Small Town Roots  ·  Big Market Impact

Ashley Little

Market Growth Strategist ·  New Brunswick, Canada

The companies you back are building something real.

But somewhere between great product and scaled distribution, most of them hit the same wall: partners who don't sell, leads that go quiet, and a founder holding the whole network together with their personal relationships.

I build the system that fixes that. Partner-driven growth that is repeatable, measurable and doesn't fall apart the moment the founder steps back. I come from a small town. I think in systems.

Like Bertha, I am not easy to kill.

Ash, BBA · Accounting + Marketing

Owner of Small Town Marketer

Developed the Partner Marketing Operating System through hands-on work with B2B clients across Atlantic Canada.

Channel Marketing Lead, Beauceron Security

Managed partner enablement and co-marketing programs across a national channel network in cybersecurity (Portfolio valued at 4M+)

UNB Saint John · BBA, Accounting + Marketing, Class of 2022

Teaching Assistant and Research Assistant in health communication research, co-contributing to peer-reviewed publication in the Journal of Business Research.

Read on if you have a moment to spare. Thank you.

A note for Arlene

Can I make you a loaf?

I told you I make sourdough. You said you'd be right over. I figured: why wait for an invitation when I could just send Bertha to you instead?

I heard every word of your talk because I have lived a version of every word of it. I spent two years building a partner marketing operating system inside a company that never quite understood what they had. I documented everything, trained my replacement, and moved on to bigger things. The system came with me.

I’m not asking for an investment, but a possible way to help those you invest in.

I am 26. I am from a town of 1,261 people. I’ve researched public communications and submitted a paper to JBR at 22. I have built go-to-market systems for enterprise B2B technology companies from scratch. I have a theory about why Canadian companies keep losing their channel partners in the bottom 20%, and I intend to prove it.

~ Ashley

The System:

Partner Marketing Operating System

Most growing companies sell through partners, resellers, or distributors at some point. Almost none of them have a system for it. What they have is a spreadsheet, a Slack channel, and a founder's personal relationships. PMOS is the infrastructure that turns a chaotic partner network into a predictable revenue channel.

View System Concept Map

  • 1. Partner Segmentation + Health Scoring

    Who are your real partners versus your registered-but-inactive ones? Most companies don't know. PMOS maps the full network and assigns health scores so you know where to invest and where to stop.

  • 2. Messaging + Enablement Architecture

    Partners can't sell what they can't explain. PMOS builds the talk tracks, one-pagers, and sales toolkits that let a small reseller sell your product as confidently as your own team would.

  • 3. Campaign + Co-Marketing Playbook

    Coordinated campaigns across a partner network without chaos. Messaging that aligns with both brands. MDF spend that generates traceable ROI instead of disappearing into conference swag.

  • 4. 90-Day Activation Roadmap

    A phased implementation built collaboratively, not handed over. The founder leaves knowing how the system works and how to keep it running without Ashley in the room.

I have built this before, and I’m doing it again.

Proof of Concept ·  2023

My launch plan for my first job in marketing as a marketing manager at a local FinTech startup. This was made a week into the job, launched the product in 4.

This is a go-to-market launch system I built for a B2B SaaS company. It covers target audience identification, offer design, channel strategy, messaging alignment, promotion, post-launch follow-up and metric tracking. I was 23. Nobody asked me to build it this way. I just did.

Why this is relevant to your world

What PMOS does for the companies you back

  • You have product. You have placement. You may not have a system for enabling the stores to really sell it.

    PMOS builds the retail enablement layer that turns passive stocking into active selling.

  • 80% of revenue comes from 20% of partners. The rest are registered and silent.

    PMOS identifies why, segments the network, and activates the middle tier that everyone ignores.

  • New markets mean new channel partners who don't know the brand.

    PMOS creates the messaging infrastructure so expansion doesn't depend entirely on the founder's personal network.

 
Background

Where this thinking comes from

Academic Research

BBA double major in Accounting and Marketing, Dean's List 2020-2022. Co-authored empirical research submitted to the Journal of Business Research, under review for the AMA.

Industry Systems

Two years building partner marketing infrastructure for a B2B cybersecurity company. Designed the SOPs, dashboards, partner communications, and event systems from scratch. Trained the team on the way out. The system stayed.

Community Roots

Grew a rural municipality's brand recognition to the point where people outside the region know it by name. Generated $40K in incremental revenue using organic Facebook marketing alone. Community Spirit Award nominee, 2025.

History of Higher Education & Enterprise Sales Training

Teaching Assistant in Consumer Behaviour, Services Marketing, and Principles of Marketing at UNB. Co-authored “Benefit or Barrier? Trust in Government and the Public Compliant Behaviour” a research article on public trust and health communication, because understanding why people do or don't listen to authority felt worth figuring out. Turns out the answer is simpler than most governments made it: earn the trust first, lead with the benefit, and the behavior follows.

Later in the industry, I co-created partner marketing at every stage of the partner lifecycle. Strategic annual plans, co-collaboration on annual and quarterly sales enablement, lead generation, cross-sell, upsell/adoption and retention strategies used situationally. Honestly it was a lot of wearing 10 hats with the compensation of one.

No ask.

Just a door left open.

I am not asking for your time, your network, or your endorsement. I am building the thing and proving it works. If somewhere down the road what I am doing becomes relevant to someone in your world, I hope you will think of the woman who sent Bertha.

Thank you so much for not only your time reading this, but the time spent at the conference and all the time you spent building an empire that inspires small town girls like us.

Cheers,

Ashley Little

1(506)784-7814

ashley@smalltownmarketer.com