What is that partner channel actually worth?
At a B2B software company, a substantial share of revenue runs through partners. Whether that channel is a growth engine or a black box rarely shows up in the numbers alone. We assess it with a Partner Channel Due Diligence: objectively, and within three weeks — a timeline that fits a deal calendar.
Three moments when this matters
The question is always the same — how good is this channel really? — but the moment determines what you get out of it, and how much time there is.
Before the acquisition
Pre-deal due diligenceIs this partner channel a risk or a value?
The information memorandum gives you a percentage of revenue that runs through partners. What it does not give you: how many of those partners are active, whether the revenue is concentrated in a handful of names, and whether the channel holds up without the person currently holding it together. Those are the things that, after the deal, separate a growth engine from a surprise.
- Concentration: how much partner revenue hangs on how few partners
- Whether the channel is governed or merely exists
- Dependence on individuals rather than processes
- Which assumptions in the business case are substantiated and which are not
Before the sale
Vendor due diligence (VDD)How do we make channel value demonstrable before a buyer picks it apart?
The buyer is going to run this analysis anyway. Better to have the answer ready — substantiated, with the weak spots named and a story around them. A partner channel that cannot be explained gets discounted in the negotiation; a channel that is documented and governed counts towards the valuation.
- The same analysis the buyer will run, only first
- Substantiation for the share of revenue that runs through partners
- The weak spots named, with what has been done about them
- Material that can go straight into the data room
During the hold period
Value creationWhere do we stand, and where is value left on the table?
A baseline in the first hundred days, or later in the hold period when the numbers lag the plan. There is no deadline here, but there is a question: the partner channel delivers less than budgeted, and nobody can point to exactly why. This is the full APEX Assessment — eight dimensions, five levels, with a prioritised agenda as the outcome.
- Maturity profile across eight dimensions
- The three most urgent improvements, in order
- An agenda for value creation through the channel
- A baseline to measure against later
Partner Channel Due Diligence
A read on the partner channel, within three weeks
A compact, structured assessment of the partner channel of a target or portfolio company. Based on document analysis, the available data and conversations with the people who run the channel, it produces one verdict: is this channel a risk, neutral, or a value that is not yet in the price.
It is the same analysis as our APEX Assessment — nothing is left out, only the timeline is compressed so that it fits a deal calendar. Fixed scope, fixed price, fixed timeline — so you know where you stand at the moment you are least able to spend time negotiating a quote.
- Findings up front — the points that need attention before or after the deal, with an explicit conclusion
- The full assessment as substantiation, scored across the eight APEX dimensions
- A readout session in which we walk through the findings
- Document analysis of the available partner material
- Conversations with the people around the channel
- One readout session
What the outcome looks like
A deal team reads the conclusion, not the report. That is why the findings come first and the assessment sits behind them as substantiation.
Findings and points of attention
Per finding: what we saw, what it means for the value of the channel, and whether it needs attention before or after the deal. With an explicit final verdict — not “there are opportunities here”, but a judgement you can act on.
The assessment as substantiation
The partner channel scored across the eight dimensions of the APEX Framework, each on five maturity levels. Per dimension what we found and what the score is based on, so that every finding up front traces back to what sits underneath it.
The full sample report is ready as a pdf — twelve pages, a fictitious company. Download it here.
What the verdict rests on
The difference between a judgement and an opinion is the method.
The assessment follows the APEX Framework: eight dimensions of a partner channel, each scored on five maturity levels. That framework has been applied to partner channels from start-up to corporate, in organisations at different stages of growth. A due diligence calls for that same analysis — only within a shorter timeline and for a different reader.
The framework is set out in full on this site. You can read beforehand what we will be looking at, and whether that matches what you want to know.
View the APEX FrameworkAnd after that, across the portfolio
If the partner channel turns out to be a lever at one portfolio company, it probably is at the others too. The same analysis across several holdings shows where in the portfolio the most is left untapped — and gives you one measure to compare them by.
That is a logical next step, not a starting point. We are happy to discuss it once the first assessment is in.
Who does the work
Remco Dam leads the assessment and is your point of contact, from the first alignment to the debrief. He works with a network of senior specialists: Hans van der Meij, architect of the APEX Framework the assessment rests on, and experts who join where a topic calls for it — governance, partner economics, tooling.
Together nearly forty years of experience with partner channels, from start-up to corporate. A small team, by design: you work directly with the senior professionals who carry out the assessment.
About 2Scale AlliancesWant to know what this means for a specific portfolio company?
Schedule a conversation with Remco