Most ISVs don't need to hire a marketplace person.
They need a marketplace person for about twenty hours a month. 3-month minimum, roughly 20 hours a month, and I'm your marketplace function — position held, evidence surface advanced, co-sell pipeline worked, funding captured.
A listing isn't a launch. It's a position — and positions decay.
You shipped it once. It's been drifting ever since, and nothing tells you.
Competitors rewrite their copy
On 16 Jun 2026 AWS shipped AI-assisted listing generation — it writes listing copy for free. Your competitors refresh more often than they used to, and the comparison you were winning last quarter gets re-run.
Categories fill up
The category you picked when 9 listings shared it isn't the category you're in when 90 do. Placement that started as a shortcut quietly becomes a crowd.
Your rank moves either way
Since 30 Nov 2025, buyers describe what they need in plain language — or upload a requirements document — and an AI ranks and compares listings against it. That comparison re-runs whether or not anyone on your team is watching.
None of this is anyone's fault. It's what happens when the listing belongs to everyone and gets watched by no one. AWS automated the writing. It did not automate the deciding, and it cannot automate the earning.
What I hold, every month.
The same 6 workstreams every month, so the compounding is visible instead of theoretical.
Listing position held
Against category movement. I watch the category you actually compete in, track who lands next to you, and move you when the ground shifts — instead of finding out two quarters later.
Evidence surface advanced
The next certification, the next Competency, the review motion — sequenced in the order that compounds, not the order they happen to appear in the partner portal.
Co-sell pipeline worked
Opportunities routed, AWS field relationships kept warm, ACE hygiene maintained. Co-sell is a relationship business with a database attached, and both halves need tending every month.
Private offer strategy
Structure, thresholds, and terms that survive procurement. A private offer that dies in legal is a deal you already paid to source.
Funding captured
MDF, promotional credit programs, and the agentic AI competency uplift that most ISVs leave on the table entirely. The money is already budgeted. Someone just has to ask for it correctly, on time, in the right format.
A monthly written read
Where you stand, what moved, what's next. One document a month, written down — so the board question has an answer before it gets asked.
Who this is for, and who it isn't.
The wrong rung costs you a quarter. I'd rather say so now.
→ You're listed, with revenue to protect
You're past launch. There's a real number attached to your Marketplace position, and it moves when the position moves.
× You aren't listed yet
Get listed first. That's a BUILD problem, and there are funded vendors who solve it well — Tackle, Suger, Clazar, Labra. Come back when you have a position to defend.
→ Marketplace is somebody's fifth priority
It's on a PMM's plate, or a founder's, behind 4 things that shout louder. It doesn't need a hire. It needs an owner.
× You want a one-time fix
If the listing needs rebuilding, that's the 8-week sprint. This rung is for holding and compounding a position you already have.
→ You want the work done, not advised on
I'm in the ACE console, in the listing, in the funding application. Not on a call describing what somebody on your team should do in it.
× You want listing copy written
AWS writes listing copy for free now. I don't sell that, and I'd tell you not to buy it from anyone else either.
Why me.
Numbers, not adjectives.
8 years inside AWS Marketplace
Senior Technical BD Manager, on the side of the desk that decided which listings got surfaced. I left in June 2026.
595 listings read
Not skimmed — read. Of roughly 100 I catalogued closely, 81 opened with a superlative. That's the disease, and it's not what happens to yours.
BUILD → MARKET → SELL
The funded vendors own BUILD and SELL, and they're good at it. MARKET is the gap — getting chosen from inside, at the moment an AI compares you to the listing next to you.
Everything above this rung is a project. This is a position.
$7,500 a month, 3-month minimum, about 20 hours a month. You get a marketplace function — and a written read of exactly where you stand.
Start the retainer — $7,500/mo