In Season 4, Episode 13 of Force and Friction, we welcome Olga Lykova, Head of Partnerships at Monday.com Olga brings a powerful blend of experience in GTM, channel sales, and hyperscaler partnerships to the conversation, unpacking what it really takes to build partnerships that drive revenue, not just relationships.
We dig into everything from the messy reality of attribution to the critical nuances of AI go-to-market alignment with cloud giants like Microsoft and AWS.
If you’re looking to operationalize strategic partnerships in a modern GTM motion, this episode is an unfiltered masterclass.
Olga Lykova
Olga Lykova is a strategic partnerships executive with deep expertise in ecosystem-led growth.
As Head of Partnerships, North America at monday.com, she drives more than half of the company’s revenue through partner ecosystems.
With a track record of leading GTM strategies across Salesforce-native firms, Olga is also a cloud channel expert, having built alliances with AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure.
She’s a member of the Forbes Business Development Council and host of the Rules to Thrive podcast, where she champions women in tech leadership.
Watch the Episode:
Here are the core areas we discuss in today's episode:
Attribution: Still a Mess, but Critical
Olga doesn’t mince words when it comes to one of the most debated topics in partnerships: attribution.
“The big challenge with attribution is that every company defines it differently… You have to be very deliberate and define what success means to your organization.”
She emphasizes the need to define what attribution looks like at different GTM stages—from influence to sourced—and warns against relying solely on form fills or deal tags to prove value.
Hyperscalers and the ‘Attach’ Game
Having built GTM motions with AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, Olga gives a candid look into what partnering with hyperscalers really entails.
“At the end of the day, those big cloud players care about what attaches to their compute. That’s the business model.”
She explains how you need to align to their incentives, whether that’s building joint GTM plays, co-selling, or surfacing your wins through their marketplace metrics.
Rules to Thrive Podcast - Watch Here:
AI Partnerships: GTM Strategy, Not Just Tech
Olga highlights that the AI wave has added complexity to partner programs—especially when founders treat it as a product-only play.
“If AI is part of your stack and you’re integrating with Azure, great. But you still need a partner GTM motion—landing pages, demos, field plays. That’s where most teams fall short.”
She shares how top companies are using GTM alignment as the differentiator in AI partnerships, not just the tech integrations themselves.
Partner-Led Growth Requires a Real Motion
Many leaders want the upside of ecosystems without the structure behind them. Olga stresses that partner-led can’t be wishful thinking, it needs operational rigor.
“You can’t say it’s partner-led growth if you don’t have a repeatable process to enable, to scale, to track, and to drive outcomes.”
She outlines how internal education, cross-functional buy-in, and reliable attribution paths are all needed to move beyond partner theater.
Final Thoughts:
Olga Lykova delivers a straight-talking view into what actually makes strategic partnerships work. Whether you’re navigating hyperscaler alliances or building an AI GTM motion, the message is clear:
Align incentives. Build repeatable systems. Track what matters.
Anything else is just noise.
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Mike Midgley runs a portfolio career, a dynamic hands on digital entrepreneur, founder of the Scrubbing Squad, NXD, strategist, public speaker, Winning by Design certified Revenue Architect and Host at The Force & Friction Podcast.
Mike has achieved multiple exits over a 30+ year career, raised Venture Capital and franchised his businesses 68 times.
