Partnerships

Current truth

• Partnerships are a BD channel and a product moat. The aim is to become the host-agnostic discovery layer embedded across MCP/app infrastructure providers, while keeping Ghost Team’s own data/model layer independent.
• manufact is both partner and potential customer. Manufact can use Ghost Team discovery data for its own connector, refer connector-build customers to Ghost Team, receive hosting referrals from Ghost Team, and expose customer/usage signals that teach us what MCP builders need.
• alpic is the cautious integration/report partner. Current preferred first move is a co-authored research report: Alpic contributes Beacon / MCP engineering-quality data, Ghostteam contributes discoverability analysis. A deeper score-surface integration waits until incentives are aligned.
• Non-exclusive by default. We should work with multiple hosting platforms and use our ability to send demand/data as leverage; any exclusivity needs a clear strategic tradeoff, not accidental lock-in.
• Standardized analytics layer. Hosting partners are infrastructure; Ghostteam’s customer-facing analytics/discovery dashboard should stay standardized across Alpic, Manufact, and self-hosted servers. Consume partner logs via API where useful, but do not let each host define the customer experience.

Open questions

• What partnership tier/deal terms should hosting platforms get if they send build leads or expose API/analytics access?
• Where is the line between partner-host analytics and Ghost Team’s own canonical dashboard/data model?
• Which customer/lead segments should route to Manufact vs Alpic vs customer-owned infrastructure?
• When there is real pipeline, what offer is right: 3 months free for referred customers, referral kickback after conversion, preferred-partner terms, or something else?

Timeline

• [2026-06-22] (internal strategy session — Alpic report idea) Set the safer Alpic first move: a co-authored research report / ecosystem snapshot instead of a premature full integration. Alpic has Beacon data, Ghostteam has discovery data; both can distribute it as peers. A deeper partner deal should wait for pipeline and clear referral/commercial incentives.
• [2026-06-22] (internal strategy session) Reframed hosting partnerships as a host-agnostic discovery-layer strategy: work with both manufact and alpic, avoid premature exclusivity, and use partner relationships as leverage while keeping Ghost Team’s dashboard/data layer canonical.
• [2026-06-19] (call) manufact partnership/customer thread established: reciprocal hosting/build referrals, organic discoverability data for Manufact and its customers, branded Ghost Team score in the Manufact dashboard, API path for PRs/auto-applied recommendations, and Manufact cloud analytics as a usage-data source.
• [2026-06-19] (call) alpic partnership call established score cross-linking / co-branded report integration as the first concrete partner surface.