Structured, a leading player in partner marketing automation, is betting that seasoned enterprise leadership is the catalyst it needs for its next stage of growth. The company announced that Stacey Epstein—an enterprise software executive with deep roots in channel and go-to-market strategy—has been appointed CEO, succeeding founder Daniel Nissan, who will remain an active advisor during the transition.
The leadership change comes at a pivotal moment. Structured is preparing to roll out a next-generation, AI-native partner marketing platform in Q1, aimed squarely at global enterprises struggling to manage increasingly complex partner ecosystems at scale.
For a market that has long been underserved by traditional marketing automation tools, the move underscores how partner marketing is evolving from a tactical function into a strategic growth engine.
From Founder-Led Growth to Enterprise Scale
Under Nissan’s leadership, Structured emerged as a category leader in partner marketing automation, earning trust from some of the world’s most demanding enterprise ecosystems. The company now counts IBM, Google, Zoom, Dell, and ServiceNow among its customers—an impressive roster that reflects both scale and sophistication.
Founder transitions are often delicate moments for high-growth software companies. In Structured’s case, the handoff appears deliberate: Nissan steps back after building product-market fit and category credibility, while Epstein steps in to operationalize growth, expand enterprise adoption, and lead the company into its next product cycle.
This kind of transition mirrors a familiar pattern in enterprise SaaS—founders establish the vision, then seasoned operators scale it.
Why Partner Marketing Is Ripe for Reinvention
Partner ecosystems have grown dramatically more complex over the past decade. Global vendors now rely on thousands of partners across regions, industries, and roles to drive pipeline and revenue. Yet partner marketing tools have lagged behind, often relying on rigid workflows, limited personalization, and shallow analytics.
AI is changing that equation. Structured’s upcoming platform is designed from the ground up to be AI-native, not retrofitted. The goal: help vendors and partners collaborate more effectively while delivering measurable ROI across the entire ecosystem.
Rather than treating partners as a monolithic audience, the platform emphasizes personalization, orchestration, and insight—capabilities that are increasingly table stakes in direct marketing, but still rare in partner-led growth.
What’s New in Structured’s AI-Native Platform
Structured says its Q1 launch will introduce a new generation of capabilities purpose-built for enterprise-scale partner ecosystems:
- Agentic and Generative AI to automate campaign creation, execution, and optimization across partner tiers
- Hyper-personalized engagement, enabling dynamic, localized content by region, industry, and role
- Full-funnel orchestration, spanning email, social, webinars, and digital advertising
- Insight-driven growth, turning real-time partner data into actionable intelligence
The emphasis on “agentic AI” is notable. Rather than simply assisting marketers, these systems are designed to act—adjusting campaigns, optimizing performance, and responding to data in near real time.
For enterprises managing hundreds or thousands of partners, that kind of automation could mean the difference between theoretical scale and actual execution.
Stacey Epstein’s Fit for the Role
Epstein’s resume reads like a roadmap of modern enterprise software growth. She began her career in channel marketing at Oracle, building early expertise in partner ecosystems—experience that directly aligns with Structured’s mission.
She later served as CMO at SuccessFactors, helping scale the company from $10 million in ARR to a $3.4 billion acquisition by SAP. She was part of the founding team at ServiceMax, which was acquired by GE for $1 billion, and went on to serve as CEO of Zinc, later acquired by ServiceMax. More recently, she held senior marketing leadership roles at Freshworks—guiding the company through its $1 billion IPO—and at Veeva.
That mix of marketing, operating, and CEO experience is particularly relevant as Structured moves from category creation to category dominance.
Epstein has framed her mandate clearly: operational focus, customer obsession, and execution—three areas that often define whether enterprise SaaS companies successfully scale.
Backing and Expansion Plans
Structured’s next chapter is also backed by fresh capital. The company has secured additional growth funding from Invictus Growth Partners, its majority owner, and is expanding its go-to-market capabilities alongside the leadership transition.
According to Invictus co-founder John DeLoche, Structured’s value proposition is straightforward but increasingly critical: eliminate complexity, drive performance, and empower partner marketers in an AI-first world.
That message aligns with broader enterprise trends. As AI becomes embedded across CRM, marketing, and revenue platforms, partner marketing can no longer operate as a silo. Vendors are demanding tools that integrate deeply with their broader go-to-market stack and deliver provable outcomes.
Competitive Context
The partner marketing automation space has grown more crowded, with legacy marketing platforms extending into partner workflows and newer startups pitching niche solutions. Structured’s differentiation lies in its enterprise focus and its AI-native architecture, rather than incremental feature additions.
By pairing that technology with a CEO who understands both partner ecosystems and enterprise scale, Structured is signaling that it intends to lead—not just participate—in the next phase of the category.
What This Means for the Market
Structured’s CEO transition highlights a broader shift in B2B software leadership: AI-native platforms increasingly require leaders who can balance vision with disciplined execution.
If Epstein succeeds, Structured could help redefine how global enterprises activate partners—moving from fragmented, manual efforts to intelligent, orchestrated growth engines.
For now, the spotlight is on Q1. The launch of Structured’s new platform will be the first real test of whether its AI-first ambitions translate into measurable impact for customers—and whether this leadership transition delivers on its promise.
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