Ecosystem as the alternative growth channel

AI gave everyone speed - but that same speed flooded every distribution channel. Search traffic's down, inboxes are overrun, and even virality is harder when everyone's shipping quickly.

In this episode, Emily Kramer reveals the strategy behind today's breakout companies: ecosystem. Instead of going direct, win through partners, creators, communities, and integrations that already have your audience's trust. If you're still relying on the old playbook in an AI-saturated world, this episode will help you rewire your strategy.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why classic inbound, outbound, virality, events, and lifecycle are weakening in the AI era

• What an ecosystem flywheel is and how it compounds credibility and distribution

• The six most common ecosystem motions

• How fast-growing teams such as Supabase, Clay, Lovable, and more are using an ecosystem strategy

• How to pick partners using “coverage” and “composition” instead of vanity reach

• What a win-win-win relationship looks like in an ecosystem

• How to start an ecosystem strategy, prove it, then expand without diluting the signal

References:

• Aaron Cort: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaroncort/

• AirOps: https://www.airops.com/

• Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com/

• Arrows: https://www.arrows.to/

• Astro: https://www.astro.build/

• Baseten: https://www.baseten.co/

• Carta: https://carta.com/

• Clay: https://www.clay.com/

• Clio: https://www.clio.com/

• Craft Ventures: https://www.craftventures.com/

• Daniel Zarick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielzarick/

• Elena Verna: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elenaverna/

• ElevenLabs: https://elevenlabs.io/

• Emily Kramer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilykramer/

• Emily Kramer's newsletter: https://newsletter.mkt1.co/

• Ethan Smith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanls/

• Gamma: https://gamma.app/

• GC AI: https://gc.ai/

• Graphite: https://graphite.dev/

• Grant Lee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grantslee/

• HubSpot: https://www.hubspot.com/

• Lenny's Product Pass: https://lennysproductpass.com/

• Lovable: https://lovable.dev/

• Mercury: https://mercury.com/

• Midjourney: https://www.midjourney.com/

• Navattic: https://www.navattic.com/

• Supabase: https://supabase.com/

• “The ultimate guide to AEO” Lenny’s Podcast episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT7kq-R3Gjc

• Tom Orbach: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomorbach/

• Tracksuit: https://www.tracksuit.com/

• Upstart: https://www.upstart.com/

• Vanta: https://www.vanta.com/

• Vercel: https://vercel.com/

• Wiz: https://www.wiz.io/

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https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/ecosystem-is-the-next-big-growth

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About

Welcome to Lenny's Reads, where every week you’ll find a fresh audio version of my newsletter about building product, driving growth, and accelerating your career, read to you by the soothing voice of Lennybot.