All mentors

Sonya Jamula

Partnerships advisor | Turning partner traction into compounding growth

Denver, United States (-07:00 UTC) English, Urdu, Hindifrom Denver, United States
Usually responds in 16 hours
Free
Price per hour
15 min30 min
Time Blocks Available
5.00
5 reviews / 14 sessions
Thu
15
Next availability

I can't say enough good things about Sonya. Her feedback was super helpful. She understood my problem, she did research before the call so she knew enough about me and my business to provide some excellent feedback. I highly recommend her and I don't say that often!

Stewart Gotlieb

Bio

What you'll get in a session: → A straight read on where your partner motion actually stands → Which partnership types fit your business, and which ones are a distraction → A sequenced plan: activation, then pipeline, then revenue, then retention → Metrics your CFO will accept, and the ones to stop reporting Where I'm most useful: ✓ You've closed revenue through partners but can't figure out how to repeat it ✓ A few partners produce and the rest sit dormant ✓ Partner deals stall inside your company because sales won't touch them ✓ You're about to hire a Head of Partnerships and aren't sure about the timing or the spec ✓ You run partnerships and need leadership to actually fund it ✓ You need to talk to someone who has lived this job One thing worth knowing up front: partnerships take 12 to 18 months to produce real revenue. Anyone telling you otherwise is selling something. I'll tell you what's realistic, including when the answer is to wait. A session solves the problem in front of you. If what you need is someone senior in your corner as things keep changing, I do that on an ongoing basis through Coconut Curry, my advisory practice. Two structured calls a month, plus access in between for the decisions that can't wait. And if you'd rather start with a diagnosis, I run a 3 week Partnerships Readiness and Ramp Audit: a scored read on where your program stands, what's holding it back, and what it would take to scale. It's normally $10,000, and it's $5,000 for anyone who comes through GrowthMentor.

Expertise

  • Go to market strategy

    Turning partner activity into partner revenue. We'll work out which motions fit your business (referral, reseller, integration, marketplace, co-sell) and which ones are a waste of your time, then sequence them so you're not trying to build five things at once. You'll leave knowing what to build first, what it depends on, and what to measure so your CFO takes it seriously.

  • Leadership

    Two versions of the same problem. If you're a founder or CEO, you own a function you've never personally run, which makes it hard to tell whether it's underperforming or just early, whether the person running it is the right person, and what you should be holding them to. If you're the one running it, you've been handed a function nobody above you understands and then been measured on it. I've sat on both sides of that conversation and I'll tell you what I actually think is going on.

  • Building a team

    Whether to hire, when, and for what. Most partnerships hires fail because the company hadn't defined the strategy or the success metrics before writing the job description. I'll help you figure out if the timing is right, what the spec should actually say, what to pay, and how to know within 90 days whether the person you hired is going to work out. Also useful if you already have someone and aren't sure they're set up to succeed.

  • Operations

    Not the tooling, the structure. Who owns the partner relationship versus the deal. Where partnerships sits in the org and who it reports to. What shared goals exist between partnerships and sales, product, and finance, and whether anyone is compensated on them. Which KPIs actually tell you the function is healthy, and which ones just look busy. Most partnerships that look fine on paper and stall in practice are stalling right here, in ownership and incentives, not in the partner relationships.

  • Idea validation

    Bring me a partner program, an incentive structure, an integration, or a marketplace idea and I'll pressure test it before you spend money on it. I've seen most of these work and most of them fail, usually for reasons that were visible up front. Expect direct feedback on whether the idea holds and what would have to be true for it to.

  • Venting frustration

    Partnerships = a million moving parts (and at least two surprise stakeholders). Need to vent? I’m your safe place to scream into the Slack void. We’ll sort chaos into three piles—trash, try, tackle—then script the hard “no’s,” reset expectations, and unstick cross-functional blockers. Come frazzled; leave with calm, a plan, and 2–3 moves for tomorrow.

Experience

  • Coconut Curry

    Founder & Principal

    I founded Coconut Curry to help scaling companies stop treating partnerships like side projects and start treating them as what they really are: a growth strategy — capital-efficient today, defensible tomorrow. The name comes from my Dawoodi Bohra heritage, where coconut curry is made from ingredients that seem unlikely together, but when combined the right way, create something layered and unforgettable. That’s exactly how I approach partnerships. Partnerships touch every part of a company — sales, product, marketing, finance, ops. They can look chaotic from the outside, but with the right structure, they become one of the most efficient and sustainable growth engines you’ll ever build. And in many ways, I am Coconut Curry too. Half Pakistani, half Persian, raised across multiple countries, fluent in multiple languages, and fueled by an ADHD brain that thrives in patterns, creativity, and structured chaos. Yes, I can happily “ramble” about partnerships — but don’t mistake that for being unstructured. I see the throughline and know how to connect the moving parts. Coconut Curry is advisory. I work at the strategy and coaching layer, not the execution layer, which means I don't run your partnerships for you and I'm not a fractional hire. Four ways I work with companies: Partnerships Readiness and Ramp Audit. A 3 week scored diagnosis of where a partnerships program stands and what it would take to scale it. Partnerships Growth Program. A 6 month engagement to build the operating model behind a partner motion that has already shown signal. Strategy, segmentation, ownership, roadmap, and the systems that make it repeatable. Strategic Partnership Advisory. An ongoing retainer for CEOs and CROs who need senior partnerships judgment on a regular cadence. Partnerships Coaching. 1:1 for the operators running partnerships inside a company, on the work and on navigating the org. Bottom line: I help companies turn the complexity of partnerships into compounding, durable growth.

  • PeakSpan Capital

    Partnerships Expert

    Advise startup & scaleup founders and their teams in my areas of expertise, including Partnerships (Full Cycle), Partnerships hiring and GTM Strategy

  • IndeCollective

    Member

    IndieCollective is a curated community of high-performing founders and leaders building and scaling modern, independent businesses through collaboration, strategic thinking, and disciplined execution.

  • Partnerships in Play

    Partner

    Partnerships in Play: partnership and growth experts helping SaaS and enterprise companies scale through partner-led GTM.

  • Gusto

    Vice President - Channel and Strategic Alliances
    •gusto.com

    Turned partnerships into a core growth engine across accounting tech, fintech, franchise, and ISVs. Delivered +12% YoY conversion and double-digit growth in partner-sourced/influenced ARR while lowering CAC, raising LTV, and tightening attribution with CFO-ready dashboards. 12 straight years of hitting goals as a fintech-savvy operator who builds motions finance will fund. How this translates to your company (fast): ➟ Pick the right motions (IPP) for your ICP: referral, reseller/white-label, integrations/ISV, marketplace, co-sell ➟ Install tiered programs, incentives, enablement, and co-sell ops sellers actually use ➟ Stand up source/influence attribution and operating cadences for predictable revenue ➟Land a lighthouse partner, activate, and scale attach/usage—not just sign logos

  • TIEWN

    Head of Mentorship Committee

    Founded in 2008, this group of travel and hospitality industry female professionals are a community of like-minded women coming together to collaborate and coordinate. Executive women in travel, tourism and hospitality continue to professionally evolve, however, there is still a wide gap between the number of women who occupy the top spots at companies, boardrooms and conferences. It is great to see how the group has evolved over the years and grown to more than 12,000 globally. I'm excited to represent DISH as the first Corporate Founding sponsor of TIEWN as well as head up and launch their mentorship committee.

  • CTL360

    Business Development Leader

    Key Accountabilities: ● Responsible for managing a team that maintains all business activities in North America for a worldwide Graphic Design company ● Relied upon as face of the business for this region while also maintaining all finances and relationship building across North America

  • DISH Network

    DISH Business Strategic Growth Leader

    Lead GTM sales strategy for Commercial Services Run BMS with teams to deliver on goals Manage, motivate, coach, and lead Commercial team Work closely across marketing and operations to drive strategy and business execution. Create sales programs and sales plays to drive business based on opportunity analysis. Close collaboration with Commercial BU on sales strategy and plays Enhance & drive the team to execute on services sales transformation projects Design and build processes and tools to enable Commercial sellers to sell services and solutions Create the strategy and work closely to ensure Commercial needs on training and sales competency Strategic leader for executive reviews

  • Sling Television

    Strategic Partnerships & Emerging Technologies — DISH & Sling
    •sling.com

    Built vertical GTM motions and national partnerships across hospitality (hotel brands/management companies), student housing/MDU & property management, airlines/in-flight, and campus/education. Led channel/reseller, white-label/wholesale, OEM/embedded, and co-sell alliances; negotiated multi-year deals with national hospitality brands (e.g., Best Western) and scaled them with playbooks, enablement, and clean operating cadences. Operator first—partner models that pencil out for finance and actually deploy at scale. How this translates to your company (fast): ➟ Pick the right motion per vertical: referral, reseller/wholesale, OEM/embedded, co-sell ➟ Design SKUs, pricing, and incentives tailored to hospitality, student housing/MDU, airlines, education ➟ Build partner economics & comp plans your CFO will sign off on ➟ Win RFPs and national accounts; stand up rollout/activation for distributed footprints ➟ Install clean attribution, SLAs, and dashboards for predictable partner-led revenue If you need a clear play to enter or expand in these verticals—and a plan you can execute Monday—book a session.

  • DISH Network

    Sales Manager, Strategic Partnerships

    Key Accountabilities: ● Responsible for providing leadership to 4 direct report remote personnel aimed at driving sales and marketing for 5 strategic lines of business; includes training, career development and performance evaluation ● Relied upon to empower data-driven strategic plans with accurate forecasting, detailed reporting and insightful data analytics; consistently manages KPIs and tracks progress to ensure stakeholders remain well informed ● Contributes expert sales guidance to elevate performance outcomes and ensure alignment with best practices ● Empowers sales opportunities and marketing continuity by highly effective campaigns, content and assets Key Accomplishments: ● Built entire Sling and AirTV lines of business within satellite Retail channel; diligently grew LOB’s by 148% and 200% respectively; skillfully supported Local Retailers’ business health by diversifying their sales marketing efforts to grown within a declining Pay-TV market ● Efficiently planned and executed 6 strategic events for new product line; contributed onsite representation for 4 of the 6 events, which includes driving the top-selling event; created processes and how-to guides for product events that have been implemented into all events ● Created and implemented highly effective nationwide sales programs/contests to motivate personal and drive sales revenue, which have directly correlated to improved YOY enterprise sales ● Flourished in role as Senior Account manager and was subsequently promoted to Sales Manager ● Thrived in role as International Account Manager and was promoted to Senior Account Manager

  • Blockbuster

    Store Manager

    Key Accountabilities: ● Responsible for providing leadership to 16 direct report personnel; included scheduling, training, career development and performance evaluation ● Relied upon to develop and execute strategies while navigating a rapidly changing market space while continuing to drive revenue, profitability and budget performance ● Diligently ensured alignment with all branding standards, corporate guidelines and operational requirements ● Contributed effective succession planning while shaping the next generation(s) of leadership ● Cultivated a customer-centric environment with an engaging, knowledgeable staff dedicated to creating valued customer experiences Key Accomplishments: ● Recognized for leading the store with the highest sales in the district, as well as the highest member growth ● Skillfully created and revised both short and long-term business plans to capitalize on all revenue earning opportunities, cost controls and margin growth while combating a dramatic market shift

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