---
aliases: ["Expand Sponsor Verticals"]
Is A: Project
Belongs to: "[[24q3]]"
Advances: "[[responsibility-sponsorships]]"
Status: Done
Owner: "[[person-luca-rossi]]"
---
# Expand Sponsor Verticals

## Overview

The first two quarters of sponsorship revenue came primarily from developer tools (CI/CD, monitoring, testing platforms). While this vertical was reliable, concentration risk was high — losing one or two devtools sponsors could significantly impact [[measure-sponsorship-mrr]]. This project expanded the sponsor base into three new verticals: cloud infrastructure, AI/ML platforms, and developer education.

Expanding verticals required adapting the outreach messaging and media kit to resonate with different buyer personas. Cloud infra companies care about enterprise decision-makers in the audience; AI/ML companies want to reach early adopters; education companies want ambitious individual developers. [[person-matteo-cellini]] led much of the outreach effort, using the CRM built in [[24q2-sponsor-crm]] to manage the pipeline. This project was critical for [[2024-double-revenue]].

## Goals

- Identify 30+ target companies across cloud infrastructure, AI/ML, and developer education verticals
- Adapt the media kit with vertical-specific audience data and case studies
- Run targeted outreach campaigns for each vertical (10+ companies each)
- Close at least 5 new sponsors from the new verticals by end of [[24q3]]
- Achieve vertical diversification: no single vertical should represent more than 40% of sponsorship revenue

## Key decisions

- **Three verticals, not more.** Considered also targeting recruitment platforms and SaaS tools, but decided to focus on three verticals where the audience fit was strongest. Spreading too thin would dilute outreach quality.
- **Vertical-specific case studies.** Rather than using a generic media kit, created tailored one-pagers for each vertical showing relevant audience segments. For example, the cloud infra pitch highlighted the percentage of readers who are engineering managers or directors (the buying decision-makers for infrastructure).
- **Higher pricing for AI/ML vertical.** AI/ML companies had larger marketing budgets and higher urgency to reach developers. Tested a 20% price premium on the Deep Dive tier for this vertical, and it held without pushback.

## Notes

- Cloud infrastructure was the easiest vertical to crack — many companies were already familiar with newsletter sponsorships and had established budgets for developer marketing. Closed 3 deals in this vertical within 6 weeks.
- AI/ML was more volatile — companies had budget but were less predictable. Two deals fell through after verbal commitment because of budget freezes. The companies that did close were excellent sponsors with high renewal rates.
- Developer education was harder than expected. Many education companies preferred affiliate/commission models over flat-rate sponsorships. Only closed 1 deal in this vertical during Q3, though it renewed for 3 months.
- By end of Q3, vertical distribution was: devtools 35%, cloud infra 30%, AI/ML 25%, education 10%. This was a significant improvement from the previous 85% devtools concentration.
- The outreach templates developed during this project became part of [[procedure-quarterly-sponsor-outreach]] and continue to be used with minor updates.
