As we approach the end of 2024, it’s a good time to pause and reflect on what has been a whirlwind of a year. There’s much to celebrate, and at CoPort, we’re taking a moment to do just that. Leadership expert John Maxwell once said, “Experience is the best teacher, but evaluated experience is the best teacher.” With that in mind, reflection, adjustment, and planning are key for us as we look forward to 2025.
This year marks CoPort’s first full year as a SaaS platform. Some of you have been part of our journey since the beginning—graciously taking calls and offering feedback—and we’re so thankful for your support. For those who are newer to our story, here’s a quick timeline of our milestones, followed by some lessons we’ve learned while building CoPort to help companies manage and grow their partnerships.
June 2023 – V0 of CoPort Our first iteration of CoPort launched… and promptly failed. It wasn’t functional enough even for internal use. The good news? That version is long gone, and we learned a lot from it.
November 2023 – Rebuilt on Bubble.io We rebuilt CoPort on a no-code platform, Bubble.io, with early feedback from Rachel Collie at Unanet. Her insights heavily influenced our current product, and we’re deeply grateful for her support.
January 2024 – First Full Customer Pictory became our first customer, and we celebrated our first shared partner plan. CoPort enables customers to collaborate directly with their partners, sharing plans to enhance accountability, reporting, and teamwork. This functionality lays the groundwork for future innovations. Read the case study here.
April 2024 – Going International We onboarded our first international customer from Germany! Partnerships know no borders, and supporting a global community has been a humbling and rewarding experience.
June 2024 – Co-Founder and CTO Joins Josh Hagel joined CoPort as co-founder and CTO, bringing his engineering expertise to elevate the product. With Josh’s leadership, we’re building a robust foundation and integrations to streamline partner workflows.
November 2024 – Frontend Development Progress After months of building the backend, our frontend UI is taking shape. Seeing our vision come to life in tangible ways has been exhilarating. We’re gearing up to release new functionality in Q1 2025, and we can’t wait to share it with you.
Know Your Customer While partner managers are our primary users, companies are our true customers. Recognizing this distinction allowed us to refine our messaging and better align with the needs of companies aiming to grow through partnerships. CoPort provides the systems support to launch and track partnerships that drive business growth.
Ask Lots of Questions Early feedback, even critical feedback, has been invaluable. Version 0 of CoPort didn’t work, but it laid the foundation for iterative improvements. Today, our customers drive our product enhancements. Their insights shape our roadmap, and we’re excited to see where they lead us next.
A “No” is Just as Valuable as a “Yes” As Kenny Brown at Partner Fleet wisely shared, the most valuable feedback often comes from those who say no. When potential customers pass on CoPort, it’s an opportunity to learn and refine. Understanding why we didn’t meet their needs is as important as celebrating a win.
It’s a Long Game Building a software company is a marathon, not a sprint. Progress takes time, persistence, and a willingness to learn. Resetting expectations has been essential, but showing up every day has moved us further along than we could have imagined. The journey is hard, but it’s worth it.
We’re immensely grateful to serve tech companies by creating a platform that helps them succeed with partners. Building CoPort has been challenging, but we’re in it for the long haul. As long as we keep learning, iterating, and growing, we’re confident in our future.
Because when partnerships improve, companies win—and that’s a mission worth pursuing.