Vena Solutions

Growing the Microsoft channel, referral, and SI partner ecosystem globally

Director, Ecosystem Business Development

Partnership Leaders

Partnership Leaders is the industry association for Partnership / Channel / Alliances / Business Development leaders at modern technology companies.

Member

Pigment

Foundational Member of Pigment NA Partner team as first NA Partner Manager hire

- Recruited, onboarded, and managed all NA SI partner
- Grew partner-sourced ARR from 7% to 32%+ of closed won ACV 
- Grew partner-attach rate from 25% to 96% of closed won opportunities
- Increased win rate on partner co-sold deals by 100% 
- Trained, mentored and acted as day-to-day manager for Partner Development Manager
- Provided strategic direction for Pigment Partner Universe development

Senior Partner Manager:

- Tasked with growing Strategic Regional North American partners
- Achieved 108% of Q3 quota
- Over-exceeded FY24 quota

Senior Partner Manager

- Promoted to Senior Partner Manager & Channel Sales Lead (SMB-MM Sales Manager)
- Started & led Pigment's NA Channel (SMB-MM) sales team, grew team from 3 to 5 AEs in 6 months, achieving 141% of H1 quota
- Achieved 125% of partner management quota

Senior Partner Account Manager & Sales Lead

- First Partner Manager hire in North America
- Achieved 110% of quota, recruiting, enabling, and growing all North American SI partners

Partner Account Manager

Manager, Partner Success

- Achieved 147% of H2 2020 plan
- Sales Advisory Council

Partner Development Manager

Sales & Partner Development Representative

Sales Development Representative

Monex Canada

- Generated several hundreds of thousands in revenue through developing and managing relationships with SMEs, corporations, and TSX-listed companies 
- Researched and presented daily briefings on changes in the market, world news, and central bank activity, in order to improve the knowledge base and sales conversation quality among the business development team

Business Development Executive

I Love Travel!

- Recruited, trained, and managed over 90 campus representatives across 20 university campuses to sell ski vacations through cold-calling, referrals, inbound applications, campus visits and social media posts
- Crafted targeted sales strategies that led to a 30% increase in collective sales in the regions of British Columbia, New York City, and Pennsylvania in under one year

Account Manager (University Division)

Labatt Breweries of Canada

My role: To make Budweiser cool again

I spent the year architecting and running promotional campaigns geared towards major student groups like the UBC Greek System, Alma Mater Society, hosting pub nights, and getting Budweiser's in the hands of the most socially influential students at UBC.

Due to the success of myself and my colleagues in other territories, Labatt doubled down on their investments towards the legal drinking age to age 24 addressable market

Campus Activation Manager

Partnerships & Sales @ Pigment // FP&A, SPM, and S&OP

Like Galaxy, but without the G

I work with Microsoft partners to bring agentic AI-powered FP&A solutions to their clients arsenal, helping them make better decisions faster. If you specialize in Dynamics, PowerBI, Fabric, ERP, or Copilot, we should chat.

Outside of my professional life, I have an interest in fitness and understanding why people do what they do.

If you'd like to get in touch with me, you can reach me via DM or via email.

mattlar.aleksi@gmail.com 👈

Aleksi Mattlar

Justin Zimmerman

Integrations ≠ partnerships | 2,485+ day-in-a-row running streak 🏃‍♂️ (everyday since Nov 29, 2018)

Virtual event producer

My marketing & partnership strategy... treat people like friends & family! 

Every year I send out 250 post cards (right around the start of the year).

I ❤️ sending New Years card because:

(1) Hardly anyone sends New Years Cards (they stand out)

(2) They capture the spirit of gratitude / new beginnings

(3) They show up in mailboxes as one last gift after the holiday rush

Honestly, I get a buzz off of sending them. 

It's rewarding to prep the mailing list. I see all the names of the people who've helped make my last year(s) in business possible.

And there's a true joy that comes from imagining the smiles on their faces as they retrieve their mail.

Now, it cost about $500 to print and send them all. 

But I know it's good marketing and good for my business & personal brand!

My thinking is...

When you're a small company (or team), you need the best relationships, friendships, and partnerships to grow from zero-to-one!

If you've ever tried...

Starting any program / business from scratch is wildly difficult. If you ask any startup / new team / founder they'll tell you:

• It's lonely
• It's exciting
• It's stressful
• It's rewarding
• It's uncertain
• It's motivating

Treating key relationships as friends and family (and delivering results) is how I've managed to grow (stay relatively sane) over the last 3 years.

So every year I send out post cards.

It's my way of "showing up" and saying thank you for their time, investments, and effort to create a better partnership ecosystem / community.

And despite the headlines and world news...

When you zoom in on innovation and opportunities (think AI), 2026 looks like it's going to be the biggest best year ever! 

PS: I've got some big things planned for us all (for my followers / subscribers). If you're not already on my partnership success / playbook list, join it. The link in comments. 

PPS: That's Pico (my 🐕). He insists on going everywhere I go. He's kinda of the company mascot.

Integrations ≠ partnerships | 2,557+ day run streak 🏃‍♂️ (daily since Nov 29, 2018)

I am slightly embarrassed to say... up until recently, I didn't really know much about AI (outside of ChatGPT).

I watched Youtube videos.
I started following "guru's".
I downloaded prompting guides.

Mind you...

I've built some serious RevOps and PartnerOps systems. But I still couldn't find my "AI starting point".

I felt lost.
I felt behind.
I couldn't separate the hype from the helpful.

Then over the holiday break my fanatical vibe coder friend Joe showed me what AI can really do for partnerships.

Forget the ChatGPT web interface. 

I'm talking about Claude Code, GitHub, and Terminal. I was VERY impressed. It opened my eyes.

I then realized...

Most of us don't know where to start or which problem to solve 1st.

Most of us don't know which models / tools to choose for our programs.

Most of us don't know "someone" who can "open the door" and show us.

So a lot of us are in the same boat...

We feel behind and want to catch up.
We know must learn this stuff.

But who's really using AI in partnerships??
And who's really getting results??
This is who I want to learn from!

So with the help Tyler Calder (CMO PartnerStack) I'm hosting our first webinar of the year, focused on practical uses of AI in partnerships.

We're calling it The 2026 AI Playbook Kickoff!

Here's the lineup of people we handpicked for you...

• Jay McBain: See the state of AI & Partnerships for 2026

• Nancy Mai Harnett: AI-powered affiliate program at HubSpot

• Brian Jambor: Head of Partnerships at Synthesia (AI Video)

• Guy Yalif: AI search results expert (AEO) at Webflow

• Ed Chater: AI powered marketing / content creation at Evertune AI

• Alexander J. Buckles: Co-sell automation expert at Forecastable

• Scott Murtaugh: x-Reachdesk partner dir turned vibe code expert

• Nelson Wang: x-Airtable partner leader turned AI-powered partner consultant

• Rob Moyer: x-Gong partner leader turned AI-powered Partner RevOps consultant

So if you're feeling "this is your year" to "catch up on AI"... 

Then this free half-day webinar will kick you off in the right direction!

📆 Thursday, January 29, 2026
⏰ 8am PT | 11am ET | 5pm CEST
🔗 https://lnkd.in/eubNPUky

Signup and we will give you real use cases and simple starting points.

Plus, I will send you the recordings + AI transcript summaries.

PS: I work hard to create events that showcase the best ideas, but also balance men and women speakers. In this case I asked 4 additional female speakers to join the event. But they could not make it or declined. So if you know of any articulate female leaders in partnerships who are implementing AI, comment their names below. I'd love to include them in future events.

I'm NOT AI expert, BUT....

I wrote 57 prompts for my partner marketing program last month AND they literally 10X'd my output at 100th of the cost. 

My takeaway...

The hype around AI as a productivity booster is 100% true!

Previously I would:

• Write a requirement brief
• Meet with marketing 
• Meet with design
• Wait for them to prioritize my tasks
• Wait for drafts
• Wait for approvals
• Wait final reviews
• Wait wait wait

Instead:

I took my 15 yrs of partnership and marketing experience and I trained my AI to write, edit, design, and proof my playbooks in hours — not weeks!

Now, instead waiting waiting waiting: 

I deploy my "Justin Playbook Agent" to do it for me — without the messy time consuming back-and-forth workflow and project management!

Are my playbooks perfect? 
No.

Does speed to beat perfection? 
I believe so.

GO SEE THEM FOR YOURSELF (link in comments)! 

You'll see how I transformed 100 partner webinars into 100 playbooks in 30 days. This is how I spent my holiday break 🤓

SO WHERE ARE WE AT WITH ALL OF THIS?

My opinion is we're at the point where AI can take real work off your plate (remove a bunch of steps and tasks in your workflows).

BUT YOU NEED TO GET HANDS ON!

• The hard part won't be finding AI tools (there's 1,000's of them)
• The hard part will be finding the right workflows to solve
• AND finding people who've started solving them with AI

GOOD NEWS ON THE ABOVE.

I teamed up with Tyler Calder (CMO PartnerStack) and 9 other "AI in partnerships practitioners" who are waaaay more advanced than me!

TOGETHER ON THURSDAY... 

This group will show you what AI tools they use and what partnership / marketing workflows they apply them to:

• Jay McBain: See the state of AI & Partnerships for 2026
• Nancy Mai Harnett: AI-powered affiliate program at HubSpot
• Brian Jambor: Head of Partnerships at Synthesia (AI Video)
• Guy Yalif: AI search results expert (AEO) at Webflow
• Ed Chater: AI powered marketing / content creation at Evertune AI
• Alexander J. Buckles: Co-sell automation expert at Forecastable
• Scott Murtaugh: xReachdesk partner dir turned vibe code expert
• Nelson Wang: xAirtable partner leader turned AI-partner consultant
• Rob Moyer: xGong partner leader turned AI-Partner RevOps consultant

JOIN THE 2026 AI PARTNER PLAYBOOK KICKOFF WEBINAR!

📆 Thursday, Jan 29, 2026
⏰ 8am PT | 11am ET | 5pm CEST
🔗 https://lnkd.in/eubNPUky

No matter your skill level, they'll show us how to speed up our results. 

PLUS: I will also send you the recordings + slides + AI summaries from this 1/2 day free webinar!

taplio

The Battle

Aleksi Mattlar

Justin Zimmerman

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The Battle

Aleksi Mattlar

Justin Zimmerman

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Justin Zimmerman's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreJustin Zimmerman's LinkedIn Performance