How Darktrace turned marketplace momentum into global growth with help from Tackle
Executive Summary
Darktrace, a global leader in AI-powered cybersecurity, protects over 10,000 organizations from cyber threats. As customer demand grew for cloud purchasing, Francesca Bowen, Global VP of Cloud GTM, led a strategic shift from traditional sales motions to a hyperscaler-aligned Cloud GTM strategy. Using the Tackle Platform and resources, including the State of the Cloud GTM Report, Darktrace secured executive buy-in, built a dedicated GTM team, and incentivized their sellers. This transformation turned marketplace into a core revenue driver and globally scaled their motion, leading to larger enterprise deals and regional growth.
Key Highlights
Transformed GTM Strategy
Evolved from cloud customer to hyperscaler partner, scaling marketplace motion across global regions and enterprise deals
Won Executive Buy-In
Used customer demand signals and Tackle's State of Cloud GTM Report to build a compelling business case
Accelerated Adoption
Incentivized sales reps with commission modifiers, making marketplace deals a core revenue driver
Scaled Globally
Expanded into unexpected regions and larger enterprise deals with dedicated Cloud GTM operations
What happens when one of the world’s top cybersecurity providers outgrows traditional sales motions? For Darktrace, it meant rethinking everything—from go-to-market strategy, team structuring, and how customers buy.
As a global leader in AI-powered cybersecurity, Darktrace protects nearly 10,000 organizations worldwide by enabling faster detection, investigation, and response to cyber threats. In just a few years, Darktrace evolved from a cloud customer to a hyperscaler partner, building a high-growth marketplace motion that now spans global regions and enterprise deals.
At Cloud GTM XP 2025, Francessca Bowen, Global VP of Cloud GTM at Darktrace, shared how her team built a scalable, cloud-first strategy, with Tackle playing a pivotal role in making it happen. Now, they’re setting the standard.
So, what worked? Here’s the breakdown.
From cloud user to cloud partner
Darktrace’s cloud journey began like many others: as a customer.
“Like many organizations, we began our cloud journey as a customer 8 to 10 years ago,” Francesca explained. Security challenges grew as more businesses moved workloads to the cloud, especially when it came to visibility gaps and slow threat responses.
That’s when Darktrace doubled down on integrations with hyperscalers, ensuring their platform worked seamlessly in cloud environments. The next step? Making it easier for customers to buy in the cloud.
“Once we were pretty confident with that technical ‘better together’ story, I started to look at how we could leverage the hyperscalers’ go-to-market mechanisms, co-sell and marketplace, to bring our platform to customers more quickly,” Francesca shared.
Getting buy-in and building the right team
Adopting a Cloud GTM strategy doesn’t happen without executive buy-in. Francesca knew she’d need to align key leaders, including the CTO, CFO, and CRO, around the opportunity. So she came armed with data. “I looked at all the different analyst reports, and found Tackle’s State of Cloud GTM Report extremely helpful—there were really fantastic stats in there that helped make my case,” Francesca shared.
Beyond market data, she leaned on a powerful signal: customer demand.
“I built a business case armed with data and anecdotes—because in addition to the data and trends we saw, our customers were really started to ask us more and more as they were progressing towards the cloud: ‘How are we purchasing and buying?’” Francesca noted.
With executive alignment in place, Darktrace built a dedicated Cloud GTM team focused on three areas:
- Alliance sales: Driving co-sell and marketplace deals with hyperscalers and channel partners
- Marketing: Generating demand and educating customers on cloud purchasing
- Operations: Laying the groundwork for scale
Francesca emphasized the importance of operational groundword. “I highly recommend thinking about operations first. It’s the foundation before you can scale.”
Making marketplace a no-brainer for sales
To drive adoption, Darktrace integrated marketplace deals into its sales strategy with a commission modifier, actively incentivizing reps to engage with the motion. “We don’t have a tax, it’s not neutral. We’re actually incentivizing,” Francesca noted. That commission modifier encourages reps to embrace marketplace as a core sales path, rather than an afterthought.
Francesca also stressed the importance of focused pipeline planning: “You don’t necessarily have to put in your global pipeline. You want to have high conversion rates—so focus on key regions, countries, and industry verticals.”
Unexpected wins and scaling globally
As Darktrace’s Cloud GTM motion matured, the company saw increasing success in larger enterprise deals. “We are leveraging the hyperscalers to actually push more and more upmarket,” Francesca shared. Additionally, marketplace transactions expanded into unexpected regions, opening new pockets of growth.
Collaboration with channel partners and distributors further amplified results. “We certainly leverage marketing development funds and rebates to create tri-party campaigns and events,” Francesca noted.
Tackle’s role in simplifying the complex
When asked how Tackle supported Darktrace’s transformation, Francesca was clear: Tackle made Cloud GTM easier to understand and execute. “Tackle demystified not just the term Cloud GTM, but the value and the reality of this being a big lift.”
She credited Tackle’s team, including Customer Success Manager Rachele Fattaruso and Account Executive Everette Adams, for their ongoing guidance. But the most emphatic endorsement came from Darktrace’s Marketplace Operations Specialist, Abby. “I literally said to him, ‘Abby, you need to tell me why you cannot do your job without Tackle.’ And he came back to me with the business case.”
Her takeaway? “If you’re working with more than one cloud, you absolutely need the Tackle Platform.”
What’s next? More automation, more growth
Darktrace isn’t slowing down. Looking ahead, Darktrace is exploring product-led growth and automated sales motions, leveraging Tackle and hyperscaler tools to further streamline transactions. Reflecting on the progress made in just a few years, Francesca said “I was a novice a couple of years ago—I had absolutely no idea what Cloud GTM even meant. Now, we’ve not only become experts with the help of Tackle, but we’re scaling efficiently.”
Darktrace’s journey underscores the importance of aligning technical, operational, and commercial strategies, all while leveraging the right partners to simplify the equation. With Tackle’s support, Darktrace has transformed its Cloud GTM motion into a key driver of enterprise growth and global expansion.
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Francessca Bowen, Global VP of Cloud GTM , Darktrace
