Spotlight on Michelle Teo

Michelle Teo, founder of Demand Conversion, is a speaker at Women in Alliances annual summit. In this article learn more about her.

Why did you agree to present at the Women in Alliances Annual Summit 2025?

Businesses are no longer in an era where they can afford to treat partnerships and alliances as a side-channel or afterthought. They’re core to go-to-market success, and it’s time we give them the visibility and investment they deserve.

At the same time, many partnership teams are under-resourced and under-represented at the executive level.

I believe female leaders bring a deep understanding of how trust, collaboration, and long-term value creation is built through partnerships.

And we need to keep advocating for the true business value partnerships bring to the table. It’s not soft or intangible. Partnerships drive measurable, strategic revenue outcomes.

Sharing knowledge, building community, and learning from each other is more than just inspiring, it’s essential.

I believe there’s never been a more important time to elevate the voices of women driving partnerships and I’m honored to join the conversation this year in WIA.

How did you get into partnerships?

I got into partnerships through working with Lauren Helstab — we were both mentoring SaaS founders at the time and decided to virtually “meet up”. I’d seen the amazing work she’d done at Shopify and Sendle, and was honestly really impressed.

At the same time, a lot of our SaaS clients were asking about how to build impactful partner programs, and I realized it’s a completely different skill set from sales and marketing — it’s a discipline of its own.

Lauren and I started by sharing ideas and experiences, and things naturally evolved from there.

These days, we work together advising B2B SaaS companies on how to build strong, scalable partner programs. Lauren leads strategy, I focus on partner marketing, and we love solving challenges like building programs from scratch, activating partners, and scaling from 1:1 efforts to something repeatable and high-leverage.

We also just really love our own partnership dynamic — she’s the creative brain, I’m the structured, analytical one, and it’s a combo that works really well.

What do you love the most about it?

What I love most about working in partnerships is the long-term, strategic nature of the work. It’s not just about quick wins—it’s about building something meaningful and sustainable with another team. There’s something incredibly rewarding about creating win-win value, aligning incentives, and watching both sides grow together.

It also taps into both the creative and commercial sides of my brain—you need to think deeply about value, incentives, storytelling, and execution. It’s just such a fantastic challenge, and I feel so privileged to be able to do work that I love each and every day.

What are the biggest challenges?

Honestly, one of the biggest challenges in partnerships is perception. There are many C-suite and exec teams that don’t fully grasp the potential revenue value of partner programs. A lot of the time, partnerships are seen as the "poor cousin" to sales and marketing—like a nice-to-have, not a must-have.

But the truth is, partnerships are a revenue force multiplier. The tricky part is that they don’t always show immediate results. It’s not a short-term channel—you're not going to see the full impact in one quarter. It usually takes around 6-12 months to really start seeing the value, which means you need long-term buy-in from leadership.

So a big part of the job is building that story—getting really good at showing the ROI, aligning to company goals, and helping the C-suite understand why partnerships matter and why they’re worth the investment.

That’s a big reason we wanted to talk about this today—because if we can shift that mindset, it opens up a whole new level of impact.

What advice would you give to someone wanting to shift from a different role into partnerships?

I actually started as an economist, co-founded a venture-backed startup, and spent the last 8 years in growth marketing for high-growth SaaS companies—so shifting into partnerships from a different role is something I’ve experienced firsthand.

What I’ve learned is that partnerships can be a huge growth lever, but the mindset is very different from sales or marketing.

The most successful partnerships are all about a “give to get” approach. You can’t just go in expecting quick wins or lead swaps. The best partnerships are built on real value for both sides—thinking long term, creating mutual incentives, and crafting programs where everyone grows together. It’s less transactional and more about building something meaningful as a team.

So if you’re thinking of shifting into partnerships, my advice would be: focus on that mindset shift. Be curious, collaborative, and always look for ways to create value for others—not just capture it.

What question do you wish you were asked and how would you respond?

“What do people get wrong about partnerships”

What most people get wrong is treating their partner program like a simple referral program e.g. “I give you leads, you give me leads.”

However, it’s not just “you give me leads, I give you leads.” Or another very common situation, “Just give me leads.”

That mindset just leads to both parties becoming frustrated at each other, as they wait for one side to deliver leads before investing any more into the relationship. Consequently, these partnerships fizzle out and never reach their true potential.

Real partnerships aren’t transactional — they’re strategic, built on mutual goals, long-term trust, and a deep understanding of how to deliver value together.

Once again, it comes back to mindset. You gotta give to get!

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