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Hole 1: The most important shot in golf is the next one. – Ben Hogan
Josh Waldo takes the same approach to building a partner ecosystem as he does to his golf game – one stroke at a time. And as Josh has said: “thankfully, I am better at business than at golf.” Always an avid golfer, he never expected to find a new career on the golf course. When Josh started at Microsoft in 2006, he had every intention of building and growing his career there… until he met Nintex co-founder Brett Campbell and got to know him through golf.
“I planned to plant my roots at Microsoft; to work hard, learn and grow within the organization, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity that presented itself to me in 2014,” recalls Josh.
At first, Josh and Brett had casual work conversations on the course and then over time they talked more seriously about working together. At the same time, Nintex was adding to its new management team to help take the company to the next level.
"I realized how the expertise that I gained while at Microsoft was a great fit for Nintex. I could leverage all my experience from contributing to the Microsoft Partner Network and understood the pitfalls, challenges, and successes we faced."
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Hole 2: It’s a funny thing, the more I practice the luckier I get. – Arnold Palmer
Josh is no stranger to hard work and the challenges of building a successful partner ecosystem. At Microsoft, he helped transform the channel to cloud services by rolling up his sleeves to help them evolve. In building out the US ISV partner program, he gained exposure to every aspect of the business. As a two-time Circle of Excellence winner and participant in the exclusive leadership ‘Bench’ program, Josh’s ability to see and drive transformation did not go unnoticed. His breadth of experience at Microsoft gave him a unique insight on the challenges of building a robust partner ecosystem.
“I think people underestimate the amount of knowledge you attain as you build your career and expertise at Microsoft,” adds Josh.
Hole 3: One of the most fascinating things about golf is how it reflects the cycle of life. No matter what you shoot – the next day you have to go back to the first tee and begin all over again and make yourself into something. -Peter Jacobsen
Equipped with his knowledge from Microsoft, Josh’s role was to rebuild Nintex’s partner program. Keeping an open mind, Josh and his team were able to step back and think about how to best set up a new partner engagement framework starting from a clean slate.
“I could avoid the pitfalls I experienced at Microsoft and apply best practices both from Microsoft and from other channel-focused companies,” notes Josh.
With partner needs at the forefront, the Nintex team decided to create a tiered program. Today, Nintex boasts a partner ecosystem of 1,600 companies globally. The Nintex Workflow platform helps to improve how work gets done through automation and the platform extends into any cloud ecosystem.
Josh credits what he learned about building a successful partner business model at Microsoft with his ability to help Nintex partners successfully move their business to the cloud. He wouldn’t have gathered that expertise at Microsoft without the help of friends, many of whom he still has today.
"I share ideas with Microsoft peers - past and present - all the time. Nintex is a big sponsor of events like WPC, and we stay closely connected at all levels. I'm truly grateful for the experience and life-long friendships I made thanks to Microsoft."
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Some familiar faces from Microsoft have already joined Josh at Nintex where they are currently hiring: https://careers.nintex.com/.
Josh is currently serving as Vice President of Channels and Product Marketing at Nintex, named 2015 Microsoft Office & SharePoint App Dev Partner of the Year. Learn more about Nintex: http://www.nintex.com/
The rest, some say, is par for the course.
image credit Pinterest
*Josh's profile pictures by JaneG Photography