Spotnana welcomes Jugdeep Bal as VP of Partnerships

Spotnana’s mission is simple. We are committed to building a global, open platform that powers The Perfect Trip for business and leisure travel. We will cultivate and provide our growing ecosystem of partners with modern travel infrastructure that powers a new generation of travel tools, services, and experiences.

To help us build and ensure the success of that ecosystem, we are excited to welcome Jugdeep Bal as Vice President of Partnerships.

With over 25 years of experience building a partner ecosystem at companies like TripIt, Concur, Amperity, and Amplitude, Jugdeep brings incredible expertise on how we can help our partners succeed and how partnerships can accelerate innovation within the travel industry.

We spoke with Jugdeep about his philosophy around partnerships, why he decided to join Spotnana, and what he’s looking forward to most about his new role.

Can you tell us about your background?

“I’ve worked in partnerships for most of my career. Creating a successful partnership strategy is like building a puzzle, where each partnership is a unique puzzle piece—coming in all shapes and sizes. Some are larger than others, and some grow at a faster pace. Each partnership has so much potential, whether it focuses on revenue generation, brand alignment, customer acquisition, joint product evolution, or other value creation.

I was the Senior Director of Global Strategic Partnerships at TripIt. After SAP acquired Concur, my role expanded and I took on a broader role running partnerships for the Concur Platform App Center, where our team signed 300+ partners to integrate with our APIs. Our partners ranged in size from small companies to global partners, including Amazon Business, EY, and Uber. I worked at Concur for nine years and then took that knowledge into a new industry— MarTech and Customer Data Management.

In the past few years, I led ecosystem partnerships at Amperity before joining Amplitude to run their global ecosystem. While at these last two companies, I worked to build out the ISV/Tech partner ecosystem and developed strategic relationships with several of the hyperscalers (e.g. AWS, GCP, Snowflake, Databricks) to build out these channels. These experiences and relationships will be helpful as we think about expanding our global partner footprint at Spotnana.”

What is unique about your approach to partnerships?

“I am laser-focused on establishing durable and scalable partnerships. To build a thriving partner ecosystem at Spotnana, we must work closely with our partners and have an urgency to create joint value for our customers. If we do this, we all win.

My approach to partnerships is highly collaborative because building an effective partnership strategy is a team game and involves cross-functional buy-in and support from all teams. My decisions are data-driven and informed by frequent conversations with the Sales, Customer Success, Marketing, and Product teams.

I look forward to strengthening our relationships with our current partners, tailoring our approach accordingly, and identifying creative and innovative new partnership opportunities.”

How did you hear about Spotnana and why did you decide to join?

“I heard about Spotnana a few years ago when some former Concur colleagues joined and Steve Singh joined the board. There is a tremendous opportunity at Spotnana, and I’m excited to be joining the company at this stage to formalize a framework for our partner strategy.

Before I join any company, I research a few specific things: the leadership team and board to understand their professional background, the company’s culture, the current customer roster, the company’s mission, and whether the technology is differentiated to solve real customer problems. And, of course, I look at the specifics of the actual role to ensure a fit with my career interests and aspirations. Spotnana checks all of these boxes and I’m excited to join Spotnana and lead our partner ecosystem expansion.”

What excites you about this new role overseeing partnerships at Spotnana?

“The company-wide commitment to build a platform is very attractive to me because a platform is only as strong as the partner ecosystem around it. The key to a successful platform strategy is having the humility to know that you can’t solve every problem for every customer; instead, it’s best to make your platform available so partners can build on top of it and deliver innovative solutions that our joint customers need. Spotnana is an open platform ready for partners to build delightful customer experiences, and we are only just beginning to realize its full potential. There’s an opportunity to take this already amazing platform and unlock partnerships we haven’t considered yet. There are so many possibilities, and I’m passionate about driving innovation and value through existing and new partnerships.”

Why is travel important to you?

“I’ve heard both Steve Singh, CEO, and Sarosh Waghmar, Founder and Chief Product Officer, talk about how travel helps people form deeper connections.

As someone who is very close to my family and friends, I also believe that travel connects people, and I prioritize meeting up with the people I love to create new memories. I had not traveled overseas since COVID-19, but I traveled abroad recently to explore four new cities and see different family members along the way. It reminded me of the power of travel and how it helps create shared experiences with those we love.”