest-value integration partnerships by deal size, win-rate correlation, and customer demand signal. Built a centralised, self-serve integration knowledge hub converting fragmented tribal knowledge into a dynamic sales asset. Standardised scoping and pricing by ATS tier (global enterprise, regional, emerging). Launched co-sell motions with priority ATS partners, joint collateral, shared deal registration, and integration demonstration environments.

Impact

ACV grew from $10K to $25K through integration-attached deal structures. Partner-influenced revenue reached ~$1M without incremental headcount. Win rates on integration-driven opportunities rose from 35% to 50%. Integration activations doubled. Customer churn on integrated accounts fell 15%. Sales adoption reached 90% within six months.

Results visualised

ACV growth and win rate improvement

Left: average contract value before and after integration-attached deal structures. Right: win rate on integration-driven opportunities before and after the ecosystem programme.

Average contract value ($K)

Win rate on integration-driven deals

Read the complete case study

Full ecosystem strategy, integration hub build, co-sell motion design, and results from the full ELG programme.

Obstacles we overcame

The platform operated within a highly fragmented HR Tech ecosystem. Customers demanded seamless integrations with their existing Applicant Tracking Systems, but with 30+ global ATS providers and hundreds of regional ones, the business had no scalable way to deliver. Integration was simultaneously the most requested capability and the biggest commercial bottleneck, costing an estimated $2M annually in competitive losses. Deals that did close were underpriced. The partner ecosystem was untapped as a commercial channel, with no structured co-sell motion and no visibility into partner-sourced pipeline.

The partner co-sell motion required a reversal: instead of formal channel programme outreach, we started with integration delivery on shared customers, then formalised the partnership after proving value jointly.

The initial plan was a static documentation project. Two weeks in, it became clear this would replicate the problem. We shifted to a Confluence-based dynamic knowledge hub with keyword-linked search, co-created with AEs around real deal scenarios. Early adopter involvement turned sceptics into advocates, the tool spread through the sales team on its own momentum.

Enterprise value connection

Lever	Mechanism	Impact
Revenue expansion	ACV uplift from integration-attached deal structures	2.5× ACV ($10K → $25K)
New revenue channel	Partner co-sell at zero incremental headcount	80% pipeline growth · ~$1M
Net revenue retention	Lower churn on stickier, integrated accounts	15% churn reduction
Sales efficiency	Higher win rates, faster scoping	Win rate +15pp · scoping −40%
Margin improvement	Engineering redirected from support to product	Velocity +30% · support −20%
EBITDA uplift	ACV expansion + retention with no additional headcount growth	80% net new pipeline growth · $1M partner-sourced pipeline · 15% churn reduction
Exit multiple defence	Ecosystem lock-in strengthens competitive moat	Activations 2× · 90% adoption

Custom Tooling Built

Tools that stayed in use after the programme

Dynamic integration sales knowledge hub with keyword search, linked to live pricing and scoping data
Standardised integration scoping and pricing templates by ATS tier (global enterprise, regional, emerging)
Routing workflow for custom integration requests with defined SLAs
Partner co-sell playbook with joint value propositions, deal registration, and shared pipeline tracking
Integration sales performance dashboard tracking activation rates, attach rates, ACV uplift, and partner pipeline

Implementation Challenges

What had to be solved mid-journey

No single owner of integration sales, solved with a cross-functional team and defined SOPs
Sales team scepticism about "another internal tool", overcome through early adopter co-creation
Partner engagement too formal, reversed the sequence to start with integration delivery on shared customers
Integration Product Manager temporarily reassigned, took direct ownership reporting to commercial leadership

AI Use Case

How AI could accelerate this today

Automated partner scoring by customer overlap and deal-size correlation
Predictive pipeline modelling to forecast partner-sourced revenue contribution

Building a B2B SaaS platform without an ecosystem strategy?

CAC is up 30–40% since 2022. AI has compressed feature parity from years to quarters. Traditional GTM levers burn capital that a PE-owned structure will not forgive. Ecosystem-Led Growth scales revenue without proportional cost, using integrations and relationships that make the product harder to displace, not just easier to sell. We help PE-backed software businesses build and activate it.