The nearbound.com Editorial Approach

Trust is the new data. Trust is how we are going to win together.

Nearbound is a Go-To-Market strategy that involves tapping into those buyers’ trust for intel, intros, and influence at every step of the customer journey.

nearbound.com (formerly PartnerHacker) is the place for high-level insights and first principles behind B2B SaaS.

With the help of our community of subscribers, nearbound.com will celebrate, share, analyze, and even challenge the emerging strategies, tactics, news, trends, and best practices GTM teams are using to build and leverage trust on the battlefield to drive 2-3x more revenue. 

We are here to not just tell the story of the Nearbound Era, but to operationalize it. To make it so easy, so concrete, that it becomes second nature.

Because, in the Who Economy, there is no other way.

We want to drive these conversations with experts and leaders in every corner of the company.

Partnerships isn’t a department, it’s a strategy for every department. And Nearbound is how you bring partnerships into those other departments.

Here’s what to expect from nearbound.com:

• We bring tactical value: every single piece of content allows you to walk away with something you can use today.
• We highlight important trends: not just the same news stories, but the unique Nearbound angle to events unfolding in the world of tech and business.
• We live in market: we live in the market and are tapped into the conversations that matter to you. We aren’t afraid to challenge concepts, and we aren’t afraid to talk about the things no one is saying aloud.
• We learn out loud: We’re not waiting around for official consensus. We start, encourage, and amplify interesting conversations as we all wrestle with changes in GTM together—even if the “correct” answers aren’t always clear.
• We aim to inspire: we want every reader to walk away knowing that they can accomplish the results we share, and we want them to have some fun while they do it.
• We aim to challenge: there’s an amazing future ahead for those employing Nearbound strategies. But it doesn’t happen magically. Sometimes you need a kick in the pants.

Here’s what we are not:

• We’re not an academic paper mill pushing out buzzword bingo gobbledygook like, "An Intersectional Diagnosis of the Industrial Diaspora Through the Lens of a Dialectic Pedagogy".
• Nor are we a boring PR firm peddling fluff like, "Accenture to Offer New Badges for Extra Special Partners".
• Nor are we a SaaS company doing customer education and SEO with things like, "5 Ways to Use Our Software".
• Nor are we doing shallow, TMZ-like hot-takes in the vein of, "OMG You’ll Never Believe What Will Taylor Just Posted About Chris Samila’s Favorite Football Team".

Don’t get us wrong, all of these content types have a purpose and (probably) need to exist. We don’t look down on them. But we want to do something a bit different. We seek to have a unique perspective and voice in the conversation. It has some overlap with each of the above approaches, but differs from them as well.

Yes, we’ll tap into some academic theories and relate them to our world. We’ll highlight some industry announcements and connect them to broader trends and theses. We’ll have some resources and content about how to win at partnerships and point to our sponsors. We’ll get a little juicy with some "Top Leaders" lists and breaking news tidbits.

But we’ll always strive to have a real voice that reflects our real perspective on this movement. We’ll work with real people with real pain points and real proof of the power of Nearbound.

That same kind of openness, humility, interestedness, and boldness that Jared embodies in PartnerUp convos should be the dominant voice in our own writing, and guide our editorial policy.

We won’t try to force our voice onto our guest writers—we value diversity and diversity of thought above all things. But we do want to ensure the subject matter is the kind of stuff readers come to associate with Nearbound.com:

Ground-breaking. Thought-provoking. Interesting. More than news. More than how-to’s. More than disconnected jargon. Always fun and never stuffy or fluffy. The source of truth for every Nearbound play that you need to skyrocket your career and company.

That’s our North Star.

We’re always looking for great stories and content. (We even love little tidbits, stats, facts, quotes, and memes for the Nearbound Daily email, so don’t overthink it). If you have something, send it our way!

Guest Op-ed/Content Guidelines

• ~700-1,500 word target. But content is more important than length.
• The audience is GTM leaders at B2B SaaS companies - partnerships, sales, marketing, success - partner agencies, founders, and C-suite interested in how a Nearbound strategy can help them grow.
• We welcome other mediums of content, such as video and audio recordings, infographics, visuals, etc.
• Here are the three main content types we look for:
• Principles: Stories that tap into more enduring first principles of markets and human interactions, and demonstrate the why behind Nearbound. E.g. “Because X principle is true, Nearbound works.”
• Tactics: This is the how. Tactical content should include Nearbound plays and strategies that offer readers a concrete path forward to implementing and iterating on GTM motions. E.g. “How to get your marketing team tapping into your partner network.”
• Trends: Stories that tie in specific outcomes or current news to show Nearbound at work. This is the proof or the what. E.g. “Company X just did X and achieved Y with a Nearbound approach.”
• Not an advertisement, but you can mention and link to your company/product if relevant to the topic.
• Personal stories/data are always better than abstract ideas.
• ALL stats/data must link to a source.
• ALL content must be respectful to diverse audiences.
• Submit the draft as an editable Google doc.
• Include a headshot, a short bio, and a link to a relevant social platform where readers can find you.
• You may repost the article to your own website/blog so long as you link back to the original article on nearbound.com, and use a canonical tag in your header.

Send all submissions to shamer@reveal.co with the subject line: Nearbound.com Submission