Ep096: Navigating Cloud Marketplaces: How Suger is Streamlining Software Distribution

Jon Yoo, CEO of Suger, shares how his company automates the complex & challenging workflows of selling software through cloud marketplaces like AWS.

Topics Include:

• Jon Yoo is co-founder/CEO of Suger.
• Suger automates B2B marketplace workflows.
• Handles listing, contracts, offers, billing for marketplaces like AWS.
• Co-founder previously led Confluent's marketplace enablement product.
• Confluent had 40-50% revenue through cloud marketplaces.
• Required 10-20 engineers working solely on marketplace integration.
• Engineers prefer core product work over marketplace integration.
• Product/engineering leaders struggle with marketplace deployment requirements.
• Marketplace customers adopt without marketing, creating unexpected management needs.
• Version control is challenging for marketplace-deployed products.
• License management through marketplace creates engineering challenges.
• Suger helps sell, resell, co-sell through AWS Marketplace.
• Marketplace integration isn't one-time; requires ongoing maintenance.
• Business users constantly request marketplace automation features.
• Suger works with Snowflake, Intel, and AI startups.
• Data security concerns drive self-hosted AI deployments.
• AI products increasingly deploy via AMI/container solutions.
• AI products use usage-based pricing, not seat-based.
• Usage-based pricing creates complex billing challenges.
• AI products are tested at unprecedented rates.
• Two deployment options: vendor cloud or customer cloud.
• SaaS requires reporting usage to marketplace APIs.
• Customer-hosted deployment simplifies some billing aspects.
• Marketplaces need integration with ERP systems.
• Version control particularly challenging for AI products.
• Companies need automated updates for marketplace-deployed products.
• License management includes scaling up/down and expiration handling.
• Suger aims to integrate with GitHub for automatic updates.

Participants:

·        Jon Yoo – CEO and Co-founder, Suger

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