At the Partnership Leaders Catalyst Summit in San Francisco, I sat down with Natasha Byrne, Regional Vice President of Global Partner Alliances at Twilio. Natasha brings a unique background to partnerships – one that spans sales, product management, and service delivery before moving into alliances. That diverse experience shaped how she builds and scales Twilio’s partner ecosystem today.

A Nontraditional Path to Partnerships

Natasha started as an account executive before shifting into product management and eventually service delivery for an SI partner. When she joined Twilio, she began in operations, building sales programs and later leading the creation of Twilio’s partner program focused on Flex and contact center partners. Today, she leads a global alliances team that spans SIs, resellers, and referral partners.

This “athlete” mindset – being able to adapt across multiple roles – proved invaluable. As she explained:

“To be a successful partner person, you really need to understand every part of go-to-market.”

Partner Programs That Evolve

Twilio’s partner program has grown far beyond its Flex origins. Natasha emphasized that programs can’t remain static. Her early work introduced self-service capabilities to help scale partner engagement, while still offering high-touch support to strategic partners.

She also helped launch referral and incentive programs, tying rewards to performance across multiple tiers. Twilio’s gold partners, for example, earn the highest referral bounties for qualified leads. Importantly, Natasha highlighted that it’s not just about revenue – it’s about engagement: certifications, joint events, co-marketing, and deep collaboration with sales.

Co-Sell and Joint Go-to-Market

Natasha is clear on what makes co-sell work: quality over quantity. She said:

“I’m not looking for a ton of partners right now, I’m looking for partners that are engaged, that want to go the mile, that want to build Twilio practices and really invest with us.”

That investment shows up in joint account planning, quarterly business reviews, and annual planning where Twilio and its partners align goals and strategies. The result is true joint selling – where partners are an extension of Twilio’s sales team, bringing influence and expertise to win deals.

AI as Both Enabler and Differentiator

Like every company today, Twilio is leaning into AI. But Natasha described how they’re doing it with partners in two key ways:

* Certification: Twilio launched an AI certification program where top partners build real solutions using Twilio’s conversational AI products. Customers immediately know which partners are “AI-ready.”

* Lead Routing: Using AI agents, Twilio intelligently routes inbound leads to the right partners based on their ICP – data that partners control and update.

This gives partners both credibility and tangible business opportunities. As Natasha put it, “AI is not something you can just talk about. It’s something you have to do and see and make it a reality.”

Global Leadership and Local Nuances

Leading a global alliances team, Natasha runs what she describes as “four different businesses” – because every region has its own culture, style, and way of partnering. That’s both the most rewarding and most challenging aspect of her role. It’s also given her a crash course in international business and a deep appreciation for diverse perspectives.

Final Thoughts

Natasha’s story highlights how great partner leaders aren’t narrowly specialized. They bring empathy, adaptability, and cross-functional knowledge to the table. She’s passionate about creating partner programs that scale, ensuring partners feel like an extension of the sales team, and preparing them for the future of AI-driven customer engagement.

For anyone in alliances or partner leadership, this conversation is a masterclass in how to balance strategy with execution, and long-term vision with practical results.

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