Tom FerrariVP - GTM & Technology Search, UltraTalent · Placing elite sellers & builders at startups

The Secret Behind Doubling Revenue With Big Partnerships!

30 Jun 2025 · 3 min

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2:36

In this interview segment, the executive (Speaker B) explains how Dubber grew from $5 million to $38 million ARR in five years by leveraging three key drivers. First, Dubber forged deep integrations and partnerships with major telecom vendors—initially Cisco and later Microsoft—embedding its platform at the core of their cloud voice solutions. Second, the company entered the fast‑growing Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) market at a time when large enterprises were shifting from on‑premise telephony to cloud‑based voice, a market expanding at 18‑22% annually and offering a large total addressable market. Third, Dubber adopted a partner‑only go‑to‑market model, deliberately avoiding a direct enterprise sales organization despite internal pressure. The executive recounts constructive conflict with co‑founder James Slaney over this strategy, ultimately crediting the partner‑centric DNA for the company’s “astronomical” growth.

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But your story is different because you scaled from $5 to $38 million ARR in 5 years, which is very impressive.
Okay, so I'll break it down to 3 main drivers. The first was the partnership that Dubbel was able to forge with Cisco initially and then Microsoft. The reason that was important is that, you know, probably 5 to 8 years ago, The market, I think large enterprises were definitely shifting from on-premise telephony to cloud, voice over IP, cloud telephony. Category is called unified communication as a service. Cisco were having a huge play in that space, and the founders of Dubba were able to really forge a very strong relationship with Cisco. So Dubba was integrated at the core of Cisco's telephony, voice telephony platform, cloud voice telephony platform. The second part of it was back, as I was touching on, UCaaS, Unified Communications as a Service, definitely a growth industry. When I came on board into Dubbo 5 or 6 years ago, very large total addressable market, and the category, depending on the region, the category was growing by 18 to 22%. And then the third driver of success was We decided strategically to have a partner-only go-to-market model. Now, you know, that was— there was instances of tribal warfare around that. Pre— one of the founders, one of the main founders of Dubba, a guy called James Slaney, very hands-on, kind of the brains of the organization, and I used to butt heads because we did have an urgency. You guys park yourselves for a second. and we will then look like an enterprise sales organization. And where I used to butt heads with James, in a constructive manner most of the time, was he'd say, no, that's not— we're not that business. We need to, at our very core of our DNA, be partner-centric. And that did— I'll give James kudos here, that was the right strategy. So, Partnering with Cisco, being right time, right place at the growth curve of unified communications as a service, then having that maniacal focus on being partner-centric with the drivers of Dubber's, I put it, astronomical growth.