What I Heard at GoLive: Building A New Agency Operating System Together

To our Agency Partners,

I’ve spent 20 years in and around digital agencies building sites, managing client relationships, watching the tools evolve, and learning firsthand what agencies actually need from a platform partner.

That perspective shaped the conversation I wanted to have at /GoLive. The web is getting harder to operate. AI is changing how content gets built and discovered. Security threats are compounding. Clients want faster delivery and clearer business outcomes.

The agencies that win in this environment will be the ones with the right expertise and the right platform partner. At GoLive, we talked about what Pantheon is doing to be that partner.

"This makes it very attractive to propose Pantheon to new clients."

— Arnav Manchanda, Evolving Web

What we heard from agency leaders

The Agency Partner Summit opened with a question I hear often: how do you build, operate, and grow an agency in the age of AI?

I moderated a conversation with Chris Teitzel of Cellar Door, Colleen Carroll of Four Kitchens, Anna Lowry of MMGY, and Anita Melendez of KWALL. We talked about changing client expectations, pressure on margins, the need to differentiate beyond implementation, and how agencies can use AI without giving up judgment, quality, or control.

What I appreciated most was how practical the conversation was. These leaders were not treating AI as a distant trend. They were thinking about how to build reusable expertise, measure impact more clearly, and help clients make better decisions as the market changes.

That is what we meant by “The New Agency Operating System.” Agencies need more than new tools. They need a stronger way to connect strategy, delivery, technology, and ongoing client value.

A Partner Program that grows with you

The GoLive conversation also gave us the opportunity to explain the next phase of the Pantheon Agency Partner Program.

We rebuilt the program around three things I hear from partners consistently: clearer incentives, better visibility into the partnership, and a stronger sense of community. Incentives can be used as direct payouts, funds for marketing initiatives, or even leveraged for our own services. The program now has three tiers, with benefits that grow alongside your business on Pantheon.

Here’s how the framework works:

• Strategic Partner: Represents our highest tier, serving as a true extension of Pantheon. These agencies invest deeply through joint selling, technical enablement, leadership collaboration, and Advisory Board participation, receiving dedicated management, top-tier support, maximum commissions, and market development fund amplification.
• Premier Partner: Highlights agencies demonstrating high technical and business execution. Members collaborate with our sales and technical teams, receiving shared management, enhanced support, and marketing development fund options.
• Community Partner: Forms the foundation of our network for emerging partners and referral agencies. This self-serve level provides core platform access, marketing assets, and Slack community entry, offering instant referral earnings and a path to Premier as ARR scales.

Revenue includes both contract and self-service business and is evaluated on a trailing 12-month basis. Your tier determines economics, support, and partner resources, not access to the platform itself.

What’s actually in it for you

A few things I want to call out.

First, the financial benefits are designed to help turn shared growth into shared investment. Eligible Wallet funds can support approved co-marketing events, vertical content, paid digital campaigns, sales enablement kits, and other approved partner requests. Partners can also redirect eligible commission into MDF through the commission-to-MDF option, with an introductory multiplier applying to Pantheon-approved programs.

Second, you won’t be doing it alone. The Partner Portal is the home base for marketing assets, sales playbooks, co-branded materials, case studies, and training. The Partner-only Slack community gives you a place for program updates, peer connection, collaboration, and fast answers. PartnerStack supports applications, lead registration, Wallet tracking, and enablement resources.

Third, the program is meant to help you build a more durable agency business. We want to help you create better client experiences, improve portfolio efficiency, and develop services that create value beyond a one-time website launch.

The feedback we heard at GoLive reinforced why this matters. Partners want Pantheon in the room with them not just as infrastructure, but as a platform partner that can help them win, deliver, and grow.

P1: build what comes next

One of the most forward-looking conversations at GoLive centered on P1, Pantheon’s AI-native web composition layer.

P1 gives teams and AI a governed way to create, review, and evolve websites using the business context, design systems, permissions, and production workflows required to move from idea to live experience.

For agencies, the opportunity is not simply to adopt another tool. It is to turn your distinctive expertise into reusable, repeatable value. Your vertical insight, workflows, components, integrations, and delivery approach can become part of a differentiated services motion.

That is why we created the P1 Charter Partner Program. Charter Partners get early access, direct product and technical collaboration, enablement, working sessions, and a chance to help shape the product’s direction and launch experience.

In return, we ask partners to bring a real customer or internal use case, dedicate a cross-functional team, build a live P1 experience, and create reusable assets such as a vertical template, component system, integration, workflow, or AI agent.

This is not about creating a one-time demo. It is about helping agencies build new conversations around modernization, redesign, content operations, and AI-ready web experiences and creating proof that can support the next customer conversation.

If your agency has a strong point of view, P1 gives you a chance to build with Pantheon early, prove what is possible, and make your expertise visible and repeatable.

Apply now to access our P1 Charter Partner program as space is limited.

AFM: operate the fleet, not just the site

GoLive also connected P1 to another major Pantheon theme: Agentic Fleet Management, or AFM.

AFM is our model for operating websites at scale in the AI era. Organizations and agencies do not manage one website. They manage fleets of sites, brands, regions, departments, clients, and frameworks. Yet too many tools still force teams to work one site at a time.

Our AFM story is built around two movements: see first, act next.

• See what is happening across the fleet through trustworthy, fleet-level information.
• Act on repetitive work at scale while keeping human review and platform-enforced guardrails in place.
• Govern access, changes, and risk without turning central teams into a bottleneck.

The Q3 AFM announcement introduced capabilities including Fleet-Level Traffic Insights, the Next-Generation Global CDN, Bulk Upstream Updates, and the Site Administrator role. Together, they point toward a more coordinated way to investigate issues, distribute changes, delegate responsibility, and protect the digital experiences you manage.

For partners, the opportunity is strategic. P1 helps you imagine and compose what comes next. AFM helps you operate that work and the broader client fleet more efficiently and responsibly once it is live.

That combination can help agencies move beyond the economics of one-site-at-a-time delivery and toward a more scalable model of ongoing value.

Why I believe agencies partner with Pantheon

The message I took away from GoLive is not that every agency should make the same technology decision. WordPress and Drupal remain important foundations. Next.js, P1, and AFM create additional paths for modernization, innovation, and portfolio operations.

Our job is to give you more options and the support to make those options valuable for your clients.

That support includes:

• Tier-specific financial incentives, preferred pricing, and MDF options.
• Collaborative sales and deal support as your partnership grows.
• A Partner Portal with sales playbooks, co-branded assets, case studies, and training.
• Agency Directory visibility to help prospective clients find partners by specialty and focus.
• A Partner-only Slack community for peer connection, best practices, and fast answers.
• WebOps capabilities such as Multidev and Upstreams for more efficient delivery and portfolio management.
• Technical enablement, support, and higher-tier resources such as private training, partner management, and account mapping.
• Tools to help you analyze, act, and manage your site portfolio, like Agentic Fleet Management

The value is bigger than any individual benefit. Pantheon can take on more of the operational burden so you can spend more time building differentiated experiences, improving client outcomes, and developing services that create durable relationships. We couldn’t be more excited to bring this ecosystem to life, comprised of best-in-breed integrations, procurement vehicles, and end-to-end support across your go-to-market to support the services that help your customers thrive.

What happens next

I want to be transparent: a program like this will keep evolving. We’ll continue to communicate updates as new capabilities, resources, and partner opportunities are ready.

For now, the next step is simple. Explore the Partner Portal, review your tier and benefits, register the opportunities you are working on, and reach out if you have questions about how to grow your partnership at partners@pantheon.io.

The future of agency growth will not be built by technology vendors alone—or by agencies working alone. It will come from partners who are willing to share feedback, build repeatable solutions, and create new models for how digital work is sold, delivered, and operated.

That is what I’m excited to build with you.

Ready to explore what’s next? Connect with Pantheon’s Partnerships team to learn about the Agency Partner Program and find the path that best fits your agency.

Mike Sanchez

VP of Partnerships