With revenues approaching $900 million and over 85% of its business transacted through partners within a lean-but-scalable operating model, SentinelOne is quietly becoming one of cybersecurity’s most influential players. IT Europa’s Will Garside speaks to Melissa K. Smith, Vice President of Technology Partnerships & Strategic Initiatives, about growth, platform myths, and the power of purposeful innovation.
How did SentinelOne begin—and what makes its approach different?
“We started building on autonomous structure over ten years ago—really focused on AI from the start,” says Smith. “That’s at the heart of how we built the endpoint. Now, just like everyone else, we’ve got a broader platform.”
Smith has a unique vantage point. Before joining SentinelOne, she worked at Mandiant, where she managed the partnership between the two firms. “That gave me a chance to see how they were growing—both in product maturity and in how they took those products to market. They started in the commercial space and then scaled up to enterprise, which not every company can do successfully.”
She also praises the company’s engineering culture. “There are so many talented, gifted engineers and product people here. What used to be aspirational talk about autonomous security has become very real thanks to what we’re now doing with generative AI.”
You say you’re channel-first—what does that mean at SentinelOne?
“Being channel-first isn’t just a tagline for us—it’s how we operate,” says Smith. “From my experience here, the whole ecosystem rallies around the idea of delivering value through partners.”
The company recently relaunched its partner programme to reflect this focus. “We took feedback from partners and from people who’ve built successful programmes before. The message was: simplify it. So we’ve created distinct tracks—for MSSPs, MSPs, technology partners, cloud marketplaces—to reflect the different kinds of value they bring.”
She also emphasises that this isn’t just a North American strategy. “We’ve seen success in Europe, in APJ, globally. And that only works because we’re intentional about how we work with the channel—not just bolting it on.”
Why do you work with so few partners compared to some rivals?
“For a company our size and to be channel-focused, we have to be really prescriptive about who we go to market with,” Smith explains. “Some vendors have massive numbers of partners, but that model doesn’t align with how we want to scale.”
In the Americas, she says, the company can move significant business through a relatively small number of partners—perhaps 50 across the national and regional tiers. “Europe’s a bit more complex because of the different country models, so that list roughly doubles. But it’s still intentional.”
A key relationship is with distributor Exclusive Networks, but the approach remains highly tailored. “We want to make sure that we’re giving value back to our partners. They have options too. That’s why we focus on a manageable number and go deep rather than wide.”
How does your lean model translate into growth?
“I think we’ve hired really good talent to operate efficiently in a lean model,” Smith says. “We don’t need monster sales teams to generate value. That’s a conscious decision.”
She adds that over-hiring is a dangerous path. “You bring in a huge sales team and then have two bad quarters—now you’re making cuts. And that hurts people.”
Smith also notes that the company is highly structured across its commercial, strategic, and public sector teams. “We’ve got an inside sales and business development team that supports lead generation, and we hand those off to field sellers. That structure lets us focus energy where it matters—and keeps us agile.”
How important is international growth to SentinelOne’s strategy?
“Rest of world accounts for around 40% of our business,” says Smith. “That’s a really strong number for a U.S.-based company. And it’s growing.”
While the UK and Ireland remain core markets, Smith points to rapid gains in other regions. “I was just on two calls this morning—both in France. We’ve seen a significant uptick in business there. We’re also strong in Benelux. There are even some pockets of activity in places we hadn’t expected.”
Is SentinelOne still a product company—or are services now a serious part of the mix?
“Definitely a product company,” Smith says. “But our services business and our Purple AI solution are the two fastest-growing areas.”
Much of the services growth is being driven by industry veteran Steve Stone, who previously built Mandiant’s Managed Defense offering. “He’s not only a great practitioner, but he’s also a trusted name in this space. When I heard he had joined, that was a big reason I came over.”
Stone is leading efforts to expand delivery and integration services. “That’s critical for companies going through modernisation journeys. You can’t just drop in tech—you need to guide them through it.”
You partner with companies others might consider competitors—why?
“It’s hard for people to wrap their heads around sometimes,” says Smith. “But we approach our technology partnerships with clarity. You want to sell your SIEM? Great. We’ll sell our endpoint. Let’s be transparent about where we each bring value.”
Smith says that transparency is formalised in how the company builds its alliances. “We memorialise it in an MOU, we align our field teams, and we make sure both sides are incentivised. That avoids overlap and ensures the relationship has long-term value.”
She’s also very specific about who qualifies. “I use the word ‘partner’ intentionally. Partners are people you build with. Alliances? Those are friends. Right now, I have five true strategic technology partners. That’s it. You can’t scale strategic co-builds with dozens of companies.”
Many vendors are pushing single-vendor security platforms. What’s your take?
“Honestly, we’re the opposite of that,” Smith says. “We’re a specialist vendor, and we’ve built our business on being a best-in-class endpoint provider that plays well with other tools.”
She says SentinelOne has managed to bridge the gap in MSP and MSSP partnerships better than most vendors, with roughly 30% of revenue now going through services-led partners.
“We’ve been able to scale up and down through those partners, particularly in downmarket spaces. That increases our total addressable market—and ensures we don’t get boxed into commodity pricing battles.”
Speaking of commoditisation—are you concerned endpoint pricing is eroding again?
“I saw that happen firsthand,” Smith recalls. “We divested FireEye for that reason—because the value in the product had been squeezed out. Pricing became a race to the bottom.”
But SentinelOne has taken a different path. “We had to go through a lot as an industry to stabilise pricing. What I appreciate here is that what we say to Wall Street—from a margin perspective, in the high 70s—is actually true. We’re not inflating numbers.”
That discipline, she says, is rooted in how the company has packaged and priced its solutions. “It’s not just about value—it’s about being able to have a meaningful pricing conversation at the CISO level.”
You’ve avoided big acquisitions. Why?
“We’ve made very specific, platform-centric acquisitions,” Smith explains. “These are small, targeted technology buys—focused on strengthening cloud security or improving our SIEM capabilities.”
And what about the ongoing rumour that SentinelOne is a Palo Alto acquisition target? “No, Palo Alto is not buying us,” she says with a laugh. “Somebody asked me, and I said: I wish! That’d be great. I need that retirement money.”
What will shape the next phase—market expansion or innovation?
“I think we’re built on innovation, and we’re not going to stop,” Smith says. “It’s not just about winning new customers. It’s about retaining them and delivering long-term value.”
She’s also proud of SentinelOne’s early focus on AI—well before it became a trend. “We were doing AI before it was cool. Now the whole world’s paying attention. But we need to remember that AI can be weaponised too. That’s the real threat—and also the reason customers keep coming back to us.”
What does next-level channel marketing look like?
“One of the critical things is making sure we’re marketing with our partners thoughtfully,” Smith says. “Too much of channel marketing has become about events—golf days, drinks. That’s fine, but it’s not enough.”
The next phase, she says, is about thought leadership. “We need to show up together and produce content that actually helps answer questions. Customers want to read the Better Together story. They want to understand how we work with partners—and what outcomes we deliver.”
As she puts it: “If all we’re doing is replicating everyone else’s partner strategy, that would be really boring.”
