Darktrace Exec on Building Channel with Climb Partnership

The distribution landscape has shifted significantly over the past few years, as marketplaces, platforms, and end-user buying habits have continued to evolve towards digital-first experiences. Even with that change in mind, vendors continue to find value in the partnerships they form with channel distribution companies.

Channel Insider spoke with Daniel Jaramillo, director of enterprise sales at Darktrace, to learn more about how he sees the company’s work with Climb as a crucial component of its success.

Darktrace continues efforts to bring security platform to more users through channel motion

Darktrace offers its users a unified, AI-powered platform approach to security and has supported large enterprise customers for years. Now, the company is committing to a channel model that brings its security prowess to MSSPs, VARs, and others as it targets strategic growth.

Jaramillo joined Darktrace after years in leadership roles throughout the channel. A self-described “channel champion,” he sees a strong future for any company who can successfully sell through and alongside providers.

“We want to be seen as an exciting company in the space, and we want partners to see us as loyal, channel-savvy, and partner-centric as we continue to scale,” said Jaramillo.

How a direct motion shifts its focus and why the channel is crucial for growth

For Darktrace, the channel is a relatively new selling motion that Jaramillo says will require doubling down on relationship-building to fully succeed.

“Darktrace has historically been a very direct organization, and the channel is a know, like, and trust business, meaning we now have to build that relationship with channel partners for them to want to work with us,” Jaramillo said.

Jaramillo says he and the entire company are working to pull direct pipeline into channel partners while also finding net new customers through partner-led sales. To do this, he says Darktrace has committed itself to identifying its ideal partner type and aligning its GTM to showing those ideal partners how the company’s technology enables them to achieve mutual growth goals.

Jaramillo also wants VARs and other resellers to capture more opportunity with each of its clients as businesses increasingly need interconnected (and sometimes interdependent) services and solutions.

“Reseller reps can still be really single-threaded, and that just leaves money on the table. With one cloud conversation, for example, you can attach like 14 different solutions because businesses need wraparound tech. It’s never just about about one thing anymore,” said Jaramillo.

“I want to see us and our partners expand the conversation in a rational way that streamlines the time and effort we all take to support mutual customers.”

Why Jaramillo values the distribution partnership with Climb

Jaramillo has worked with Climb throughout his career both on the managed services side and in various vendor roles. The vendor and value-added distributor announced their partnership in April of this year.

To him, the value in any partnership is the opportunity to have a trusted partner speak your name when you are not in the room.

“Partners play an essential role in helping to protect customers against the rapidly evolving threat landscape,” said Dan Monahan, Darktrace’s chief partner and transformation officer, in a statement. “Our collaboration with Climb expands the reach of Darktrace’s solutions across North America to help more organizations increase their cyber resilience and take a more proactive approach to cybersecurity. Together, Darktrace and Climb are equipping partners with the tools they need to deliver best in class AI-powered cybersecurity solutions to customers.”

“I was so excited when I heard Darktrace was adding distribution in the strategy because it’s such a crucial way to build that connection. Climb has that know, like, trust component with its partners and we can leverage that to enter conversations and then show our value,” said Jaramillo.

This ties into Jaramillo’s other points about enabling resellers to add solutions and services to baseline conversations about one product with their client. He says he has seen Climb in action throughout his time at provider businesses and knows firsthand how well the team can identify gaps in solutions and recommend the best fit. As Darktrace expands, being included in that “next best thing” conversation will introduce the platform to more partners.

But Jaramillo also says vendor-distributor partnerships bolster internal operations as well, something the Darktrace teams across sales, support, legal, and other operations pratices in the business now benefit from as they scale.

“We’re selling to one place now. They have simplified so much for us, and it’s strengthened our go-to-market and our internal operations.”

All things considered, Jaramillo sees Climb as a core component of Darktrace’s channel success moving forward.

“If I were going to write a channel program from scratch I would always put Climb in play,” Jaramillo said. “If we really want to have someone helping us when we’re not in the room, it has to be Climb, to me.”

Channel Insider spoke with Climb Global Solutions CEO Dale Foster about the company’s strong revenue growth in 2025. Read the article to learn more about the value-added distributor’s goals for the rest of the year.