A partnership without an owner is a newsletter you both ignore. Finding the owner is the first craft skill, before the one-pager.
Who “yes” actually is
On a startup: often the founder or the first PM. On a mid-size SaaS: a partner manager, an ecosystem lead, or the PM who owns the integration roadmap. On a platform: a partner manager with a category, plus a review team that does not take meetings.
The person who took your conference badge scan is rarely any of those.
Where to look
The partners or developers page. The marketplace “list your app” form, which often names a program. LinkedIn titles: partner manager, ISV, alliances, ecosystem, integrations PM. A customer who already uses both products. That customer intro beats every cold sequence.
Public Slack or Discord for their developers. A thoughtful question there is not spam if you are actually using the product.
What you ask for
Not “the partnerships team.” Ask for “whoever owns app review or the integration backlog for [category].” Specificity is how you get routed.
Multi-thread early
One champion is a single point of failure. On the second call, ask who else should be in the next one: their PM, their SE, their seller lead. Add them while the relationship is warm. After a resignation is too late.
When you cannot find anyone
That is data. A company with no public owner, no marketplace, and no reply in two attempts is not a partner. It is a wish. Put it on the watchlist and spend the week on a company that has a named human.